Recent polling captures some of the queasiness farmers are feeling. A Fox News survey this month found that 68% of white rural voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of the economy, compared with 32% who approved. Back in January, white rural voters approved of his economic stewardship by 52%-47%.
In a prepared statement, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said: “Farmers suffered for years under Joe Biden, who increased the United States’ trade deficit to over $1.2 trillion, raised input costs, and pushed woke DEI agricultural policies. In contrast, President Trump is helping our agriculture industry by negotiating new trade deals, lowering input costs, bolstering the farm safety net, doubling the death tax exemption, ending taxes on rural property loan interest, creating rural opportunity zones, and more.”
Trump cultivated farmers in both of his terms, doling out direct aid and trying to reset relations with nations that buy their crops, namely China. He is quick to remind farmers of what he describes as his largesse.
He invited hundreds of farmers and ranchers to the White House in March. Speaking from a balcony, with a gold tractor below him, he assured the gathering that they “once again have a true friend and champion in the Oval Office.”
He mentioned a bill he signed last year that allows farmers to write off 100% of the cost of new equipment, along with a financial aid package meant to help them weather tough economic times.
“I just gave you $12 billion,” he said.
“You think Biden would have done that?” he said.
Mueller was at the event that day, invited as president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. He said that when he left the White House grounds, he overheard some ironic comments from farmers that surprised him, like: “Funny, I kind of remember making money during the Biden administration.”
Chad Hart, a crop market specialist at Iowa State University, said that 2021 and 2022, the first half of Biden’s term, were “some of the best years U.S. agriculture has seen in terms of net farm income.”
Most of the Iowa farmers who spoke to NBC News don’t regret supporting Trump. When he speaks, he’s unfiltered and raw and sounds nothing like a more conventional politician, they said. That’s what they like about him.
“He tells it the way it is,” said Rehder, who voted for Trump in all three presidential elections. “You may not like it, and you might not agree with it, but he tells it the way he wants it. I’m not saying I agree with him all the time, but he don’t beat around the bush.”
Still, the $12 billion payment is a sore point. Government subsidies won’t solve the systemic problems farmers face, nor will the quick cash make much difference in the end, they said. If anything, the money makes it tougher to negotiate better deals with suppliers, who are well aware that the farmers just got a government check and want a piece of it.
“I look at these programs where the government keeps wanting to write farmers checks, and to me, this is more medicine that’s making us sick,” said Elliott Henderson, who farms in northeast Iowa. “I’ve got 10 people standing in line who think that dollar is theirs, whether it’s the equipment manufacturer selling me more parts for my tractors or the seed guy or my landlords. I never get to keep that money.”
Swanson said: “Unfortunately, the way we’ve been able to kind of survive is through the use of government payments, and that is not the way farmers want to operate. We want to find our income from the marketplace, and that means we need domestic markets, we need export markets, we need new technologies.”
However bleak the marketplace may seem, many of the farmers said they aren’t about to turn on Trump. Yet some aren’t certain his agriculture policies will succeed.
Has Trump’s presidency been good for farmers? NBC News asked Orr, who also voted for Trump all three times.
He paused for a few seconds.
“The jury is still out on that one,” he said, sitting amid the tractors and tools in his farm shed.
“He started something in his first presidency that didn’t get finished. And I hope to God that he follows through by the time this one is over with,” Orr added.
