On Nebraska's frozen plains, farmers count the costs of backing Trump

The rural communities that voted for the president in droves are facing their worst economic crisis in 40 years - caused in large part by the tariff policies they supported.

- Hugh Tomlinson

Donald Trump announces his $12bn bailout for struggling US farmers last week.

"There's always cycles in agriculture, right?" Bart Ruth said as his truck bounced down a gravel road between flat fields of corn and rye stubble, part covered in snow. “But there haven't been too many that were self-inflicted.”

He surveyed the land that has been in the family since the 1870s, a freezing wind slicing across the open plain. “If we're not in a recession already, it’s certainly headed that way,” added Ruth, 66. “It’s been a rough, rough year. I don’t think there’s anyone in the farming community that’s optimistic going into 2026.”

Across the US this year, farmers have seen costs soar and the price of their produce tumble as Donald Trump's flagship tariffs sparked a trade war with China.

Ruth’s home state of Nebraska, one of the largest producers of corn and soybeans in America, has been among the hardest hit as Beijing turned to Argentina and Brazil in retaliation for Trump's swingeing tariffs on Chinese imports.

American farmers, who voted en masse for Trump last year, are now warning of the worst economic crisis since the 1980s, when soaring interest rates and a slump in exports saw the price of crops and the value of farm land collapse. About 300,000 farmers defaulted on their loans and thousands were driven into bankruptcy.

In the office at his farm in Rising City, a village in eastern Nebraska, Ruth has a photo of himself and his wife with President George W Bush at a White House Christmas party in 2001, a memento of his years as president of the American Soybean Association. Ruth travelled to China many times to foster ties with local importers.

“We spent a hell lot of time in China building relationships, building those markets,” he said. “And then you basically piss it all away, to be blunt.”