Democrats knock Bessent over soybean empathy: You haven’t earned title of 'farmer'

Democrats are blasting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after he associated himself with soybean farmers impacted by the pain of recent sale losses to China amide the Trump administration’s trade war.

“You’re a hedge fund manager who rents farmland to soybean farmers. You’re profiting off their hard work while sipping champagne with billionaire elites & kissing Donald Trump’s boots,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) wrote in a Monday post on social platform X,  in response to Bessent’s comments on ABC.

“You haven’t earned the title of ‘farmer’ you hack,” he added.

Bessent in an interview Sunday with ABC News’s “This Week” that covered the topics of trade and China described why he was sympathetic to soybean farmers.

“In case you don’t know it, I’m actually a soybean farmer. So, I have felt this pain too,” Bessent said.

A former hedge fund manager, Bessent’s net worth is roughly $600 million, according to Forbes. According to his public financial disclosure filed in January, he owns corn and soybean farmland in North Dakota worth between $5 million and $25 million. The farmland generates between $100,000 and $1 million in rental income for Bessent, via a revenue sharing agreement with those producing the crops.

China, once the largest purchaser of U.S. soybeans recently turned to Argentina for products after the South American country suspended its 26 percent export tax on soybeans.

As a result, U.S. soybean farmers are expected to lose out on $5.7 billion worth of exports to China through October, relative to average exports from the past four years, according to the Center for Strategic International Studies.

Farmers and lawmakers have lashed out against Bessent for suggesting that he’s feeling the pain of cuts alongside farmers.

“Scott Bessent's net worth, $500 million, maybe just a little north of that. Watching a guy who's worth a half a billion dollars cosplay as a soybean farmer is really, really insulting to the soybean farmers in Wisconsin,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.”

“Zero purchase orders from China for soybeans in Wisconsin and this cattle issue just on top of it, on top of giving money to Argentina, farmers are just really upset,” he added.