What Linus and the Great Pumpkin tell us about Trump’s tariffs | Opinion

Mention the word “pumpkin” in October to a fan of Peanuts, the comic strip created by Charles Schulz in 1950 and, voilà, it’s time for the Great Pumpkin to arrive.

The tale finds Linus in the pumpkin patch on Halloween awaiting the arrival of his venerated Great Pumpkin, who he hopes will bring gifts as Santa does at Christmas. And every year the Great Pumpkin fails to appear, and the Peanuts gang ridicules Linus as a fool with his misplaced hope of a no-show pumpkin.

Sally, convinced by Linus to stay out all night to welcome the Great Pumpkin, is particularly tough on Linus for his bone-headed belief.

As an avid Peanuts junkie who even owns socks with Peanuts characters, my day begins with turning my Peanuts daily calendar page to see what bits of wisdom and mirth Schulz offers up for the day. I can trace my Peanuts mania all the way back to Sister Delores, the moderator of our high school newspaper, who would convene the staff and expound on the lessons learned from the comic strip.

It’s no surprise that a Catholic nun would find lessons of faith, hope and charity in that comic strip. A Presbyterian minister, Robert Short, wrote a series of books, including “The Gospel According to Peanuts,” that sold millions of copies as guides to his Christian faith and insights into the good life.

David Michaelis, who authored “Schulz and Peanuts, A Biography,” has a different take on Linus and his obsessive belief that the Great Pumpkin will arrive on Halloween night. He wrote that Linus’ “willed mania demonstrates that people would rather live drunk on the false belief than sober on nothing.” Sound familiar in our world of falsehoods and lies? Michaelis interprets Schulz’s intention as a warning: “Be careful what you believe.”

That must be the way soybean farmers feel today as they try to figure out just what their belief in Donald Trump wrought. Trump garnered around 78% of the farm vote in the 2024 election, but the tariff-happy president slapped tariffs on China, so it retaliated by shutting down purchases of American soybeans since May. That’s a significant contrast from $12.6 billion of Chinese purchases of American soybeans last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those were the days when the global economy Trump seems to despise delivered the goods for farmers and ranchers.

Meanwhile, China has gone to Brazil to purchase its soybeans. In a recent NPR interview, Caleb Ragland, the president of the American Soybean Association and a soybean farmer in Kentucky, called Trump’s tariffs a five-alarm fire for the soybean industry and urged Trump not to build barriers with trade wars.

Brazil has passed the U.S. as the top soy-producing country since Trump’s 2018 trade war. It is now ahead of the U.S. in production acres and production tons of soybeans.

Trump’s tariffs send our trading partners to other nations, which doesn’t bode well for American farmers who may worry about getting their China business restored some day. Trump is now in Asia, where he’s talking about a deal with China. That usually means backing off his earlier tariff announcements, which in the case of American soybean farmers has caused considerable damage to their sales. What a clever ploy by Trump — to play with his voters’ futures by faking an original tariff that shuts down their markets, only to change it later and take credit for some great feat.

Now that Trump has fallen in love with the libertarian president of Argentina, he handed out a $20 billion financial lifeline and allowed more beef imports from Argentina. Idaho cattle ranchers must be wondering what this means for their future and why they supported Trump.

Schulz never drew a comic of the Great Soybean, but if he did, it would be Linus this time in a soybean field, hoping against hope for the arrival of Great Soybean and news that the tariffs have been lifted. But this time when the Great Soybean appears, he does not bring news of tariff cuts, but a recently announced Trump bailout, as he did in 2018-19 when he provided $23 billion to farmers who experienced trade disruptions from his first round of tariffs.

This year, Trump has announced a bailout package for farmers estimated to be between $10 billion to $15 billion. Soybean farmers seem to have more luck with the Great Soybean than Linus has counting on the Great Pumpkin. And they will have even more luck if Trump pulls another of his Great Tariff Reversals and cuts a deal for China to buy American soybeans once again. But any way you look at it, it’s a screwy way to run a country.

Trump may be out to destroy a global economy on the grounds that America sometimes comes first, but his trade policies have many Americans coming in last. Bailouts may be his simplistic solution to tariffs that hurt farmers, but ask them whether they want a bailout or opportunities to make a profit in a tariff-free marketplace, and they will opt for Linus in the soybean patch getting news from the Great Soybean that the tariffs are gone.

As for those who voted for Trump, take a lesson from Linus in the pumpkin patch, and be careful what you believe.

Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Readers Corner on Boise State Public Radio, a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman and a contributing columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.