DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan 27 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Iowa on Tuesday, seeking to shore up support in a Midwestern political battleground as an escalating confrontation over immigration policing in neighboring Minnesota threatens to drown out his economic message.
The Republican president, reeling from sagging support for his economic and immigration policies, will seek to rally his stalwart rural supporters in a state that hosts key congressional races in November. Mounting stress in the farm economy and delays in biofuel policy are testing the patience of farmers and renewable-fuel producers.
With the Republican president under pressure to convince voters he is bringing costs down, the White House is also embroiled in a crisis in neighboring Minnesota over aggressive immigration enforcement policies.
On Saturday, federal immigration agents shot and killed 37-year-old U.S. citizen Alex Pretti during a protest in Minneapolis, sparking widespread demonstrations and calls for independent investigations.
Pretti was the second American to be fatally shot by federal immigration officers this month in Minneapolis, where Trump has deployed thousands of armed and masked agents.
In largely rural Iowa, concerns about affordability are mixed with growing anxiety over weak crop prices and high costs for fertilizers, farm equipment and other inputs. These worries, along with uncertainty about Trump’s policies on biofuels and trade with China, threaten to erode his support across the U.S. farm belt.
Iowa is the nation’s largest producer of corn, hogs and ethanol.
A VISIT TO THE RURAL HEARTLAND
Trump won Iowa in each of the last three presidential elections. Some of the rural voters who were his most loyal supporters are now struggling to make ends meet.
Lance Lillibridge, a 56-year-old corn and cattle farmer, said he plans to make the two-hour drive from his farm in Vinton to the Des Moines area to see Trump. Like many farmers, he said he has been hit hard by the trade war with China and rising costs of seeds and fertilizer, and he hopes the administration will pursue another multibillion-dollar farm bailout.
“There’s going to have to be something because right now everything’s just terrible. I’ve never been so cash poor in my entire life,” Lillibridge said, describing himself as a Trump supporter “for the most part.”
Trump is expected to emphasize his administration’s support for agriculture and renewable fuels, while casting his broader economic agenda as a push to make food, fuel and household goods more affordable, according to administration officials.
Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois, said that while Trump’s trade policies have hurt crop farmers, the administration has eased regulations and kept fuel prices lower to maintain support.
“I think as long as Trump and a Republican Congress are willing to backfill a significant amount of crop losses with special programs, his support will remain solid,” Irwin said.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Sunday showed that 30% of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the rising cost of living, while 59% disapproved, including nine in 10 Democrats and one in five Republicans.
Trump’s Republicans are defending narrow congressional majorities in November’s midterm elections, when incumbent presidents’ parties typically lose seats.
Iowa will host two highly competitive races for the U.S. House of Representatives seats held by Republican Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks, in a district southeast of Des Moines, and Zach Nunn, whose district includes Des Moines and stretches south. Nonpartisan election analysts see the U.S. Senate seat there as likely to remain in Republican hands even though Republican U.S. Senator Joni Ernst decided not to seek reelection.
DIFFICULTY IN THE U.S. FARM BUSINESS
Strain in the U.S. farm economy has been mushrooming, from unsold tractors to agribusiness companies reporting shrinking earnings. Abundant grain supplies have weighed on markets, while production costs remain high, leaving crop prices weak for a third straight year.
Also stressing farmers, the administration has delayed final biofuel-blending quotas for 2026. The quotas are known as renewable volume obligations, or RVOs.
It has also not finalized tax guidance for renewable-fuel credits known as 45Z, and efforts have stalled on a long-standing priority for corn growers: securing congressional approval for year-round sales of gasoline blended with 15% ethanol.
Those delays have hit Iowa’s biodiesel industry particularly hard. Iowa’s biodiesel plants produced 244 million gallons in 2025, down 31% from 2024, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association said. At full capacity, the state’s plants can produce more than 400 million gallons a year.
“2025 was a real gut punch for biodiesel everywhere, and Iowa was no exception,” said Monte Shaw, executive director of the association. “Lack of tax policy coupled with low biofuel quotas sent producers into a tailspin. We have plants trying to hang on by their fingertips waiting for clarity from Washington.”
(Reporting by Kevin Lamarque in Iowa, Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, Karl Plume in Chicago and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Colleen Jenkins, Ethan Smith and David Gregorio)
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