The Farmland Revolt
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Current Issue
Rethinking Rural
/ January 26, 2026
The Farmland Revolt
America’s farmers are fuming over Trump’s tariffs. Democrats need to channel their anger.
Erica Etelson and Anthony Flaccavento
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A farmer shovels snow from the roof of his building on December 9, 2025, near Belvidere, Illinois.(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
This article appears in the
February 2026 issue, with the headline “The Farmland Revolt.”
America’s farmers are starting to realize how badly Donald Trump has betrayed them, and they’re stewing in anger and despair. These are the ingredients for a populist moment that Democrats can meet by offering an explanation for what has gone wrong and a plan to address the crisis.
As far as what’s gone wrong, they can start with Trump’s whiplash-inducing announcement of a $40 billion bailout to Make Argentina Great Again. After months of cruel and arbitrary cuts to spending on domestic and foreign aid, the Trump administration is creating an economic lifeline to prop up Argentina’s corrupt anarcho-capitalist president, Javier Milei.
Argentina is the third-largest producer of soybeans in the world, behind Brazil and the United States. Seizing the opportunity presented by the US-China trade war, Argentina dropped its export tax and is now selling shiploads of soybeans to China, a country that used to buy them from US farmers.
Anger about Trump’s tariffs—and with it, the prospect of a political reckoning in farm country—has grown so intense that the president announced a $12 billion payout to compensate farmers for what they’ve lost in the trade war with China. But that Band-Aid bailout amounts to barely a third of farmers’ losses in 2025 alone and won’t even begin to pay off the $560 billion in debt that burdens US farmers.
It’s not just soybean producers who are in trouble. Farmers all over the country are struggling with dramatic increases in input costs (fertilizer, seed, equipment, etc.), even as key markets disappear and the prices for their products stagnate or decline. This is an issue that Democrats should seize on.
America’s farmers, inspired by the New Deal, were once reliably Democratic voters. Now they skew heavily Republican. The losses they’ve suffered, thanks to Trump’s tariffs and other disastrous policies, provide fertile ground for defection. And the bailing out of Argentina, a major agricultural competitor, offers Democrats a golden opportunity. A serious opposition party would be railing nonstop about this. It would be barnstorming every farming community in the country with a message of solidarity: “Trump has left American farmers high and dry. He may have wanted to hurt China with the tariffs, but it’s …
We're watching the same failure loop.
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Current Issue
Rethinking Rural
/ January 26, 2026
The Farmland Revolt
America’s farmers are fuming over Trump’s tariffs. Democrats need to channel their anger.
Erica Etelson and Anthony Flaccavento
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
A farmer shovels snow from the roof of his building on December 9, 2025, near Belvidere, Illinois.(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
This article appears in the
February 2026 issue, with the headline “The Farmland Revolt.”
America’s farmers are starting to realize how badly Donald Trump has betrayed them, and they’re stewing in anger and despair. These are the ingredients for a populist moment that Democrats can meet by offering an explanation for what has gone wrong and a plan to address the crisis.
As far as what’s gone wrong, they can start with Trump’s whiplash-inducing announcement of a $40 billion bailout to Make Argentina Great Again. After months of cruel and arbitrary cuts to spending on domestic and foreign aid, the Trump administration is creating an economic lifeline to prop up Argentina’s corrupt anarcho-capitalist president, Javier Milei.
Argentina is the third-largest producer of soybeans in the world, behind Brazil and the United States. Seizing the opportunity presented by the US-China trade war, Argentina dropped its export tax and is now selling shiploads of soybeans to China, a country that used to buy them from US farmers.
Anger about Trump’s tariffs—and with it, the prospect of a political reckoning in farm country—has grown so intense that the president announced a $12 billion payout to compensate farmers for what they’ve lost in the trade war with China. But that Band-Aid bailout amounts to barely a third of farmers’ losses in 2025 alone and won’t even begin to pay off the $560 billion in debt that burdens US farmers.
It’s not just soybean producers who are in trouble. Farmers all over the country are struggling with dramatic increases in input costs (fertilizer, seed, equipment, etc.), even as key markets disappear and the prices for their products stagnate or decline. This is an issue that Democrats should seize on.
America’s farmers, inspired by the New Deal, were once reliably Democratic voters. Now they skew heavily Republican. The losses they’ve suffered, thanks to Trump’s tariffs and other disastrous policies, provide fertile ground for defection. And the bailing out of Argentina, a major agricultural competitor, offers Democrats a golden opportunity. A serious opposition party would be railing nonstop about this. It would be barnstorming every farming community in the country with a message of solidarity: “Trump has left American farmers high and dry. He may have wanted to hurt China with the tariffs, but it’s …
The Farmland Revolt
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Current Issue
Rethinking Rural
/ January 26, 2026
The Farmland Revolt
America’s farmers are fuming over Trump’s tariffs. Democrats need to channel their anger.
Erica Etelson and Anthony Flaccavento
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
A farmer shovels snow from the roof of his building on December 9, 2025, near Belvidere, Illinois.(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
This article appears in the
February 2026 issue, with the headline “The Farmland Revolt.”
America’s farmers are starting to realize how badly Donald Trump has betrayed them, and they’re stewing in anger and despair. These are the ingredients for a populist moment that Democrats can meet by offering an explanation for what has gone wrong and a plan to address the crisis.
As far as what’s gone wrong, they can start with Trump’s whiplash-inducing announcement of a $40 billion bailout to Make Argentina Great Again. After months of cruel and arbitrary cuts to spending on domestic and foreign aid, the Trump administration is creating an economic lifeline to prop up Argentina’s corrupt anarcho-capitalist president, Javier Milei.
Argentina is the third-largest producer of soybeans in the world, behind Brazil and the United States. Seizing the opportunity presented by the US-China trade war, Argentina dropped its export tax and is now selling shiploads of soybeans to China, a country that used to buy them from US farmers.
Anger about Trump’s tariffs—and with it, the prospect of a political reckoning in farm country—has grown so intense that the president announced a $12 billion payout to compensate farmers for what they’ve lost in the trade war with China. But that Band-Aid bailout amounts to barely a third of farmers’ losses in 2025 alone and won’t even begin to pay off the $560 billion in debt that burdens US farmers.
It’s not just soybean producers who are in trouble. Farmers all over the country are struggling with dramatic increases in input costs (fertilizer, seed, equipment, etc.), even as key markets disappear and the prices for their products stagnate or decline. This is an issue that Democrats should seize on.
America’s farmers, inspired by the New Deal, were once reliably Democratic voters. Now they skew heavily Republican. The losses they’ve suffered, thanks to Trump’s tariffs and other disastrous policies, provide fertile ground for defection. And the bailing out of Argentina, a major agricultural competitor, offers Democrats a golden opportunity. A serious opposition party would be railing nonstop about this. It would be barnstorming every farming community in the country with a message of solidarity: “Trump has left American farmers high and dry. He may have wanted to hurt China with the tariffs, but it’s …
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