In Trump-Friendly Iowa, the President's Policies Have Hit Hard

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

In Trump-Friendly Iowa, the President’s Policies Have Hit Hard - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/us/politics/iowa-trump-economy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wU8.IjBM.xt0S9h2HxA7G&smid=url-share

For Iowans, losing China’s soybean market in the president’s trade war was only one of many economic shocks that have hit the state since the start of Mr. Trump’s second term. The cost of tractors and fertilizers have shot up with his tariffs. Labor has grown scarcer in agribusinesses. Major manufacturers have laid off workers. Even the ubiquitous wind turbines that provide income for some Iowa farmers are in the president’s sights.

“Right now, we’re fighting different economic wars all at once,” said Summer Ory, 37, the wife of Mr. Ory’s grandson, Dan. The couple works in the family’s farm business. “You can sustain it one at a time, but right now it’s death by a thousand paper cuts.”


Since siding with Barack Obama twice, Iowa has become a stronghold for Mr. Trump. Yet perhaps no state has struggled more with his economic policies. During the first quarter of 2025, Iowa’s gross domestic product dropped by 6.1 percent, more than any other state aside from neighboring Nebraska.

Manufacturing, which drives 17 percent of Iowa’s economic output, has been hit with higher production costs in part because of steep tariffs on inputs like aluminum and steel. Meatpacking plants, which help make Iowa the nation’s leading pork producer, rely heavily on foreign-born workers, hundreds of thousands of whom saw their legal status stripped away by the president. Mr. Trump’s war on renewable energy also threatens the wind industry that produces more than half of Iowa’s electricity.

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Next year’s midterm elections could indicate how Iowans feel about those policies. At least two competitive House districts will be up for a vote. The state will also choose a replacement for its retiring governor, Kim Reynolds, and a retiring senator, Joni Ernst. All those posts are held by Republicans.

[Blues Heron]

1. Some people learn the hard way- the dumb ones, the ones that lack imagination, foresight, the racist ones

The emotional ones, the ones that hate others, the easily manipulated ones, all of them are learning the hard way about thug trump and his malevolent ways. It’s fucking sad to see so many completely damaged minds out there.

[paleotn]

2. In his first term, he blew up their trade relationships that had taken decades to build.

And they thought this time it would be different? "But we can't vote for the Black woman. Ewwww!"

Of all groups of humans, I think Americans are the dumbest. At least 20's and 30's Germans could point out their country had literally gone to hell. But Americans? Not so much. Idiots. Just idiots. That's all I can figure.

[comradebillyboy]

3. This is what they voted for. How sad for them.

[nycbos]

4. I'm checking to see if I care.

The answer is no.

[QueerDuck]

5. What a damn shame.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

6. Farmers are reaping the bullshit Old McDonald Trump sewed.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

7. Iowa's state motto is

"Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain"

I guess they can now append "even if we starve to death in the process."

[mwmisses4289]

8. Serves them right.

[Raftergirl]

9. And they will continue voting R because you can't teach stupid.