Farmers across the country have fallen on hard times in the wake of a number of President Donald Trump's policies, despite being one of his most loyal voting groups.
Even in states which voted overwhelmingly in Trump's favor in the 2024 Presidential Election, farmers are concerned about their future, and bankruptcy filings have soared this year.
Newsweek has contacted the White House via email for comment.
Why It Matters
Farmers are in desperate need of help and earlier this month in Arkansas, hundreds of them gathered in Brookland to share their concerns with representatives.
One farmer, Chris King, said: "Mr. Trump, you looked at me and said, 'I love you.' Mr. Trump, I need to see the fruit of your love." King added: "I have never been as worried as I am now about whether or not my kids and grandkids will be able to carry on."
Another, Scott Brown, said: "You are going to lose 25 to 30 percent of the farmers in this country if they don't do something... and it's not just here; it's everywhere."
Some farmers in the state have been praying to God for help, others deeming it a "very dire situation."
Farmers' Historic Support For Trump
Trump received a huge amount of support in the 2024 election from farming-dependent counties, securing around 78 percent of their votes, and was previously favored by farmers in the 2020 election as well.
This is likely in part influenced by the fact voters in rural counties have become increasingly Republican in recent years, according to Pew Research data, among other policy measures.
"The current policy regime is likely positive for reducing farm regulations," Daniel Sumner, a professor in agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis, told Newsweek.
One notable example is that Trump, in his first term, rolled back and rewrote the 'Waters of the United States' rule, also known as the 'Clean Water Rule', passed by the Obama administration in 2015.
The rule was designed to protect watersheds, and it gained controversy among the farming community as many understood the rule to determine farmers could not farm (due to the use of pesticides and fertilizers) on their land near streams and rivers.
"Generally, farms expect lower environmental regulatory pressure, either from legal interpretations from the [Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] or reduced enforcement," Sumner said.
While many farmers have remained loyal to Trump, presumably believing his administration would do more to support their livelihoods, the reality has not been exactly what many farming communities were likely expecting.
Tariffs and USAID: Farmers Lose Key Crop Buyers
When speaking about his tariffs in March, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!"
However, instead of "fun" domestic sales, many farmers are struggling to sell their crops inside the U.S.
The closure of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had a hand to play in this, being one of the largest buyers of U.S. grown crops as it spent around $2.1 billion a year providing worldwide food aid.
Without USAID providing consistent demand, many farmers have been trying to find other buyers to make up costs, without much success.
Some farmers also rely heavily on trade with Chinese markets. After China retaliated against Trump's tariffs with a 10 percent tariff of its own on U.S. goods, as of August 27, not a single U.S. soybean cargo had been purchased by China, Ian Sheldon, a chair in agricultural marketing, trade and policy at The Ohio State University, told Newsweek.
This has also happened just as the U.S. crop comes to harvest, and is "expected to put downward pressure on soybean prices," he said.
Both Mexico and Canada are also major buyers of U.S. crops, and Trump's additional trade war with these countries threatens further destabilization of farmer's main sources of sales.
While potential trade deals with the U.K. and Japan could provide some relief, although how much is uncertain, "it is important that any tariff retaliation by [Mexico and Canada] does not get ratcheted up," Sheldon said.
Tariffs Lead To Higher Farming Costs
Import tariffs also affect farmers because they affect prices of fertilizers and agricultural chemicals, such as pesticides and herbicides, as well as steel and aluminum prices, affecting agricultural machinery prices.
As a result, "farmers have already cut back their new machinery purchases, and are typically holding onto their existing machinery, or looking at the secondhand market," Sheldon said.
That said, "some farms may gain from tariffs on imports, but this is not a major gain in most cases because we tend to import products seasonally or products that do not compete directly with U.S. products," Sumner said.
Jennifer Fahy, co-executive director at Farm Aid, a nonprofit organization advocating for farmers, told Newsweek that, as a result of "cripplingly low crop prices and lost export markets due to ricocheting tariffs," farmers have faced even higher input costs.
This has meant crop farmers "are telling us they're losing $100 to 200 an acre this year," she said.
"Farmers are suffering terrible losses," Fahy said, adding that these are "not economic blips, but potentially long-term or permanently lost markets."
Other Factors Affecting Farmers
Fahy said that Trump's policies have also "targeted small and mid-sized specialty producers."
