Trump traveled to Iowa to show farmers his support and to tout $12 billion federal aid package

Trump poses for photos with younger
"fans" during his Iowa visit.

President Donald Trump returned to Iowa this week to reassure farmers of his support and to tout his administration’s recent $12 billion farming aid package. 

But as farmers face economic headwinds, "some are growing frustrated with how his policies, including his far-reaching tariffs, have hurt the agricultural economy," report Patrick Thomas and Ken Thomas of The Wall Street Journal.

Trump told an audience of diners at the Machine Shed restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa, that he "'gave farmers $12 billion . . . because they were treated unfairly by foreign countries," the Journal reports. The crowd applauded.

Despite the rousing crowd support the president received, some U.S. farms are hurting. Thomas writes, "In the first nine months of 2025, nearly 300 farms filed for bankruptcy, up almost 40% from 2024, according to U.S. court data."

Mark Mueller, who is president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, told the Journal, "We’re getting a lot of lip service. He’s saying that he’s going to do all these things to make things wonderful. We’ll have a new golden era of agriculture. No, that’s not been the case.”

Last month, Trump angered cattle producers by taking to social media and demanding that they lower beef prices. American livestock owners, who have made abysmal profits for years, are just now realizing steady profits.

Other farmers have been "irked by a lack of ag-friendly policy victories in Washington, such as expanding the blending of corn into gasoline and soybeans into diesel," the Journal reports. Farming advocacy groups have pushed for "increasing the use of gasoline with 15% ethanol, known as E15, [that] would increase demand for U.S.-grown corn and push up prices."

Meanwhile, the state will have some intensely competitive midterm elections where Democrats are working to gain traction. Steve Scheffler, who leads the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, "recalled that former President Barack Obama carried the state in the 2008 and 2012 elections," Thomas adds. "He warned that Democrats would try to make inroads in this year’s midterms — without Trump’s name on the ballot."