Trump says he’ll block China from buying US farmland if elected: ‘Going to protect it’

SMITHTON, Pa. (TND) — Former President Donald Trump said Monday he will prevent China from purchasing U.S. farmland if elected, arguing the practice interferes with American markets.

The Senate in 2023 voted to limit agriculture transactions with four foreign nations, including China. Legislative sponsor Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said the move works to stop adversaries from gaining further footholds in U.S. territory.

“China and Russia are our near-peer adversaries and North Korea and Iran are no friends of the United States,” Sen. Rounds said last year.

Trump vowed during a press conference Monday to further prohibit Chinese landgrabs by taking a strong stance against such moves.

We’re going to protect it by saying ‘you can’t come, you can’t do it, we don’t want you buying our land,’” he said. “We don’t want you taking the land and basically taking it off the market, and we don’t want you doing it.”

The former president continued, saying China is buying U.S. land “at levels nobody has ever seen before.” Such actions, he said, have caused significant disruptions.

“That’s what they want to do,” Trump said. “So we can do that very easily.”

The stance follows another GOP push to limit foreign influence on U.S. soil. Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif., earlier this month introduced a bill to bar businesses owned by companies of U.S. adversaries from operating American ports.

“Nations which threaten the United States should not have easy access to our port infrastructure, a key lifeline of America’s supply chains,” Rep. Steel said in a press release. “My Secure Our Ports Act would shore up America’s economic and national security in the face of threats from Communist China and their like-minded allies.”

“Congress must protect America’s supply chains by restricting adversarial governments from having high-level access to our ports,” she added.

Rep. Steel’s bill came during “China Week,” a stretch that saw the House pass 25 bills touted by the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party as being necessary to protect against economic and military threats.

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