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Yesterday, President Trump went to Wisconsin for a roundtable with farmers. But his visit came as they are grappling with higher fuel prices and fertilizer prices, plus the repercussions of the president's trade policies. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben checks on how farmers are doing right now.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Speaking against a backdrop of John Deere tractors, Trump told farmers how they could tell he was excited to be there.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I got elected. 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.
KURTZLEBEN: Trump does well in rural America, winning some of the biggest farm states. But lately, farmers have been having a rough go.
DARIN VON RUDEN: Well, I would say it's a year of worry again.
KURTZLEBEN: Darin Von Ruden is an organic dairy farmer in western Wisconsin. He's also the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
VON RUDEN: You know, if you play the markets, you probably can protect yourself somewhat. But, you know, farmers want to farm. We don't want to have to be that stockbroker working with the stock market or the grain markets, too.
KURTZLEBEN: Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University, says it's been a tough few years for the farming economy and that the Trump administration's policies have made existing problems worse.
CHAD HART: What they have done is exacerbated the problem of - set up a situation where it's maintaining relatively low prices for our commodities - at the same time, too, continuing to add pressure to input costs to create those commodities.
KURTZLEBEN: And soybean farmers have had an especially tough few years, Hart says, because they produced so much that they outstripped demand, lowering prices. But then on top of that came some of Trump's policies. Amid last year's trade war, China curtailed its soybean purchases. Cotton was hurt as well as other countries erected new trade barriers in response to Trump's fluctuating tariffs. Then the war with Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz, raising fertilizer and fuel prices. At the roundtable, Trump acknowledged some of these difficulties.
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TRUMP: Over the last couple of months since we went in for the military operation, you've seen fertilizer go up, and you've seen energy go up. It's going to come down to where it was or lower.
KURTZLEBEN: And the Trump administration has attempted to improve things. In December, the White House announced $12 billion in aid to farmers. In Wisconsin, Trump hinted that he might increase that.
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TRUMP: We massively expanded crop insurance and issued a historic $12 billion in farm relief. So it's $12 billion, but it was $28 billion in my first. So we're looking at that right now, about increasing it.
KURTZLEBEN: The administration has a list of other policies aimed at farmers. It introduced new loan guarantees and clarified rules to allow farmers to make certain equipment repairs. Days ago, the administration announced lower tariffs on machinery. All the fixes have done some good, says Hart, but only so much. The $12 billion in aid, for example, helped in the short term.
HART: But it doesn't really solve the issues of trying to either create stronger marketplaces to helpfully build prices higher or - and it also didn't help lower input costs.
KURTZLEBEN: As for the lower tariffs, he says? Well, they're still tariffs.
HART: The reduction in that tariff does help, but we still have the initial problem of it still costs more now than it did before.
KURTZLEBEN: In Wisconsin, Trump talked about allowing E15 to be sold year-round. E15 is gasoline with 15% ethanol, which is made from corn. The fuel has been restricted during summers to limit pollution.
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TRUMP: And I've made it clear that we're going to go E15 all year round. And I think it's something that you want, right? Is that what - do you like that? Are you happy with that?
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KURTZLEBEN: A year-round E15 bill has passed the House but has not yet passed the Senate. Going into the event, Von Rudin with the Wisconsin Farmers Union said he had wanted to hear about ethanol.
VON RUDEN: What I don't want to hear is that he's going to have another aid package.
KURTZLEBEN: Von Rudin, who is not a Trump supporter, said he thinks the money could be better spent helping hungry Americans. But as Trump said, more aid might be coming. Meanwhile, sitting next to Trump at the roundtable, farmer Ken Custer had praise for the president, along with a request.
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KEN CUSTER: You make the right decisions for America. They aren't popular. Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you.
CUSTER: And we as farmers have lost a tremendous amount of our trade. And that's all we need, is - we can compete with anybody in the world. We need fair trade.
KURTZLEBEN: After talks with China, the Trump administration announced that that country had agreed to purchase billions in U.S. soybeans and other ag products. It remains to be seen, though, whether China will fulfill those agreements. Chinese President Xi Jinping will be visiting the U.S. this fall.
Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{309:function(e,n,o){o.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([o.e(1),o.e(2),o.e(3),o.e(4),o.e(81)]).then((e=>{o(15),o(770),o(154),o(175),o(93),o(448),o(253),o(128),o(130),o(755),o(174),o(756),o(254),o(77),o(774)}).bind(null,o)).catch(o.oe)},783:function(e,n,o){e.exports=o(309)}},[[783,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();