Rural America needs to turn its back on the "City Slicker in Chief"

In only 12 weeks, he has set the stage for an all-out assault on farmers, ranchers, rural healthcare providers, and public schools in Missouri and across the country. -Will Westmoreland

In rural America, we can see with our own eyes, and it’s become blindingly obvious that Donald Trump is not our friend.

Every other day under this administration we have been threatened with tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China that will make it impossible for many small farmers to buy fertilizer for the coming season. Those who do manage to produce something this season may find retaliatory tariffs on their chicken, wheat, corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, seafood, fruit, vegetables and dairy products. With the resulting supply line chaos, that means that a small farmer in Missouri is paying higher costs to ship more expensive fertilizer to his farm, and then paying higher costs to sell his produce in a market with lower demand.

This session, Republicans in Congress authorized a budget resolution that will slash Medicaid and Social Security benefits. In 40 states, Medicaid enrollment in rural counties was similar to or higher than in urban counties. In Missouri, these cuts would put 41% of rural children at risk of losing their medical coverage, and increases the likelihood that over one-third of rural Missouri hospitals will have to close their doors. Not only do 24% of Missouri residents rely on these hospitals for medical services, these are reliable, well-paying jobs that are lost from these struggling communities.

And not least of all, the newly confirmed Secretary of Education has been tasked with dismantling the department altogether. The Department is tasked with protecting public education for all children, especially those from disadvantaged places like rural counties which may lack the funding to provide Early Childhood education, access and services for children with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities, and programs like free lunches which increase academic achievement and mitigate behavioral issues. Anyone paying attention can see they are nakedly paving the way to steal money for public schools and funnel them to private schools in the cities where they can make a profit.

Taken together, these actions and more amount to the greatest assault on rural independence wellbeing in generations. And what is Donald Trump’s attitude? When announcing tariffs on $175 billion worth of agricultural exports, he tweeted, “Have fun!”.

Well, this isn’t a game. Rural Americans, 30% of whom did not vote for this chaos, cannot afford to sit back and take it on the chin. It’s not our way. We are demanding answers from our representatives in Congress, those who will speak with us, and we’re making enough noise that those who won’t have to listen anyway. At places like The Back Forty (www.thebackfortyofficial.com), rural voices are organizing and building community not only around resistance, but on durable representation for the future so that when we get through this latest assault, we can build our defenses back stronger than before and bring the rest of America to the farm table with us.

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^[1]https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2025/01/15/report-warns-potential-medicaid-cuts-would-harm-rural-patients-communities/

^[2]https://www.kttn.com/rural-missouri-faces-challenges-from-potential-medicaid-funding-cuts/

^[3]https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/one-third-of-missouris-rural-hospitals-at-risk-of-closure-new-data-shows/

^[4]https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/trumps-federal-funding-freeze-was-blocked-but-confusion-among-schools-remains/2025/01