President Trump Delivers Remarks to Farmers

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Well, thank you very much everybody. It's a great honor to have you at this beautiful house. It's a beautiful house. There's no other house like it. I've seen them all, believe me, and this one is tops. But I'm thrilled to welcome all of you to the South Lawn for the single largest gathering of American farmers that the White House has ever seen, has ever had. And rain or shine, and you don't mind rain, shine. The one thing about farmers, they don't care about that weather. They get out there, it makes no difference. But rain or shine, no one is more grit or greater spirit than the American farmer. We love the American farmer. I just gave you 12 billion dollars, I don't know if you know that or not. You make enough money, it doesn't matter to you, right? But we just provided 12 billion, right Brook? For the American farmer. You think Biden would have done that? No, he wouldn't have done it. We're delighted to be joined by Secretary of Agriculture who's doing a fantastic job, Brook Rollins. Brook, thank you very much. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Robert, Bobby. EPA administrator's doing such an incredible job, he's getting those costs down for you and he's always protecting the environment, but he does it quickly. A real superstar, Lee Zeldin. Thank you Lee, great job. And someone everyone loves, and they love in particular the job she's doing, Small Business Administrator, Kelly Loeffler. Kelly, thank you very much. Thanks as well to John Hoeven, Joni Ernst, Pete Ricketts, along with the chairman of the House Agricultural Committee, GT Thompson, and I'll tell you, they're fantastic people. They are warriors. And representatives Jim Baird, Randy Feenstra, Monica De La Cruz, Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach, Mark Messmer, Victoria Spartz, Frank Lucas, Tracy Mann, Zach Nunn, Adrian Smith, and Derek Van Orden. They're all out here, they want your votes desperately, desperately. They're only here for your vote, you know that. But they're here because actually they did a great job. Those were people that were the most, I would say, the most aggressive for the farmer, which is what we want. Other than me, they were right in there. I was, I was more aggressive than any of them. But also with us is the CEO of Tractor Supply, Hal Lawton, who will soon open the company's 2,500th store in honor of America's 250th. Hal, thank you very much, was great to meet you at the Oval Office two minutes ago. I also want to thank the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Zippy Duvall. I've known Zippy for a long time. Zippy's been with me right from the beginning, right Zippy? From day one he liked Trump. He said, 'Well, I don't know, but I just had a good meeting with him. I'm going to, I'm going to go with Trump,' right? That was in 2015. And very special thanks to the proud young parents of two beloved American institutions, Future Farmers of America and 4-H. Two great ones. For four disastrous years before I took office, Sleepy Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress crushed America's farmers with the worst inflation in the history of our country. Prices were going through the roof, so bad, it was so bad what they had done to our country. And by the way, in so many other ways too, borders and everything else. But they crippled the American agriculture industry with brutal restrictions and failed to negotiate even a single new trade deal on your behalf. Not one trade deal was negotiated on your behalf during the Biden administration. And we happen to be the exact opposite. We have so many trade deals, we don't know what the hell to do with them. We need more lawyers. But now the American farmers, ranchers, growers, and producers once again have a true friend and champion in the Oval Office. And in my first year back in the White House, farm income has soared by 20% very quickly. I repealed the Biden EPA's ridiculous water restrictions. You had water restrictions that gave you everything but water. And you needed a little water, they wouldn't give it. It was crazy. To keep federal bureaucrats off your land and out of your pockets, it's a big deal. With the help of Republicans in Congress, we passed the largest tax cuts in American history. Already 45% of filers have taken advantage of our new tax provisions with an average refund so far of almost 5,000 dollars, a record. In fact, we passed them and people are just starting to see how important they are. It's amazing what's happened. The numbers are, they're reporting that it's much more money than I thought. I call it the great big beautiful bill, is a great big beautiful bill, and it's especially in terms of your tax refund and your taxes, because it's the lowest tax we paid, it's the biggest tax reduction in the history of our country. It's also the biggest regulation reduction in the history of our country, which as farmers you know what that means, it means a lot of good things. We made the small business tax deduction permanent, benefiting 98% of America's farmers and ranchers. And thanks to bonus depreciation, farmers can now deduct 100% of the cost of new tractors and all equipment in the first year. In other words, you buy a tractor, you deduct the whole price. Normally it goes over a 38-year period, this is slightly better. You get these tiny little deductions that weren't even worth it, now you can do it at one time. Only Trump could