Economy Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show · Burt Cohen

Trump’s “Farms First” Now Beginning to Revolt

February 23, 2026·59 min·1 clip

$12 billion for all these American farmers and $40 billion for Argentina. What? That's three and a half times.

Farm country is not fixed. The episode pushes back on the lazy idea that the heartland has always been ruby red Trump country. There is older political memory here, and the old Farmers first appeal becomes a useful test: does the promise still match what farmers say they are living through? The host starts with that history. Walter Mondale, George McGovern, and Sherrod Brown come up as reminders that liberal Democrats once had real support in farm communities. Then 1980 becomes the turn. Ronald Reagan's election is treated as the moment farmers swung right, even though life on the Great Plains kept getting harder. From there, the guest gets blunt about the business model. Commodity farming is a world of huge contracts, expensive equipment, and debt that keeps pushing farms to grow or get swallowed. A farmer can sell millions of dollars' worth of product and still fall behind because the machinery needed to compete keeps getting more expensive. That is not some abstract market story. It is day to day pressure. Contract farming sounds even rougher. Chicken, turkey, hog, and sometimes beef cattle producers are described as taking on the liability while companies set the facilities, feed, standards, and prices. The guest's comparison is harsh: almost like serfdom, because a farmer can end up tied to one buyer with nowhere else to go. The power squeeze comes from both sides. Companies sell farmers what they have to use, then come back as the buyers pressing down what farmers get paid. The episode calls the setup ridiculous and unfair because debt without bargaining power leaves farmers stuck. The close points listeners toward Ruby as a place to reach out, trade ideas, and connect with people trying to repair America.

As heard by us

A blunt look at how farm-country loyalty can crack under debt, contracts, and bad bargains.

It makes a plain case that farm country is not one fixed political tribe, and it does so by moving through history instead of leaning on a slogan.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want to hear why Trump's farm base may not be as steady as it looks, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Economy Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show