Donald Trump’s policies have been a disaster for the country’s farmers, to the point that a near-electoral miracle may soon occur: Kansas, one of the most rural and reddest states, may elect its first Democratic senator in nearly a century. Since Trump handily won the agriculture sector in 2024, many rural voters in Kansas, Iowa and elsewhere have become displeased with him because the price of diesel fuel, a key input for agriculture, has soared by nearly 70%, because farm bankruptcies have increased, and because Trump’s trade wars have significantly reduced agricultural exports. Rural voters are so upset with Trump that polls show Republican Senate candidates have a good chance of losing in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas, even though Trump won those rural states by 13 percentage points or more in 2024. No wonder Trump is bouncing wildly through Kansas, Iowa and other states in the final weeks of the midterm campaign. and his many trade wars, he showed little concern for what those decisions might mean for rural America. It was almost inevitable that Trump’s measures would hurt farmers, by reducing exports of soybeans and other agricultural exports and by increasing the price of fuel, fertilizer and farm equipment. Not only that, Trump’s proudest legislative achievement, his “big, beautiful bill,” hit farm countries even harder with his significant cuts to food assistance and his $1 trillion cuts to Medicaid, which will cause an estimated 1.8 million rural Americans to lose their health insurance. “He has sold out rural America with his policies,” Jon Tester, a third-generation Montana farmer and former U.S. senator, told farmers. A comment from Cato stated that while Trump calls this a “golden age” for farmers, the fact is that “Trump’s tariffs are causing serious harm” to farmers, raising the prices of their inputs and causing their exports to decline by billions of dollars. This helps explain why farm bankruptcies have increased 85% compared to two years ago. In fact, many rural voters have turned against Trump; While nearly two-thirds back him in 2024, less than half (49%) of rural voters now say they support Republican candidates this fall, according to a Fox News poll. At a recent news conference in Washington, John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, tried to convey the pain and anger felt by many farmers. “Due to the misuse of tariffs, record-high farm input costs, rising fertilizer costs” and “high interest rates,” Hansen said, farmers “are facing the worst economic and financial crisis since the farm crisis of the 1980s,” when many farms went under due to sky-high interest rates. In a direct slap at Trump, Hansen added: “Just when farmers need to expand markets for their products, the president appears to be at war with our nation’s three largest trading partners: Mexico, Canada and China. When trade wars break out, farmers’ noses always bleed first, worst and longest.” Many rural voters backed Trump in 2024 because he promised to lower prices, including energy prices, and pledged not to plunge the United States into unnecessary and costly wars abroad. But now many feel betrayed because Trump launched an unnecessary and costly war against Iran that caused diesel fuel – which farmers rely on for their tractors and combines – to soar to a record $6.52 a gallon in late September, before declining slightly (to $6.32). This price increase (diesel averaged $3.75 per gallon before the war) cost most farmers thousands of additional dollars when many were barely breaking even. “Compared to last year, our fuel bill is $50,000 higher,” Vance Ehmke, a Kansas farmer, told the Hastings (Nebraska) Tribune, while “fertilizer, that will be at least another $20,000 or $40,000 increase. That’s all because of Trump and I want to tell you, I’m a Republican and I’m angry.” Last month, the American Farm Bureau Federation published an article by bad news that said that “the record input cost environment”—that is, high diesel and fertilizer prices—means that “no major crop,” such as soybeans or corn, “is projected to break even” this year, ranchers in Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and other farm states are furious that Trump announced plans to import approximately 660 million pounds of tariff-free beef with the goal of reducing beef prices by 25%; The many ways Trump’s tariffs angered consumers was by driving up beef prices. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association expressed dismay over Trump’s beef imports, saying the move would undermine the stability of the struggling industry. North Carolina farmer Matt Bell had a warning for Republicans. Bell, who voted for Trump in 2024, told CBS News: “Everything we touch has gone up. We are now in a position where we are angry and ready to be heard.” With rural America suffering deeply, Bell and many other farmers who traditionally supported Republicans want to send a message to the party that controls the White House, the Senate and the House. Many are angry that Republican lawmakers have not sought to protect farmers by fighting Trump’s tariffs and the war on Iran. “We need to get other voices to push back on these things a little bit,” Nancy Danner, a soybean and corn farmer, told the Wall Street Journal. of Iowa. “We need as much change as we can get.” Danner said he planned to vote only Democratic in November. A Wall Street Journal headline had grim news for the GOP, saying: “Republicans face the worst political environment in farm country in decades.” Nebraska. John Tsitrian, a South Dakota business executive who writes about rural America, did not mince words about who is to blame. “Farmers are suffering thanks to Trump’s apocalyptic mistake,” he wrote. one about 40% of China’s soybean imports. But as a result of Trump’s repeated trade wars with China and China’s search for more reliable and less antagonistic trading partners, the United States now supplies only 23% of China’s soybeans, with Brazil providing more than 60% and Argentina 10%. Given that China imports about $60 billion of soybeans a year, that means a painful loss of $10 billion. Trump has long been known to try to donate money, often a lot of money, to people who are angry with him. Just look at his brazen plan to hand out $5,000 to every American adult. Seeing how upset farmers are about sky-high diesel prices, Trump announced a new donation on Monday at a rally in Kansas: he promised $8 billion in emergency aid to American farmers in the US. called the Harvest Fuel Relief Program. It seemed like a desperate, last-ditch effort to bail out incumbent Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall. This came after Trump announced a previous $12 billion bailout for farmers last December. While acknowledging that farmers need emergency aid, South Dakota’s Tsitrian wrote: “The current difficult farm economy, which regularly needs federal cash infusions, is the result of a disaster that has a specific name: Donald Trump. “Unlike most disasters, this one was completely predictable.” Trump’s policies and Republican lawmakers whom farmers have long supported. “This Republican-led Congress has not done its job,” said Hansen, president of Farm Union. “They have failed to help our nation’s farmers in our time of need, and it is time for a change.” Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author who focuses on labor and employment issues, as well as economic and legal issues.
