CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — President Donald Trump on Friday promised further relief payments for farmers pinched by surging fertilizer and fuel prices, as he acknowledged the costs the Iran war had imposed on one of his core constituencies.
The packed crowd inside a barn on a corn and soybean farm here cheered when Trump promised to end the war, which he said would cause prices to drop quickly. Many analysts warn that reopening the Strait of Hormuz even immediately would not prevent a spike in fuel prices before the July Fourth holiday. Fertilizer is up more than 25 percent this year, as the Persian Gulf region produces 30 percent of globally traded chemical fertilizer, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.
“We were having record stuff, and then we had to put out a fire,” Trump said, referring to attacking Iran. “We’re going to come out and your fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four months ago.”
The acknowledgment was a departure from Trump’s usual insistence that economic conditions are favorable and that any problems are the fault of the previous administration. He got a polite earful from the handpicked roundtable participants who let him know they were hurting from prices, tariffs and consolidation in the seeds, trading and beef industries.
“We have lost a tremendous amount of our trade. And that’s all we need,” said Ken Custer, the owner of the farm that hosted the event.
“You guys are saying, ‘I’m very hopeful for some better times coming,’” added Steve Rooney, the owner of a local commercial grain storage facility. “We’ve all experienced some tough times here in the last four or five years.”
Dairy farmer Dennis Hawkins told the president, “Fair trade has been a challenge in America lately, and we need to get what we deserve for our products.”
Still, there was no shortage of effusive praise for the president — most of all from Olympic speed skater Jordan Stolz, who gave Trump one of his two gold medals. Trump said, perhaps jokingly, that he would keep it.
Trump repeatedly alluded to the aid payments his first administration had sent farmers to offset the tariffs he imposed on an array of foreign countries, and said he was considering similar payments to compensate for the costs of the Iran war.
“We’re looking at something to take the place of what’s happened, because it’s artificial,” he said. “What happened to you is artificial with the energy and with the fertilizer.”
Trump came to boost the local congressman, Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin), and the GOP gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin). Both races are considered toss-ups. Democrats will pick their candidates in the August primary.
“If anybody you hear says that Donald Trump doesn’t care about the farmers, you can look him straight in the eye and tell him that’s a pile of manure, because the man is right back there,” Van Orden said before Trump emerged for the roundtable. “We’re going to make sure our farmers don’t have to wring their hands at night because they’re worried about paying bills.”
Rebecca Cooke, Van Orden’s leading Democratic opponent, said she is meeting with three-time Trump voters who feel betrayed by his second term, especially higher gas prices. She accused the Republicans of using farmers as props at Trump’s roundtable.
“It’s really clear that they’re concerned about their ability to be able to hold on to this U.S. House seat,” she said at a news conference at her family’s farm earlier Friday. “Derrick Van Orden is calling in the cavalry to come and save him.”
She added that the war in Iran has driven up the cost of such items as diesel and fertilizer, which are vital to farmers’ livelihoods. “It flies in the face of what people thought they were voting for when they voted for Trump,” Cooke said. “They thought they’re voting for an ‘America First’ agenda, and this is exactly the opposite.”
Democrats also emphasized that under Trump, health care costs are rising and many rural health facilities are closing, including two major hospitals in the surrounding Chippewa Valley. “No one in Wisconsin has been hit harder by Donald Trump than our farmers,” Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez (D) told reporters on Thursday. “He can come here, but he can’t outrun his record.”
Trump, however, cheered the higher-than-expected job gains released Friday, as employers more than doubled economists’ estimates by adding 172,000 jobs in May. But he also chided the stock market for falling, as investors worried inflation would lead to higher interest rates.
“Too much emphasis is placed on inflation,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on the way to Wisconsin. “I hope the market starts to learn that when you have good numbers, the market should go up, not down.”
Wisconsin is a swing state that Trump narrowly won in 2024 but that has seen Democrats make recent gains, for example capturing state Supreme Court seats as Trump’s approval rating drops.
In an effort to stave off any political falloff in rural support, Trump and his top officials have been going out of their way to emphasize that they continue to care about farmers. “We understand the extraordinary challenges we are facing out there in rural America,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said before Friday’s roundtable.
Trump listed his accomplishments for farmers, including signing a bill on whole milk in schools, raising the tax exemption for large inheritances and cutting environmental regulations. Trump said he supports legislation allowing people to repair their own vehicles, falsely claiming that he pardoned a man sentenced to seven years for fixing his own truck. In fact, he pardoned a Wyoming diesel mechanic who had been sentenced to one year and one day in prison for tampering with emissions controls.
But the biggest sign that Trump cared, he said, was that he showed up.
“What the hell do I have to be here for? I got elected,” he said on his first trip to Wisconsin since the campaign. “I’m here because I like the farmer. I mean, when you think about it, I guess there’s a lot of truth to that, right? I could be home right now in the beautiful White House enjoying watching somebody else on television talking.”
Abruptly returning to his script, he continued, “Every day, my administration is fighting to protect and defend the jobs and livelihood of our great farmers.”
Still, the president spent a full five minutes discussing his repairs to fountains, statues and the Reflecting Pool in Washington, showing a string of printed-out pictures.
When Trump invited the panelists to speak, he asked them to keep their remarks brief, saying he had to return to D.C. to oversee the war in Iran. He then left to fly to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is spending the weekend.
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