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Last November, rural voters delivered one of Trump’s strongest performances yet. In farming-dependent counties, he carried an average of 78 percent of the vote. Many farmers saw him as a champion—someone who understood their struggles and would fight for their livelihoods. However, thousands of those same voters are now discovering that the promises made to protect them are giving way to policies that threaten their way of life.
From frozen USDA contracts to chaotic funding rollouts, mass firings, and growing instability in the agricultural system, the disconnect between rhetoric and reality is leaving many small farmers feeling abandoned. In farming, you can’t press pause. Lost seasons mean lost livelihoods.
Contracts Broken, Futures Shaken
One example of the disconnect between Trump and his voters can be seen in Missouri cattle farmer Skylar Holden. He voted for Trump and secured a $240,000 contract through the USDA to improve infrastructure on his farm. Acting on assurances of guaranteed funding, he spent $80,000 on materials and labor. Then the administration froze the funds.Holden’s story isn’t isolated. Farmers across at least 10 states have contacted their congressional representatives seeking help, only to receive silence—or even support for the freeze. These are voters who believed they were backing a pro-farmer candidate, only to find themselves in financial limbo just as planting and birthing season begins.
A Chaotic USDA and Its Ripple Effects
While contracts are on hold, the USDA itself is unraveling under a wave of 4,200 probationary layoffs, including agricultural scientists and workers vital to protecting crops and livestock from threats such as pests, pathogens, and shifting weather patterns.Even more alarming, NPR reports that the USDA accidentally fired employees working on the government’s avian flu response before scrambling to rehire them. At a time when global food security faces growing risks from climate volatility and disease outbreaks, these gaps threaten not just individual farms but the entire system that feeds the country.
Promises of Support Collide With Reality
Trump campaigned on protecting America’s farmers, but the administration’s actions tell a different story. Contract freezes, funding delays, and the dismantling of climate-focused USDA resources leave small farms especially vulnerable.These aren’t faceless agribusinesses. They are American families operating on razor-thin margins, already juggling rising equipment costs, unpredictable weather, and volatile markets. When funding doesn’t arrive on time, many risk losing an entire year’s yield. In agriculture, missed seasons can be impossible to recover from.
For rural communities where farming underpins local economies, the impact reverberates outward: fewer hires, stalled infrastructure, and declining stability. What was meant to be protection has instead become paralysis.
An Unprepared System in a Warming World
Experts have long warned that U.S. agriculture is underprepared for a changing climate and escalating biosecurity threats. Cutting programs and silencing climate resources doesn’t just leave farmers without guidance—it sets them up to fail.The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York recently sued the USDA for removing climate-change resources that help farmers adapt to shifting weather patterns and safeguard crops. Without access to reliable information and support, small farms face mounting uncertainty just as environmental risks accelerate.
Loyalty Meets Disillusionment
For many rural voters, supporting Trump was about securing a future for their families and their land. But for farmers like Holden and thousands more, trust is eroding as policies undermine the very livelihoods they were promised would be protected.What once felt like a partnership now feels like abandonment. When contracts are frozen, scientists are fired, and safeguards are stripped away, even the most loyal voters are left wondering where they stand.
If you believed promises that your work, your land, and your way of life would be defended, and now face uncertainty, you are not alone. Sharing these stories matters. By speaking out, rural communities can make visible the real costs of broken promises—share yours here.
About Snark Knight LLC
Snark Knight LLC exists as a journalistic project to tell hard truths with courage, wit, and clarity. Through projects like Trump Betrayed Me and Moral Cowardice, we document stories of betrayal, expose failures of leadership, and celebrate acts of moral courage. Our belief is simple: truth matters, cowardice corrodes, and stories can still spark change.
👉 Read the original reporting and documentation here.