have gotten you that one, that was a big thing. And in the first term, you know, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. In the first term, we are blowing them away right now. And by the way, we're doing really well in Iran, just so you understand. You know, I mean, how good is our military? How good is our military? Very importantly, we saved 2 million American farms from extinction by virtually ending the unfair estate tax. We've ended the estate tax or as they call it, the death tax, and you can now keep your family farms in the family. We had a problem... see, these are all people that are clapping that love their children. If they didn't love their children, they wouldn't care about what I just said. But most of you, does anybody not love your child? Because that would be the one person that wouldn't have clapped the other way. No, it was a big thing. I would see farmers and they pass away, they love their life, they love their... it's something about a farmer maybe more than anybody else, they love that, they love the soil, and they love their farms, and they'd pass away and they'd have wonderful children and the children would get hit with this massive tax bill for the value of the farm. Sometimes the farm is very valuable, but the cash isn't so readily available. And they'd go out to a bank and they'd borrow money and they'd borrow and borrow and borrow to pay the tax. They'd be working for 20 years to pay it off, and if they had a bad season, they'd lose their farm. We lost it many, many times. And you'd have actually many, many suicides over it. They would actually commit suicide because they couldn't stand the concept of losing their family farm. And I ended the death tax or the estate tax on family farms and small businesses, so I think you're appreciative of that. It was a terrible thing. It's too bad that so many people in the past couldn't have taken advantage of it, because it would have, would have made a lot of happy people out of people that really have had a miserable life when they lose their farm, they're never the same, they're never the same. And I hope our farmers never forget that every single Democrat in Congress voted against all of the provisions I just mentioned, including the estate tax. And Republicans very... all of these Republicans have stood strong and fought hard and gotten it. But the Democrats voted against every single provision that I just mentioned, including the tax reductions and including frankly the estate tax. But we delivered. The Republicans delivered for the farmers and it was not easy because the opposition to farmers by Democrats is very strong. Thanks to our trade deals, you're now sending over 40 billion dollars in American soybeans to China. I want to thank President Xi of China because we had a deal at 20 and I said, 'Could you do me a favor? It's a big place. Could you double it?' And he said, 'What are you talking about?' I said, 'Could you make it 40 instead of 20?' And he overrode all of his people, he said, 'All right, I'll do it.' And you got 40 instead of 20. So now you go out and buy bigger tractors, what can I tell you? Remember when that was announced? Everybody was surprised. Everybody thought it was going to be 20. He was very good. But the American soybeans are now being shipped to China in record amounts and we expanded markets for American beef, dairy products, biofuels across Asia, Europe, South America like we've never had before. Our farmers and agricultural producers do not want handouts. They really don't. The farmers come to my office a lot and they never want... 'Sir, please just give us a level playing field.' Others want more than that, they want everything. The farmers want a level playing field and it's... I talk about it all the time, that's all they want, because you were, you were just the first last four years, four years before this one, before our great first year, we had records in so many categories. But during the past administration, you were treated really badly and you were treated badly by the world because you had nobody that cared about defending you. But you want that fair shot and a level playing field and I'm giving that to you and I think I'm actually giving you much better than a level playing field. I'm giving you a field that goes like this, makes it a lot easier for you, the things that we've done. And to further help farmers recovering from the Biden catastrophe, we use money taken from tariffs. The tariffs, we've taken in hundreds of billions of dollars from the tariffs and as I said, we gave you 12 billion dollars in farm relief and that happened just recently because you were hurt by certain countries unfairly. And I said you were unfairly hurt and we gave you 12 billion dollars and that, that made up for it. I'm also asking Congress to quickly pass the new farm bill and today I'm promising to request additional farm relief for our great patriots in the next funding bill. So we have you taken care of in both instances and we're pushing very hard for the new farm bill. The Democrats fight us, I don't know what's... the Democrats fight us on farm bills and they always have. They are not your natural politician. Any farmer that votes for a Democrat is crazy. They are brutal on the farmer. One of the Americans benefiting from our policies and new market access is Joel Viereck, a fourth-generation farmer from Woolwich Township, New Jersey. Joel, he really has a great story to tell. Please, Joel, come up and tell that story.

