China has purchased a record amount of soy beans from Russia after shunning US growers because of a trade dispute caused by the White House.

Russia says it sold about 850,000 metric tons of soybeans to China from July of last year through the middle of this month.  That's two and a half times more than the previous twelve months.  At the same time, China has cancelled major soybean orders from the US.  Analysts say Russia can increase its capacity to supply its new growth market, and Brazil is expected to benefit as well.

China is reacting to the orange clown Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on as much as US$150 Billion of Chinese imports to the US as tensions over trade have escalated. 

"The Chinese aren't willing to buy US soybeans with a 25 percent tax hanging over their head," said Dan Basse, president of AgResource, to the Associated Press.  "(They) just don't want the risk."

But the cancellations are causing rumblings in the so-called "Red States", rural areas of the US that supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

"As a candidate, President Trump stood at a podium in 2016 and promised to 'end this war on the American farmer'," said Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat whose district in Illinois has some of America's biggest soybean growers.  "Now that China is canceling the purchase of American soybeans while tripling their business with Russia, it's clear that this is just one more broken promise."