Trump’s empty promises and the ruin of rural America

President Trump’s second term has been nothing if not a laundry list of broken promises. But few Americans have suffered more from Trump’s deceptions than the nation’s struggling farmers.  

It’s no secret that family farms have had a rough go of it over the past decade. An average of 373 farms have failed every year since 2015. The stress of simply surviving has led to a nationwide mental health crisis in resource-starved farming communities.

Trump captured 62 percent of the rural vote in 2024, 4 points better than his performance in 2020, based largely on promises to lavish prosperity (and federal money) on small farms on the verge of collapse. 

Like so many Trump promises, the help never arrived. The suicide rate in rural communities is now 3.5 times the national average and climbing. Farmers buckle under the financial strain of crippling agricultural tariffs, rising input costs and a president who didn’t bother to mention them once in his most recent State of the Union address.

After years of loyalty to a Republican Party that has worsened their lives, rural voters are finally weighing their options ahead of November’s pivotal midterm elections. Are Democrats ready to seize the moment?  

Trump’s plummeting national approval rating recently scraped a record low amid voter frustration with rising prices and the ongoing war in Iran. The economic hangover effects of his economic mismanagement aren’t lost on rural Americans. His tariffs on agricultural products decimated........

© The Hill