(WISCONSIN) — Congressman Mark Pocan penned an op-ed in response to Secretary of the State Mike Pompeo politicizing his office to give a speech in the Wisconsin State Capitol. Pompeo and the Trump administration’s China policy has devastated Wisconsinites across the state. Farmers and manufacturers bear the burden of Trump’s trade wars, as Wisconsin continues to feel the impacts of Trump willfully ignoring the dangers of COVID-19 and single-handedly dragging the nation through a prolonged economic and health crisis.

Read key points here:

The Cap Times: Rep. Mark Pocan: Pompeo visit highlights the Trump administration’s disastrous record for Wisconsinites

  • It is appalling that the Secretary of the State, Mike Pompeo, would politicize his office to the point of using our state Capitol building — in the middle of a pandemic his boss Donald Trump failed to respond to — to give a foreign policy speech that will tell everything but the truth.
  • The fact is Trump’s foreign policy, particularly with China, has been a disaster for Wisconsinites.
  • Last year alone we lost thousands of factory jobs and saw a record number — 818 — dairy farms go out of business. Our crop producers felt the pain, too. Ginseng farmers, who grow 95% of all that grown in the United States, prior to the trade war, sold approximately 85% of their products to China.
  • In January, at about the same time Trump was ignoring his intelligence briefings on the imminent threat of COVID-19, he posed for a photo op with the Chinese government to tout the signing of the Phase One trade deal.
  • U.S. farmers, Trump promised, could expect China to purchase $50 billion in agriculture goods, but the deal fell short, all the way down to $14 billion. And now, China is reneging on their end of the deal.
  • We’re seeing manufacturing plants close in Wisconsin because of the pandemic, while our brewers continue to feel the impacts of the trade war on their ability to buy aluminum at an affordable price in the midst of a struggling economy.
  • Dairy farmers can’t get a fair shake as we continue to lead the nation in farm bankruptcies, even after Trump came to our state last year and said farmers were “over the hump.”
  • At a time of crisis, our state is hungry for leadership in the White House that will help us build back better and ensure working people get a fair shake. That is why this November, we will vote out Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo and elect Joe Biden as our next president.
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