I just want to say thank you Mr. President for the opportunity to speak today and for having this event and inviting us all here. Uh, yeah, I'm a vegetable farmer from Woolwich Township, New Jersey. We farm a few hundred acres where we specialize in Jersey Fresh tomatoes. Uh, I do that along with my family. Um, also I just, I guess most importantly today as you spoke about the farm bill, I just urge Congress to pass the farm bill. It's vital to everything that we do. Everything from financing to crop insurance and it's vital to the USDA and the farm credit system. Um, also just we appreciate the bridge payments, uh, your policy on trade, everything, it's, it's going to help strengthen what we do. So I just want to thank you again for just everything you're doing to make America great again.

You know, while I'm up here, I'm looking around, I love construction. You see all those nice Caterpillars and John Deeres? We have a lot of John Deeres. That's a big, that's a big dig and we're building a ballroom. For 150 years, they haven't... they've wanted it. Every president said, 'Could we have a ballroom, please? A room where you can have a lot of people?' So when the president of China, France, when someone comes over from the UK including the king, we have the king coming over very shortly and King Charles, so we can have like a large room because the White House is incredible but it was never had a ballroom. And we're building, that'll be the finest ballroom anywhere in the world when it's completed and I'm just looking at the construction. In fact, if you don't mind, I'll walk over there and look for a little while, then I'll come back and I'll continue to speak. I love construction, I love building beautiful things. But you're going to have something very, really tremendously and thank you Joel and every day we are looking for new ways to support our farmers, reduce your costs and to help lower the price of food for the American family. Last month we issued a major new rule declaring that farmers have a right to repair your own equipment. Can you believe that one? And your action, that action will save the typical farmer up to 30,000 dollars on major repairs. I mean I heard about this. I said, 'You gotta be kidding, you don't have the right to fix... these guys can fix anything.' But you didn't have the right to fix your own equipment. We ended that rather quickly. And now you do. And I did another thing and I'll, I'll explain it in a second because we had a ridiculous Washington restriction called the so-called diesel exhaust fluid requirement. You know about that? It was a basic disaster. Today we're announcing new guidelines drastically limiting these ridiculous DEF rules, saving farmers and consumers billions and billions of dollars. And when I was in Iowa recently, I met a man who was the chairman of John Deere, great company. And I asked him, I said, 'Could I ask you a question? Uh, we cut a lot of the restrictions, almost all of them on cars. What have we done for tractors and trucks and different things that you use on the farm?' He said, 'Sir, they never got to us, they never did that.' I said, 'Well we're going to have to...' that was about two months ago. We've worked very hard and Lee is working on that. It's a top prior... I told him, Lee Zeldin, a top priority. So when you buy a tractor today, you spend 50% of your time fixing the environmental impact statement garbage that's on the tractor. In fact, I buy a lot of things having to do with farm equipment where I own clubs and other things. And I used to... I said, 'Give me 10-year-old equipment. Do you have any 10-year-old equipment that's hasn't been used yet?' And whenever they had it, I would buy it because it was much better than the new stuff which has so much environmental nonsense on it that it ends up costing thousands of dollars more to produce and it doesn't work well. Too complicated. And then you'll get somebody that is a farmworker and he's looking at heavy computerized environmental equipment and you have where the tractor will turn off if the environmental equipment isn't working, it was an automatic turn-off. It did absolutely nothing for the environment. It cost you six, seven, eight thousand dollars a machine. And to save fuel, many of you working over massive deposits of fuel, to save a quarter of a glass of fuel, this much, just a little bit, they'll have two extra computers in it that never worked. And I said to the head of John Deere, 'Is this a good thing or a bad thing?' He said, 'Sir, you have no idea how bad it is. It's made our tractors so complicated. You have to... you need a major degree from MIT in order to turn on a tractor.' We want to go back to the old way, sir. And I said, 'I agree with you 100%.' And we are working very hard and very quickly to get rid of the horrible chains placed on tractor suppliers. That's a beautiful tractor, that's a gold tractor. Somebody had me in mind. What's that all about? That's a hell of a tractor. I'm looking at this... that's a good one too, red white and blue. But somebody really hit me with that