Every day brings fresh horrors from the Trump administration, and nothing comforts like the knowledge that Donald Trump’s supporters are paying the price. In my Jan. 26 article, “Nebraska went big for Trump—and that may kill its economy,” I warned that Nebraska’s reliance on federal programs and its immigrant labor force made it uniquely vulnerable under Trump’s policies.
Turns out, I was right. A quarter later, Nebraska’s gross domestic product has shrunken more than 6% in early 2025, tying it with equally Trumpy Iowa for the worst drop in the nation. That statistic hit the headlines over a month ago, but what’s new is that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins just had to face Nebraskans living through the fallout.
Farmers’ grievances were exactly what you’d expect: Their farms were short-staffed thanks to immigration raids, tariffs raised costs and shrank export markets, and pricing controls made it harder to sell crops.
The state’s all-Republican congressional delegation had a familiar solution: more federal dollars to bail out the same pull-themselves-up-by-their-bootstraps crowd that spent years railing against “socialism.” As Sen. Deb Fischer explained, “There’s a lot of risk involved in agriculture. … You can’t control the weather. … That’s why these safety nets are so important.”
Remember when “safety nets” were supposed to be a communist, socialist thing?
Rep. Don Bacon, who will retire soon and give Democrats a prime pickup opportunity in the House, had his own fix: Expand government mandates for biofuels.
“It’s the only way you’re going to move enough corn and soybeans,” he said. “Otherwise you’re going to have a depression.”
If there were a viable market case for ethanol without mandates, it would already exist.
Instead, Trump’s policies may be steering Nebraska straight into a depression. Farm bankruptcies are spiking—259 filings in just the first quarter, surpassing all of last year, according to Ryan Loy, an agricultural economist at the University of Arkansas. He says the financial pressures farmers face now mirror those from 2018 and 2019.
And who was president in 2018 and 2019? Exactly.
Imagine voting for economic devastation—and getting exactly that.