Description
Abstract:
Since 2017, the intensification of domestic structural contradictions and the political–economic challenges posed by China have driven U.S. agricultural trade policy toward a protectionist paradigm, amplified by the Trump administration’s populist and anti-climate narratives. Drawing on a post-structuralist perspective, this paper seeks to understand the relationship between discourse politics and power dynamics in agricultural trade. It examines the discursive packaging and political logic behind Trump’s agricultural trade narratives, the institutional pathways through which such narratives were legitimized, and their impacts on agricultural stakeholders. Combining elite interviews with policy text analysis, the study develops a three-layer analytical framework—discourse, institutions, and impacts—to explain how the Trump administration employed narratives and executive tools to exert substantive influence on agricultural trade policy. First, narrative analysis is used to construct a timeline, while discourse analysis illustrates how political elements were mobilized to legitimize trade policy. Second, process tracing identifies the recurrent use of executive instruments and the discursive foundations of their legitimacy, shedding light on the evolving dynamics between the presidency and Congress in trade policymaking. Finally, the study evaluates how narratives disseminated across different stakeholder levels were received, adopted, or contested by those most directly affected. The findings reveal that the Trump administration advanced agricultural trade protectionism through radical narratives, the instrumentalization of executive power, and the marginalization of Congress, while stakeholders exhibited contradictory responses oscillating between economic losses and political mobilization. This research demonstrates how discourse operates within power relations and provides empirical contributions to the understanding of the nexus between trade policy, discursive politics, and domestic power dynamics.
Keywords: US Agricultural Trade Policy, Discourse Politics, Presidential Executive Power, Agricultural Stakeholder Response