one. That's beautiful, wow. But so we are going to be, Lee I think we can say, I know you're in the process, cutting out massive amounts of nonsense that are mandated to be put on your tractors and all of your trucks that cost you a fortune. And I know that they're going to do this and I asked him, 'You got to promise me one thing, you're not going to take it in profits, you're going to lower the cost of a tractor. I want you to lower the cost.' And if they don't lower the cost, you'll let me know and I'll have to do a big number on those companies, okay? Because they're going to be able to very shortly produce a bigger better tractor at substantially less money. It's going to be better, it's going to be a better tractor at substantially less money. It's going to be more reliable. It's not going to be turning off every 15 seconds because a computer went haywire that you don't need. You're going to have a better tractor for less money, but I want John Deere and Case and all of... they're great companies, Caterpillar. I want all of them, got a lot of Caterpillars in there all over the place. I look forward to seeing them later. But I want these companies to give it to you in the form of lower tractor and equipment costs. And I think it's going to have a huge impact. And Lee, when you do this, um, I really want you to mandate to the companies to sell the equipment cheaper, not to get the same price and make a spread of could be six or seven thousand dollars a machine. So we'll work on that together, okay? Thank you very much everybody. I think that's going to be a great thing, we're working on it very hard. So Americans love our farmers and to make it easier for consumers to choose products raised by ranchers like Michael, we recently announced a brand new food label. It's Product of the USA, I love that, Product of the USA. We have another one called Made in the USA, that's better for a car. I like USA product for the USA. I hadn't heard that, but it's good. They want the USA product. When Americans see those words in grocery stores, they'll know that it was raised, harvested and processed by the greatest farmers and ranchers anywhere in the face of the earth. You are the greatest, and nobody even close. Just like we have the greatest military, we have the greatest most powerful military in the world by far. We have the greatest farmers also. Thanks and thanks to your hard work and incredible productivity, we're slashing the prices of key staples for American families. The cost of cheese, butter, potatoes and fruit, many many other products is lower today than when I took office. Eggs are down as an example, 60% from when I took office. And we have others coming down and beef is starting to come down. Beef was... was an amazing thing. I was told by Brook, I said 'I don't really believe it.' They wanted to have less cattle in the country for environmental reasons. You know what I'm saying? Do you know what that means? Can you believe? Who would think of this? These are sick people. No, they want less cattle for environmental reasons. It has something to do with gas permeating throughout the air. And we actually, and that's what happened and these, the number of cattle was way down. I said what happened? They were mandated, they were restricted for that reason. These people are crazy. But anyway we, we got rid of that one too, that was an easy one. It's, you know, if I, if I said this 10 years ago, 15, 20 years ago, people wouldn't even believe what I'm saying. It's like men playing in women's sports. Would you believe we have an argument over that? Men playing in women's sports. Did you ever see the weightlifting record? It stood for 19 years. Women, great women athlete, they had it up there. And then a man came along who happened to transition and the record was broken by 119 pounds. And he was a bad weightlifter. It's true. He was a failed, he was a failed male weightlifter. He shattered the record. I would say that's not good. So we are bringing all that back to normalcy too. And look what happened at the Olympic... the Olympic Committee, the heads of the Olympics just announced there will be no men playing in women's sports. Who else could have done that? Do you think that was easy? That wasn't easy. It's probably, you know they say it's an 80-20. No, I think it's a 99-1 issue and nobody can find the one. To help lower gasoline prices for farmers and consumers, this week I issued an emergency order to allow immediate sales of E15. And just as I promised in the campaign, I'm seeking congressional action to allow E15 all year round, okay? And I'm trusting Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune, they're two good men. I'm trusting them to find a deal that works for farmers, consumers and refiners, including small and mid-sized refiners. And they're going to send me a bill and we should be able to get that done. We've worked with the refiners before and we're going to get that done. Today I'm also announcing a dramatic update to the renewable fuel standards for 2026 and 2027. A big problem what they've done to you is and