Viewpoint: The farm economy in the U.S. is cratering. Here’s why farmers are unlikely to abandon Trumpononics

Fall is here, the harvest is coming in, but President Donald Trump’s trade war rages on and China won’t buy American farmers’ soybeans. That’s assuming that big farms can even find the labor to bring in their crops, which has been harder in the wake of Trump’s immigration raids ….

Online, pundits and commentators have seemed confused about why farmers overwhelmingly voted for Trump in the first place, treating it as another example of the working class voting against their interests.

But here’s the thing: Farmers aren’t working class. They’re often quite rich, actually. And they knew exactly what they were voting for.

Families with commercial farms—that is to say those who make above $350,000 a year and who may actually earn enough through operating their dairies, wineries, or growing what they grow to support their families—had a median wealth of $3.6 million in 2023, according to the USDA.

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Those are the exceptions. But the average farm overall still had $1,439,138 in wealth.

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