Letter of the Week:
Trump’s rural recession
“Sixty-three percent of America’s 3,144 counties are predominantly rural, and Donald Trump won 93 percent of those counties in 2024. Analyses show that rural counties have become increasingly solid Republican and Trump’s margin of victory within rural America reached a new high in the 2024 election.
We are at the 260th day of Trump’s 2.0 presidency. Polling by ActiVote reveals that Mr. Trump’s approval rating is rapidly declining with rural Americans (Newsweek, Sept. 5).
Historians note Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem.) and Richard Nixon (Rep.) were the backbone to make USA the global agriculture market leader. Evidence is replete America’s worldwide agribusiness sector prowess has been evaporating at a quick pace since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration (Brennan Center for Justice, Aug. 3).
The trade wars initiated by Mr. Trump have devastated export markets for American products like soybeans, corn, wheat, sorghum, cotton, pork, dairy and beef. For example, China retaliated against Trump by shifting its purchasing of soybeans from USA to Brazil and Argentina.
Five countries (China, Canada, Mexico, Turkey and Russia) and the 27-member European Union have imposed their own levies against America, causing higher prices on equipment, steel and fertilizer needed by farmers (Tax Foundation, Sept. 26). The trade retaliation will continue to harm small and medium-sized family farms and is trickling down to all of America.
Of the 2.4 million farm workers, about 1.2 million are undocumented who help plant, tend, harvest, pack, sort and prepare food-related products Americans depend upon (CBS News). Trump’s heightened immigration enforcement has led to raids on farms and processing plants, causing severe labor shortages and his own Labor Department admits to food shortage risks and higher prices (Fortune, Oct. 11).
Withholding USDA funding has created severe financial, operational and rural community impacts, forcing many farmers into economic distress, threatening farm viability and damaging rural economies (NRDC, Sept. 10).
USDA payment freezes and staffing cuts have stalled irrigation and rural housing projects, which has extended hardship beyond the farm into rural-based communities.
When the USDA reneged on signed contracts, most farmers lost their trust in USDA partnerships and government commitments.
The Trump 2.0 administration’s cut to rural health and telehealth programs have put healthcare access at risk for the 64 million people who live in USA’s rural areas.
Trump’s effort to repeal or weaken the Affordable Care Act will disproportionately cause rural Americans—who rely heavily on Medicaid or individual markets—to lose insurance.
Budget reductions of opioid and substance abuse response programs—an acute problem in rural America—will have a devastating impact.
Mr. Trump’s reduced support for clean water infrastructure will directly affect rural public health. Similarly, reducing investments in rural broadband will put rural America further behind their urban and suburban peers.
Trump has imposed less funding for rural roads, bridges and transit, which will impede economic growth and public safety.
Rural households—who spend around 40 percent more on utilities as a share of their income—will face greater hardship as a result of the Trump administration eliminating not only the low-income home energy assistance program but by reducing the weatherization assistance program.
President Trump’s cuts to the SNAP program will dramatically make it worse for 9.8 million rural-based school children as their food insecurity rates are the highest in America (Feeding America, May 14). It appears Trump would rather bail out farmers ($46 billion during first presidency) than feed hungry kids (Forbes).
These examples collectively illustrate how Trump’s 2.0 actions—in only 260 days—have directly worsened living conditions in rural America by reducing access to essential services, increasing financial insecurity, declining healthcare, eroding community infrastructure and increasing food insecurity for 9.8 million school children.
Trump’s actions are a slap in the face to about two-thirds of Americans who reside in a rural county. More broadly, Trump’s actions affect all Americans as everyone depends on ag products to exist.
This begs the question: When will our 535 Congressional delegates—regardless of their political persuasion—wake up to the economic mess Donald Trump and his cabinet acolytes have created and take action to save America from further domestic and international ruin? Without Congressional intervention, the next 1,200 days of Trump 2.0 is going to be quite cloudy and murky. “
— Steve Corbin, Professor Emeritus of Marketing, University of Northern Iowa
