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Farmers have long been key to President Trump's base, but some of Trump's actions, like tariffs and the Iran war, have made their jobs harder. Now the White House is talking up a proposal they say will benefit both Iran and U.S. farmers, but much remains unclear. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reports.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: This week, Vice President JD Vance introduced a new possibility in the Iran negotiations - a plan to help farmers that he said was conceptualized by Jared Kushner.
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JD VANCE: Fundamentally, what Jared and the Qataris and the entire team here in Burgenstock accomplished is, to me, a classic Trump deal where if Iranian assets are ever unfrozen, they're going to go to make American farmers richer and to feed the Iranian people.
KURTZLEBEN: The idea is that the U.S. and Qatar would only allow those assets to be used to buy things such as American corn, soy and wheat. However, it was unclear how firm the proposal was. Not only that, but Iranian officials told reporters that they - and only they - would control their assets. Regardless, the idea gained momentum within the administration. Soon, Trump touted it on social media, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also promoted it in a CNBC interview.
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SCOTT BESSENT: U.S. Treasury will have people sitting in Doha overseeing how the money is allocated. And a very large percent of it will go to buy U.S. foodstuffs and medicines.
KURTZLEBEN: It all seems to be part of a push to lavish attention on farmers. Earlier this month, Trump went to Wisconsin for a farmer roundtable. Tonight, he's bringing farmers to the White House for a Rose Garden dinner. The White House also this week requested an additional $11 billion in farm aid from Congress, which makes sense given how rough Trump's policies have been on farmers. Whit Ayres is a longtime Republican pollster.
WHIT AYRES: They're feeling really cross-pressured now because so many of the president's policies have created real economic hardship for them.
KURTZLEBEN: The war in Iran, for example, made fertilizer more costly, and it also made diesel more expensive right during spring planting. And the president's trade wars have caused potentially lasting damage to the U.S. soybean market. Polls show that people in farm country have lost confidence in the president. One month into this term, rural voters' net approval of Trump was at plus 22 percentage points in the NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. This month, it was at negative 10 points.
That could rebound some, says Ayres, if farmers' circumstances improve - for example, if diesel prices continue to fall. And if Iran did agree to buy U.S. crops, that would mean a new market for American farmers, albeit not a massive one like, say, China. Even so, beyond Iran's current protestations, there are other hurdles here, like the U.S. muscling out its ag competition. Joseph Glauber is a former USDA chief economist.
JOSEPH GLAUBER: Many of the countries that are now supplying Iran food are also allies of ours. So it's a little unclear how all this works.
KURTZLEBEN: The White House did not provide NPR with any additional proposal details. If Iran doesn't agree to this, farmers won't give the administration credit for simply trying or talking about a new policy, according to Ayres.
AYRES: Promises of things that might happen in the future if things all go our way and the Iranians decide to buy a bunch of agricultural products, even though they say they're not going to do so - that's just like smoke and mirrors.
KURTZLEBEN: It's very true that many farmers supported Trump for reasons beyond their balance sheets, says Ayres.
AYRES: A lot of the attraction of farmers to Trump was cultural as well as economic, and that hasn't gone away.
KURTZLEBEN: But, he added, persistent economic problems can make it harder to keep supporting Trump. And even if those farmers aren't willing to vote for Democrats, some may just decide to stay home this November. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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