World

Pressure mounts on Trump to deliver for Iowa ahead of elections

August 17, 2018
Spectators stand near a soybean field outside Dubuque Regional Airport they wait for US President Donald Trump’s arrival on Air Force One in Dubuque, Iowa, in this July 26, 2018 file photo. — Reuters
Spectators stand near a soybean field outside Dubuque Regional Airport they wait for US President Donald Trump’s arrival on Air Force One in Dubuque, Iowa, in this July 26, 2018 file photo. — Reuters

DES MOINES, Iowa — Warren Bachman, a 72-year-old Iowa soybean farmer, is one of many who turned Clarke County into Donald Trump country, as the Republican president took 61 percent of the votes in 2016 in a county that went for Democrat Barack Obama four years earlier.

But Bachman’s loyalty to Trump is wavering under the weight of a trade war that has disproportionately hurt farmers due to big tariffs on agricultural exports. Other farmers, meanwhile, are upset that the White House has not yet followed through on a promise to reform rules that would boost demand for corn-based ethanol, one of the state’s biggest businesses.

“I still support him, but not as much,” Bachman said at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines last week. “I am afraid we are close to seeing a repeat of the 1980s, where farmers across Iowa lost their land because they ran out of money and couldn’t get loans.”

November’s congressional elections represent the first nationwide response to Trump’s aggressive trade policies, particularly in the Farm Belt, which runs roughly from Indiana to Kansas and the Dakotas, which favored Trump heavily two years ago.

The administration’s move to impose numerous tariffs on imports has sparked retaliation, particularly from top agricultural buyer China. Soybeans are among the hardest-hit, with prices down 15 percent since May 1.

The United States exported $138 billion in agriculture products in 2017, including $21.5 billion in soybeans, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Farmers say they are growing impatient as harvest season approaches. Trump is more popular in the Farm Belt than in the nation overall, but his support there has dipped from 59 percent approval in mid-June to 52 percent in early August, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Trump won Iowa by 10 percentage points in 2016 after Obama carried the state twice.

“The anxiety is starting to escalate,” said Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, a Republican locked in a tight race with Democrat Fred Hubbell. “They are willing to give him some more time, but the window is closing and they have to see some movement somewhere to alleviate the pressure.”

Bachman said he is a registered Republican, but has not decided whether to vote for Reynolds in November, saying he will pull the lever for whoever will best protect the state’s agricultural industry.

He said the tariffs on imported metals have increased the costs for farming equipment, but that he had saved money for a down cycle. But his wife, Linda Bachman, who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, said her husband is too proud to acknowledge the burden on their family, including their son, who is just starting out as a farmer.

“He’s stressed out. I see it every day, and we are worried about our son,” she said.

Democrats are hoping to pick up two congressional seats in Iowa as part of their quest to win the US House of Representatives; they need to win a net 23 seats to regain control of the 435-seat chamber.

“The president is using Iowa farmers and its families as poker chips in a trade war,” said Abby Finkenauer, a 29-year-old Democrat running against Republican incumbent Rod Blum in a race for a House seat in eastern Iowa that forecasters rate a toss-up.

Blum, 63, has been a staunch Trump supporter in a region that generally leans to Democrats in presidential elections, but which flipped to Trump in 2016. Last month in Iowa, Blum publicly thanked Trump for his trade stance.

“You’ve taken some heat for it in the short-term, but in the long run, the farmers, the manufacturers, the employers are all going to be better off,” said Blum, who did not respond to interview requests. The administration last month announced $12 billion in aid for farmers hurt by tariffs.

Finkenauer, however, said the state needs someone to stand up to the president, not pat him on the back. — Reuters


August 17, 2018
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