Pain On The Farm.
Farmers in the Midwest are struggling under President Trump’s tariffs and rising costs during the Iran war, testing a key GOP voting bloc as the party seeks to hold on to its control of Congress this November.
Trump was overwhelmingly backed by farmers in 2024 — winning all but 11 of 444 farming-dependent counties, as defined by the Department of Agriculture. But the president has seen a drop in support from farmers since taking office, with the latest Farm Futures Q1 survey showing confidence in the president down 10 points from the previous survey.
Marc Short, longtime aide to former Vice President Mike Pence and chair of Advancing American Freedom, highlighted this falling support among farmers, noting “Make Our Farmers Great Again” hats were once commonplace at Trump campaign rallies.
“But things are different now,” he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Monday. “President Trump’s trade policies have punched farmers in the mouth, and this time there’s no global pandemic to blame.”
“Republicans who continue to ignore this reality do so at their peril,” Short warned.
by Sarah Fortinsky, ‘The Hill’
Farmers are caught in a difficult spot again. During the last Trump Administration the Chinese targeted farm products with massive tariffs leaving many in a lurch and the same thing happened this time around with a little easing as of late after Xi Zing Ping agreed to buy some soy. That did little to dissuade farmers from once again backing Donald Trump in the 2024 election and now they are faced with fresh conundrums as gas and fertilizer prices sky rocketing. Their support for him seems steadfast but may have a breaking point, if they do that has yet to be reached.
