Trump infuriates far-right influencers by touting Chinese land ownership

Crow. It’s what’s for dinner. 

Over the past few years, Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have circled the wagons in an effort to thwart what the party framed as an existential crisis: Chinese land ownership in the United States. 

Laws passed in Texas and Florida explicitly banning the sale of some lands, particularly farmland, to Chinese investors have underscored the xenophobic tinge to the MAGA movement’s efforts to parlay its espoused national security concerns into a major political issue. 

And with that in mind, Trump made things quite awkward for the MAGA faithful on Thursday when, during his excursion to China, which seems to have netted next-to-nothing in concessions, he defended Chinese farm ownership in the U.S. Trump made his comments to Fox News host Sean Hannity, and even repeated his previous claim that Chinese students should be allowed to study in the U.S. As my colleague Steve Benen explained last August when Trump made the claim, this assertion flies in the face of the Trump administration’s move to strip visas from Chinese students, as well as MAGA rhetoric from folks like Vice President JD Vance condemning foreign students studying at American universities. 

The post below shows a clip of Trump condemning Chinese land ownership during the 2024 campaign and vowing to thwart it, followed by a clip of Trump telling Hannity this ownership is essential to U.S. farming. 

Trump’s comments even fly in the face of an announcement the Agriculture Department made just last year, vowing to crack down on Chinese farm ownership in the U.S. The important context here is that the the president’s tariffs and war with Iran have devastated the U.S. farm industry, fueling backlash from that community toward his administration. 

Prominent conservatives, now being forced to eat crow after supporting Trump when he was vowing to end Chinese farm ownership, sound disheartened, if not downright incensed, by the president’s comments. 

Here are a few samples:

Trump ran for president vowing to “drain the swamp” of corruption, lower prices, abstain from launching new wars and, in a clear nod to his base, prevent China from buying up American farmland. 

Each passing day seems to come with fresh evidence of his failures on these fronts. Failures that his rabid base of followers are forced to cope with.

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