Iowa is entering the FO (Find Out) phase of FAFO. After voting 56% for Donald Trump, Iowa is realizing that they are going to be feeling the hurt real soon…thanks to Donald Trump. The horrific policies coming out of the White House are attacking farmers, affecting labor and threatening entire industries.
The New York Times is reporting that while farmers are struggling to stay afloat, Trump is willingly handing over $20 billion (or maybe it’s $40 billion now?) to Argentina…and that is really pissing off the farmers. I guess MAGA now means “Make Argentina Great Again”?
Iowa soybean farmers are getting hit HARD after China stopped buying their product. Tariffs are raising costs for necessary item such as tractors and fertilizer. And immigration raids have made cheap labor scarce.
As a reminder, Iowa actually went for Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012, but then swung to Trump in 2016. And they have been rewarded with non-stop punishment. The New York Times reports that “during the first quarter of 2025, Iowa’s gross domestic product dropped by 6.1 percent, more than any other state aside from neighboring Nebraska.” Manufacturing costs are going through the roof as well, with “higher production costs in part because of steep tariffs on inputs like aluminum and steel.”
