The corn lobby – which benignly styles itself The National Corn Growers Association – is upset with the Orange Man for – as CNN puts it – "reducing demand" for its crops.

What he's actually done is reduce the mandate for them by granting waivers to refineries which would otherwise by forced by a federal law called the Renewable Fuels Standard or RFS to douse the gas they make with ethanol – which is made (in the United States) using mostly  . . . corn.

Almost all of the "gas" sold in the United States actually contains 10 percent ethanol (E10) because of the regs that require, not because American motorists want it. If they did want it, there would be no need for the mandate.

Which mandate puts a lot of corn into American motorists' tanks – and a lot of money into the pockets of the corn lobby.

Every gallon of E10 sold includes a 10 percent subsidy to the corn lobby, or about 15-20 cents per gallon. This amounts to about the same sum as the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, but with the latter American drivers get something desirable in return for their money – the roads, without which their cars wouldn't be much use – which they'd probably pay for without being forced to, while the Corn Tax is simply a transfer of wealth from American drivers to a very politically powerful and parasitic "industry" that depends on government force to keep it in business.

Ethanol is a product without a natural market – which is why the corn lobby had an artificial one created for it, using the political power it wields in farms states to apply pressure to candidates for office to support laws such as the Renewable Fuels mandate. It's no different in principle than the "zero emissions" mandates in place in states like CA, which created an artificial market for electric cars by imposing a requirement that a certain number be sold each year.

The chief difference – for now – is that Americans aren't forced to buy an electric car. But the corn lobby has succeeded in sluicing corn juice into almost all of the "gasoline" sold in the country.