the country, what they've done to the country is just incredible. The, the environmentalists, I mean they are terrorists. They were terrorists. I call them the environmental terrorists. And we'll now be requiring the highest volumes of renewable fuels in history. These new standards will generate over 10 billion dollars of rural economic benefit, create an estimated 100,000 new jobs and massively increase our nation's energy supply. It'll come right out of the farms. In addition to help bring down grocery costs even more, today I'm pleased to announce that the Small Business Administration, that's Kelly, is opening up massive new loan guarantees for farmers and food suppliers, including vegetable farmers, grain farmers and seed farmers, cattle, pig and poultry producers, grocery wholesalers and many more. So if you're in the industry, Kelly, you better get ready, you're going to be inundated, right? It's the first time that's happened. And you know when they say she's the head of small business, small business when you add it all up, it's gotta be the biggest, it's like the biggest bank in the world or something. There's nothing small about it. But you'll do a job, Kelly, right? Help them out, right? From Texas to Kansas, from Iowa to Idaho and from Minnesota... did I hear Minnesota? How is Minnesota doing? What's going on? What's going on in Minnesota with that crazy governor, that crooked corrupt governor? How about the Attorney General, you think he's a dirty cop? You think he's a dirty cop? All right, we'll get Minnesota back. We'll take it back from Somalia. Can you believe? Can you believe these people come from Somalia, they have nothing, it's not... they come... Somalia's considered the worst... the worst country in the world. The worst. They come over here and they steal 19 billion dollars. We'll get it straightened out. It's happening. Our Vice President is in charge of a new division, it's called the fraud division. You know if we straightened out half the fraud that took place in this country over the years, we'd have not only a balanced budget, we'd have a big surplus. So we're going to get it done. We're going to get it done. But from Minnesota to Mississippi, we're lifting up our hardworking farmers and ranchers and growers and we're putting more money in American pockets. We're going to prove that the golden age of American agriculture is right here and right now. And I want to ask, if you would, would you come up and say something? Because I'll tell you what, come on over here. This is a great farmer, would you just tell your quick story please?

Thank you Mr. President. My name is Michael Clymer and I operate my family's ranch in Westfield, Pennsylvania, Double Circle D Farms. And the work that you guys have done, it's unexplainable how big it is for the American farmer and the next generation that don't have the headache and don't have to worry about the death tax. It's, it's just astounding what you guys have done, it's absolutely spectacular. And also the working family tax cut policies, that allowed us to get my daughter a Trump account and we can teach her fiscal responsibility, compound interest and investment and plan for her future. And it's just absolutely astounding what you've done with that. Also your energy policies up in Potter and Tioga County, Pennsylvania, the gas companies are leasing mineral rights again, actively. And that's putting money back into the farmer's pockets up there too. So for all that, I applaud you and thank you Mr. President.

I'm glad I called him up. I didn't know who the hell he was, he's standing up. You know he's standing. We went through one and I said there's another guy, but they don't have anything about... but you did, that's an extremely good job you did, huh? Wow. Thank you very much. I do want to say what... could I... do you mind if I step over here and just look at that tractor for a second? Because I assume it's a gift to me. That's crazy. That's beautiful. Whoa. That is really something, wow. Thank you very much for the gift, I appreciate. Oh boy, can you imagine if I accepted that gift what they would do? A Democrat could accept, we're not allowed to accept. No, but that's a beautiful machine. I love... we make the greatest machines, that's a beautiful, beautiful machine. I'd like to ask a very special woman to step up. You know, Brook, I always said could run any company in the world. She could run these big companies, she's a great executive. And, uh, we've talked about it, my wife's actually said, 'You know, Brook could be an executive anywhere.' That doesn't mean you're leaving, okay? But when I had a chance, I said what about Department of Agriculture? I had no idea that she has like a PhD in agriculture. She went to school on agriculture. I would have put her there even if she didn't, but she's so highly trained and she loves it and she loves the farmers just like I do, and ranchers and everybody else having to do with this very special world that you live in. And Brook has really been a star and I want to thank you very much and say a few words. Thank you.

