Last October, we were into soybean harvest, when I got a call from Fritz Busch. Fritz is a friend and a reporter for The Journal. Every so often he calls to see what’s going on with farmers.

Right then, the destruction of our soybean market by the Trump administration was newsy. Fritz came out, we talked, and he took picture of me unloading beans. Next day that was on the front page under a headline, “Farmers fear they have soybeans nobody wants.”

I thought I looked rather jaunty in the picture leaning against a tire. Fritz talked to a few other farmers for the article who had the same message. The harvest was a good one, but concerns about price and rising costs were on everyone’s mind.

Someone told me there were comments about the article on The Journal’s Facebook page. I don’t have Facebook but was able to look those up.

There was some back and forth about trade. Some defended Trump, most opposed his actions. One said that farmers complain too much, using a word that rhymes with “itch.”

Included in the comments was the suggestion that I perform a certain sexual act. Another stated that I have Trump Derangement Syndrome. I do.

Then there was this. “Well they did find the biggest left-wing farmer in Leavenworth Township for this story, so it tells you something right there.”

I wondered if the commenter would be surprised to know this “left-wing farmer” voted for George Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney for president? Hardly seems my left-wing credentials are strong. I voted for them and still think of them as good and decent men.

I also had much respect for their opponents, Al Gore and Barack Obama. In today’s hate-laced politics we forget it’s possible to like both candidates. And if they have been chosen by their parties to run for high office, shouldn’t both candidates be people we can admire?

It is interesting that Bush, McCain, and Romney all ended up being ridiculed by Trump. That includes the time he denigrated McCain’s time as a POW. I remember foolishly thinking that would end Trump’s candidacy since it was beyond the pale to criticize a true hero.

This was before I learned that Donald Trump can say or do anything he wants without losing a single supporter. On the contrary, he added support from Marco Rubio who said Trump was a conman and JD Vance who said Trump was unfit for office. Did they sell their soul for power? They wouldn’t be the first.

I have a number of friends who voted Republican who couldn’t accept what happened to the party in 2015. That was the beginning of the Trump Era. Literally not a day has gone by since, that Donald Trump hasn’t said or done something to get attention.

Just to catch you up on the soybeans I was unloading. You can love Donald Trump all you want, but the loss of the Chinese market for our soybeans is permanent and costly.

In 2016, it became apparent to China that the United States was no longer a reliable source. If we were the only supplier of soybeans, Trump would have had a strong hand. China had options. They have poured billions of dollars into developing Brazilian and Argentinian production. We are now the residual supplier of beans to China.

We can find all the small countries we want to sell soybeans to. But they won’t replace the Chinese market. American farmers and previous administrations spent decades developing that and Trump destroyed it by Tweet and tough guy talk. It’s likely that will cost at least a dollar a bushel for soybeans your farming friends grow from now on.

It’s almost forgotten now, but my friends and I were not alone in breaking with the Republican, turned MAGA, Party. There were many prominent Never-Trumpers. The Lincoln Project and the Bulwark are made up of people who were significant players in the Bush administration and advisors to McCain and Romney.

My friends, who still consider themselves conservative, and I have spent time trying to understand the attraction of Donald Trump. We have failed.

Of course, we all knew of him before 2015. I had a conversation with another grandpa at a boy scout event. We were talking sports like guys do. Nothing political. It was the day before the Super Bowl, and he mentioned that he attended the Super Bowl at the Metrodome in 1992.

He said they were in the concourse before the game when he heard a ruckus. Donald Trump and wife-of-the-moment Marla Maples were walking through. People were heckling and jeering “The Donald.” Someone yelled, “Hey Marla, dump that loser!”

At the time, Trump was known as a womanizer with a massive ego who had turned his father’s fortune into a lavish lifestyle. People in New York considered him a buffoon. Besides failed endeavors and multiple affairs with young women, he also was known for cheating people in business.

Hardly presidential material. But here we are, the man who football fans were jeering is in the White House. Or what’s left of it.

Let’s look at a week in Trump World. Easter morning, Trump greets the joyous morn with a profanity laced message. For some reason, he has often used Christmas and Easter mornings to attack his perceived enemies. There’s something psychologically weird about that.

Next day was this. “A whole civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again.” I looked it up, and, yes, the president can single-handedly order a nuclear weapon be used.

Our daughter who lives in the Mideast was told to purchase iodine by the organization she works for. Iodine can be used to counteract nuclear radiation. My wife and I prayed she wouldn’t need that.

A few days later Trump attacked the Pope. You have to go back to the Middle Ages to find another example of a world leader attacking the Pope.

If any other president would have done any of these things, he would have lost supporters. Not Donald Trump. There was nary a peep from members of Congress who make this possible.

Some say these are signs of mental decline. I don’t buy that. When Trump first came to office, he sent out a mysterious Tweet saying that Obama had bugged his office, and Trump would reveal the evidence soon. He never did.

So, no, this isn’t decline. This is Trump at the top of his game.

But then, I’m just a left-wing farmer who voted for Republicans. What do I know?