Farmers are beginning to reap the results of President Donald Trump’s trade wars, causing them to question their support of him as a "looming farm crisis" threatens their livelihoods. According to Politico, "this fall harvest may see the limits of the their patience."
“Farmers across the country are looking at record yields during their fall harvest. They may have nowhere to sell them,” Politico reports. "Crop farmers are especially suffering, having “lost a significant export market, driving down the price of top U.S. crops like soybeans and corn, even as Trump’s tariffs drive up the cost of farm equipment and fertilizer.”
An analysis by Investigate Midwest found that the most farming-dependent counties backed Trump in 2024 by an average of 77.7 percent. That percentage, according to Politico, may be about to change.
“When our members are in the fields harvesting, they will be staring at a visual representation of this economy and this looming farm crisis. They will be looking at literal piles of corn and other row crops,” Lesly Weber McNitt, vice president of public policy at the National Corn Growers Association told Politico. “They don’t know where it’s going.”
Still, according to the report, neither farmers nor Republicans are ready to completely abandon the president.
Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) blames China, not Trump, for the pain, saying, "China is the linchpin in all of this."
“I’m trusting that President Trump is going to strike a deal that is going to equalize our trade with China and also restore some of the imports they’ve had for our grains, our beans and our meat," Alford said.
According to Purdue University’s Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly survey that measures the health of the agricultural economy, while farmer sentiment on Trump has been declining since July, it’s still higher than when President Joe Biden was in office.
"I think the farmers realize, particularly crop producers, this is not going to be a good year by any stretch of the imagination,” said Michael Langemeier, the director of Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture. “But when you ask things about the long-term policy environment, they’re always positive related to those questions.”
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) said that while farmers think the tariffs may help them, "the need for those issues to be resolved is quick."
Meanwhile, Washington and Beijing are "frozen in a low-grade trade war," says Politico, and the thaw isn't likely to come soon.
Trump Agriculture Department officials "have privately started to prepare for a similar bailout fund for this term but are unlikely to roll out any tariff relief payments this fall," according to Politico.
“I’ve not seen any evidence that there’s any proposal coming from the administration for direct financial aid,” Rep. Moran said. “Farmers have always told me, and I think they believe it, that they want markets, not payments. And we need markets.”
"Corn will be stacked in the streets,” said Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV). “Truly, I don’t know how we’re going to stop it.”