President Donald Trump’s policies could not be more destructive for rural America—from his attacks on Medicaid, gutting rural health care, and budget cuts that are decimating rural postal service, education, and broadband.
But nothing hits harder than the twin body blows of tariffs and mass deportations of undocumented agricultural laborers.
Not that Trump doesn’t pretend otherwise. “To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States,” he famously posted on his Truth Social back in early March. “Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!”
And every so often, criticisms of his policies seem to filter through to him, like when he posted in mid-June.
“Field of bad dreams” by Tim Campbell
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA.
Yet despite promises that “changes are coming!” and all the supposed “fun,” nothing has changed. He keeps selling out the very farmers who worship him—most recently with his bailout of Argentina, which opened U.S. markets to cheap Argentina beef.
According to the trade publication Meat & Poultry, the picture for American farmers is grim. Production costs for major crops are on track to hit record highs by 2026—$650 per acre for soybeans, $404 for wheat, $916 for corn, $956 for cotton, and over $1,200 for rice and peanuts. Nearly every expense—labor, land, seed, taxes—is climbing.
On paper, total farm income is expected to rise about 40% in 2025. But that’s mostly smoke and mirrors: government subsidies and temporary livestock profits mask deep losses for crop farmers. Net cash income is projected to fall 15% for corn, 14% for soybeans, 2% for wheat, and 1% for specialty crops.
Livestock producers were supposed to fare better—with income up 67% for cattle, 27% for poultry, 18% for hogs, and 11% for dairy—but that was before Trump’s Argentina deal to flood the market with cheap imports. Those gains will vanish fast.
There’s a special irony in that the one place where farmers were seeing gains, Trump has taken a hacksaw to it.
But if you think that pain might finally break their loyalty, don’t hold your breath. The Los Angeles Times talked to several who still pledge allegiance to their cult leader.
“If I’ve gotta take a few bullets getting caught up in the cross-fire, but after four years or eight years—however long he spends in office—we’re on a better trajectory as a country, then it’s all parred up,” said citrus farmer Matt Fisher.
Jeff Bortolussi, another fruit grower, said, “A lot of this stuff needs to play out. I think a lot of it is posturing, and his way of communicating, his ‘art of the deal.’ We really don’t know what’s going on.”
Trump doesn’t know what’s going on.
And when his immigration raids decimate their workforces? They blame Democrats. California is “picking a fight with the federal government,” said walnut farmer Mike Poindexter. “You have to ask, who’s instigating here?”
Realigning the country is a matter of math. Shift 5–10% of Trump voters and non-voters to the Democratic side, and an evenly divided nation becomes a more liberal one. But these farmers—suffering the most from the policies they cheered—won’t be part of that 5–10%.
And honestly, it’s hard to feel sorry for them.
