Trump's rural farmer supporters in 'ruin' due to 'laundry list of broken promises'

President Donald J. Trump applauds the crowd prior to delivering remarks on Aug. 24, 2020, at Flavor First Growers and Packers in Mills River, N.C. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Rural farmers were a group that broke heavily for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, but now, as a new analysis from The Hill found, they have been driven to "ruin" by his "laundry list of broken promises."

In a piece published by The Hill on Wednesday, Democratic strategist Max Burn broke down the extent to which farmers in rural communities have suffered under Trump's return to power. The lead-up to this moment, he noted, was already fraught for them, with "an average 373 farms" folding financially every year since 2015.

Trump was able to gain 62 percent of the rural vote on his way back to the White House in 2024, a four-point improvement over his 2020 campaign, with Burns arguing that this was largely on the back of "promises to lavish prosperity (and federal money) on small farms on the verge of collapse." As of now, there has not been much for these farmers to celebrate.

"Like so many Trump promises, the help never arrived," Burns wrote. "The suicide rate in rural communities is now 3.5 times the national average and climbing. Farmers buckle under the financial strain of crippling agricultural tariffs, rising input costs and a president who didn’t bother to mention them once in his most recent State of the Union address."

In the face of these strains and broken promises, Burns suggested that these farmers are beginning to "weigh their options" ahead of the 2026 midterms, with the "economic hangover effects of his economic mismanagement [not being] lost on rural Americans." This shift could present a window for Democrats to win support from a demographic they have struggled with in the last few decades.

Trump's tariffs have been a particular point of pain for farmers under Trump's second presidency, both for how expensive they have made their cost of doing business and for how much they have disrupted traditional markets.

"His tariffs on agricultural products decimated demand for U.S.-grown crops, with Chinese imports of American soybeans plummeting nearly 80 percent," Burns wrote. "The situation is severe enough that the American Soybean Association, an industry trade group, took the rare step of publicly criticizing the administration for misleading farmers about future Chinese purchases.

He continued: "Tariffs on steel, rubber and replacement parts mean farmers are also paying more to keep their machinery working. Some imported replacement parts are no longer available at all, and the costs of buying new equipment are enough to send some small farms into debt. The average price of a new tractor was roughly $190,000 in 2019; today, a similar tractor retails for about $330,000."

In the face of "Trump and his Republican enablers," who have led them to "ruin," Burns urged that these farmers must remind the GOP "that their votes shouldn’t be taken for granted."

"If our farm communities want to return to better days, they should start by throwing out the bums who are leading them down a road to bankruptcy and ruin," he concluded.

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