President Donald Trump reminded farmers on Monday how lucky they were to have had the chance to vote for him.
Speaking to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Annual Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump celebrated the repeal of the estate tax contained in Republicans’ tax cut bill, which he signed into law in December.
Fewer than 700 estates rich enough to pay the tax in 2016 had any farm assets at all, CNN reported in October, but that didn’t stop the wave of applause that greeted Trump when he claimed to have “spared” his audience the “punishment of the deeply unfair estate tax, known as the death tax.”
“Get up!” he urged his audience, who obliged.
“Oh, are you happy you voted for me,” Trump purred later. “You are so lucky that I gave you that privilege.”
President Trump to farmers: “Oh, are you happy you voted for me.” pic.twitter.com/rGceyUbDQZ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 8, 2018
He brought up the farm bill, which is passed every five years and, among many other things, provides financial assistance to the agricultural sector through subsidies and other programs.
“And I support a bill that includes crop insurance, unless you don’t want me to,” he half joked, again to applause.
“I guess you like it right? Good. Because if I heard no applause I’d say ‘Forget it, give it up.’ Now I can’t do that.”
