Trump tells Wisconsin farmers fertilizer prices will go way down

Trump came to Chippewa Falls to reassure farmers already squeezed by fertilizer, diesel and fuel bills, and he asked them to trust that prices would soon fall. He told the roundtable that fertilizer, energy, oil and gas costs were going “way down,” even as Wisconsin growers were still absorbing the kind of shocks that have made spring planting more expensive and exports less predictable.

The stop on June 5 doubled as a political test in one of Wisconsin’s most competitive districts. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Derrick Van Orden joined Trump as he tried to rally rural voters who have generally backed him, even while higher costs have cut into farm margins. Trump said he hoped the Iran war would end quickly and said he was working with Congress on a massive farm bill that has passed the House but has not yet been taken up in the Senate.

He offered no detailed policy road map for how his administration would push down input prices. Instead, he leaned on broad promises, saying farmers would see “good things” as the White House worked through the fallout from tariffs and the tighter market for fuel and fertilizer. The pressure on those markets has been amplified by the Iran conflict and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping corridor for crude and fertilizer.

Democrats in Wisconsin have already been making that case to farmers directly. Sen. Tammy Baldwin visited two farms on May 26 and said growers were dealing with record-high diesel and fertilizer costs during spring planting. Her office said one-third of the world’s fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz, that fertilizer prices had risen 25% since attacks on the shipping lane and that diesel was up 75% over three months.

Trump’s Wisconsin appearance also veered into an unrelated showcase of Washington’s public spaces. He held up before-and-after images of the Columbus Circle fountain near Union Station and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying crews were improving 28 fountains, removing more than 10 dumpsters of garbage and aiming to finish by Independence Day. At a May 28 Cabinet meeting, he had already spent about 10 minutes on the same theme, including fountain repairs, power-washing a local pool and plans to extend the work to the World War II Memorial fountain.

The political question hanging over Chippewa Falls was simple: whether rural loyalty can outlast rising costs. For Republicans trying to hold Congress in the midterms, the answer may depend on whether Trump can turn promises of cheaper fertilizer and fuel into something farmers can actually feel at the farm gate.