President Donald Trump hosted a roundtable discussion on American agriculture in Chippewa County, Wisconsin, on June 5 celebrating policy achievements and strategies to strengthen farmers and ranchers.
“You all built this country, not the complainers, not the wise guys,” Trump said. “Today, we’re celebrating the historic strides for some of the most loyal, hardworking patriots anywhere in the nation, and they’re really called our American farmers.”
He noted challenges facing agriculture producers managing supply chain issues and said rising prices were “artificial,” caused by energy and fertilizer shortages.
“It’s going to come down to where it was, or lower,“ Trump said. ”You’ll be very happy.”
He told those in the crowd that within 90 days, they will be “better [off] than ... four months ago.”
The president spoke while seated at a table situated in front of green John Deere tractors and a large banner that read “Fighting for American Farmers.”
“We’re now making [America] greater than ever before,” Trump said.
Talks focused on achievements and efforts to expand exports to new markets, lower input costs, reduce regulations, and strengthen tax incentives. Other policy advancements for farmers mentioned included doubling estate tax exemptions, rescinding electric vehicle mandates, permitting equipment tax deductions in one year, developing rural opportunity zones, and eliminating some taxes on rural property loan interest, among others.
Wisconsin’s more than 5,000 dairy cow herds, which make up “America’s Dairyland,” increased exports by about $1.2 billion since Trump took office last year, according to the president.
The crowd erupted in applause when Olympic speed skater Jordan Stolz placed one of the gold medals that he won earlier this year around Trump’s neck, and the president quickly quipped that he was not “giving it back.”
His visit to Custer Farms near Chippewa Falls was Trump’s first stop in the Badger State since he reclaimed the White House.
“We American farmers risk a lot and count on God’s blessing, and our forefathers in this country understood that ... what makes us great is God’s blessing,” the owner of the operation, Ken Custer, said during the event.
“We can compete with anybody in the world. We need fair trade.”
Roundtable attendees included Custer, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), along with other local farmers and stakeholders.
Van Orden emphasized millions of dollars in federal investment in the state for healthcare and coal operations.
Rollins highlighted 19 new trade deals signed over the past year that will benefit the U.S. agriculture industry.
“We are going to break every record for dairy, for tree nuts, for corn, for ethanol, as we move the American farmers’ products, the best in the world, back out to the rest of the world,” she said.
Pro football Hall of Famer Joe Thomas, a Wisconsin native, beef producer, and owner of Hall of Fame Farms, sat next to the president.
Thomas celebrated the administration’s small processors action plan, saying that it will benefit people such as him who “are trying to raise farm-to-table beef, Wagyu and Angus, and be able to feed [the] community.”
Gubernatorial candidate Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) thanked Trump for allowing whole milk back in schools and for protecting farmland.
Supporters packed the farm, with hundreds of people arriving hours before the doors opened in hopes of attending the event.
Critics organized protests near the airport where Air Force One arrived and on the streets near the site where Trump spoke.
Known as a key battleground state, Wisconsin voters supported Trump in 2016 and 2024.
“We won in a landslide, and I just want to thank you for your support,” the president said.
