President Donald Trump on Wednesday met with farmers in California to discuss ongoing issues regarding water use rights, referring to disparaging comments about them made by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“Devin and Kevin set it up long before we heard that mini Mike hates the farmer,” Trump said as the crowd booed. “Long before we learned about his hatred of the farmer and disrespect of the farmer.”
In a 2016 speech, Bloomberg mocked farmers as unskilled workers who were not suited for the modern world.
“I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer,” Bloomberg said. “It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that.”
Bloomberg said that the “information economy” required a different level of education.
“You have to have a different skill set, you have to have a lot more gray matter,” he said.
Trump ridiculed Bloomberg but indicated that he did not think the former mayor of New York City would win the Democrat nomination.
“I don’t know, I don’t think he’s going to be the candidate anyway, to be honest, we’ll have to start working on crazy Bernie pretty soon,” Trump said.
Bloomberg’s remarks were also referenced by California farmer Larry Star, who spoke at Trump’s event on water rights.
“I’m no expert, and I know a certain Democrat presidential candidate that says farmers need more grey matter,” he said. “But this ain’t rocket science, and the reason we’re seeing these rules implemented is because of President Donald Trump.”
Star said that his father and his family were considering selling their farm due to the struggle to get water rights. He said that his farm had to idle thousands of acres of land because they did not get enough water.
“Prior to the last presidential election, even my dad who lived and breathed our farm seriously contemplated selling out,” he said. “We thought at the time if President Trump’s opponent won we would sell for sure. However, that didn’t happen.”
The crowd cheered wildly in response to his speech.
Star said that the family’s hope was restored after Trump was elected and that they would continued farming.
The crowd cheered wildly and shouted “Four More Years!” in response to the speech and Trump’s promise to continue fighting for water rights.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.