Sir, the first thing I want to say is when we had that unexpected conversation about this job, November 21st of 2024, uh, I've often said that sometimes you have plans for yourself but then God and Donald Trump redirect your plan. One year in, I can't tell you the honor, the joy, the blessing of getting to fight every day. There is no better job than this, even President, I believe. Uh, there is no better job than being your 33rd Secretary of Agriculture and I just President, Mr. President, thank you for your trust. It's just incredible. Not in our lifetime, the President and I walk over here, we're talking about how the farmers, the ranchers, rural America, we are your people, sir. From the moment he came down the golden escalator to today, no one has stood more proudly, more strongly, more courageously for this man, this transformational President at this moment in our country's history than you all, our farmers and ranchers. I want everyone to get to their feet and just thank him for what he has done for our community, for our farmers and ranchers. He's the best, the best. Never forget. So grateful. A couple of, a couple of other really special people. I know we have some friends in from Pennsylvania. We have some amazing Amish farmers and I started thinking, I maybe shouldn't do this because I don't think they love or like the recognition, but they drove all the way here. If they're willing to stand up, let us thank you for making such an effort and your wonderful support for our President. I was told that even a new dress was made for this event and I know this is out of the box a little bit for you and your amazing community but I know on behalf of our Pennsylvanians and others we're so grateful for you and your leadership. I also want to do a big shout out to Senator Hoeven, Senator Ernst, our Congressmen, Senator Ricketts who fought so hard to get rural America in the one big beautiful bill. You all deserve so much credit. It was the largest investment in rural America for our farmers and ranchers in American history. This man drove it, but you guys executed and we're so grateful to you. So thank you, thank you. Also very quickly, my mama's on the front row, state legislator Helen Kerwin, thanks to Donald Trump, is doing remarkable work for us in Texas. My beautiful sister, um, we talked about Mr. President the future of farming with a faith born not of words but of deeds. You have the FFAers and the 4-H-ers here, we're so glad you are our future and we are so grateful. Thank you. And speaking of the FFA, sir, my ag teacher from 35 years ago came all the way from Glen Rose, Texas, Mr. Rosenbusch, stand up. I love you. There were a few times he put me in the back of the bus for being too sassy and, uh, we've come a long way Mr. Rosenbusch. God bless you and thank you for everything you mean. Listen everyone, the President did it so well. What we inherited when we came in just over a year ago, we left with an agricultural trade surplus when we walked out of here in January of 2021, we came back with an agricultural trade deficit of 50 billion dollars. Not one new trade deal under the Biden administration. When we left, the cost of inputs were 40% less for our farmers and ranchers than when we came back four years later. We inherited a mess, but this President understands that there is no more American of the Americans than our farmers and ranchers and the pioneering spirit that you all represent. And today on the South Lawn of the White House, to have the largest gathering of farmers in American history at this White House is historical. It will go down in the record books. I believe this President will be remembered as the President and our administration with Bobby, with, uh, with Lee and with Kelly who are all here, my best friends from the cabinet, across the cabinet as the moment in American history where we reversed the trend, where we stopped losing family farms, where we fought for rural America because it is the very, very best of who we are. And that began with this President, with his leadership, and we just couldn't be more grateful. God bless you Donald Trump, God bless America, and God bless our farmers and ranchers. Thank you all, thank you sir.

So the farm bill is going to happen, it's all going to happen and I just want to thank you all for being here. You're very, very special people. Uh, I'll never forget, we won like such a number like nobody's ever won before. You voted for me, uh, I will never forget that. I'll never forget the friendship, the great friendship that we've had. And, uh, we've got a lot more to do Brook and we're going to do it and we're going to get it done very fast, very, very, very fast. And thank you all for being at the White House. Thank you very much, bye. Thank you everybody.