Eric Euken, a seventh-generation farmer in western Iowa with 750 acres of corn and 600 acres of soybeans, said pigs and cattle are making up for what he is losing on corn and soybeans this year.
But, Euken said: “We don’t know what’s happening next from day to day.”
Euken, who said he voted for Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, but didn’t vote for Trump in 2020, said while he knew tariffs were coming, he “didn’t anticipate it being as bad as it is.”
“It is a tough situation right now with the lack of markets that we have, or places to market our crop,” Euken said. “And it’s kind of the government that put us in that situation. So I hate to pin it on the American taxpayer, but if they want us to survive, we are going to need some help.”
Still, he said, he isn’t sure Trump is willing to bail out farmers a second time — because to the term-limited Trump, he said, “it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“The last time when we had bailouts, it was to his benefit to bail us out for future votes,” Euken said. “Buying a future vote is not going to help him one bit.”