She said that these farmers saw strong market growth in recent years, thanks to federal programs such as the Local Food Purchase Assistance and Local Food To Schools programs, which helped food banks and schools buy food from farmers.
However, when Trump took office in January, he froze and then canceled many of those programs, which "not only opened up new markets for farmers, but also provided food access to people who often lack access to healthy, fresh foods," she said.
She said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also canceled programs that "support farmers to transition to farming methods that make their operations more resilient in the face of climate change."
Trump's policies aside, farmers in states such as Arkansas have also been hugely affected by flooding, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture predicting that almost $80 million worth of crops were lost in April floods.
While Trump's sweeping tax bill, 'The One Big Beautiful Bill,' has promised expanded agricultural subsidies, these are not set to come in until 2026.
Concern For The Future Of Farming
All of these factors come together to form a bleak picture for farmers. Data from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture has shown that farm bankruptcies are increasing, with 259 filings in the U.S. between April 1 2024 and March 31 2025.
Per the data, the number of bankruptcies in the first quarter of this year far exceeded that figure in the same time period last year, almost doubling.
"Farm Aid is very concerned about the future of farming in the U.S," Fahy said.
She said that farmers they have spoken to have said "the conditions they're seeing and the challenges they're facing are eerily similar" to the Farm Crisis in the 1980s, which wiped over 250,000 farms from the American landscape.
She added that it "remains to be seen how farmers will weather the current conditions that have been caused by the Trump administration's policies."
Full Interview Below
Newsweek's interview with Jennifer Fahy, co-executive director at Farm Aid, a nonprofit organization advocating for farmers.
Q1: How have Trump's tariffs and other economic policies been impacting farmers?
"From the start of President Trump's term, his talk of tariffs has caused uncertainty, which is one of the most challenging conditions for farmers. Going into planting season, a solid understanding of economic and commodity markets is essential for farmers to make their farm plans. Trump's threats around tariffs threw those into tumult. In addition to cripplingly low crop prices and lost export markets due to ricocheting tariffs, farmers have also faced even higher input costs (for equipment, seeds, fertilizer, animal feed) as a result of new tariffs. Crop farmers are telling us they're losing $100-200 an acre this year."
Q2: What impact did you think his policies would have on the industry before he was sworn in as president?
"Based on President Trump's first term, it was quite possible that farmers would once again be impacted in negative ways. Unfortunately, in his second term, the impact has been even more damaging. If you look at the effect of tariffs alone, farmers are suffering terrible losses, and these are not economic blips, but potentially long-term or permanently lost markets."
"During his second term, Trump's policies have also targeted small and mid-sized specialty producers. These are farmers who saw strong market growth in recent years, thanks to federal programs like the Local Food Purchase Assistance and Local Food To Schools programs, which created support for small- and mid-scale production for local and regional markets. One of the first actions Trump took in January was to freeze and then cancel many of those programs that not only opened up new markets for farmers, but also provided food access to people who often lack access to healthy, fresh foods. The USDA additionally canceled programs that support farmers to transition to farming methods that make their operations more resilient in the face of climate change, creating more risk and less resilience in our farm and food system."
Q3: Are you concerned about the future of farming in America?
"Farm Aid is very concerned about the future of farming in the United States. In this, our 40th anniversary year, we have been talking to many farmers who lived through the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. They tell us that the conditions they're seeing and the challenges they're facing are eerily similar. That crisis wiped more than 300,000 farms from the American landscape. It tore the fabric of rural America. It consolidated our agriculture, making it harder for small operations to gain access to markets and stay on the land. Further consolidation as a result of another large-scale loss of farmers from the land will make the challenges that young and new farmers face even more difficult, including access to land, credit and infrastructure."
Q4: How are farmers having to manage these impacts going forward?
"It remains to be seen how farmers will weather the current conditions that have been caused by the Trump administration's policies. In his first term, there was an emergency bailout program to compensate for losses farmers suffered as a result of tariffs. The USDA has suggested that funds could once again be paid out to farmers, though details have not been shared. But any farmer will tell you, they don't want a hand out. They want a fair price. In the case of export markets, farmers and the groups they are members of work hard to create and build those markets through time and trust. A stroke of President Trump's pen wipes out that work and decimates the financial future for farmers, which has ripple effects throughout rural America and the country at large."
Newsweek