In Iowa, Trump touts economy as protests roil neighboring Minnesota

By Jarrett Renshaw, Karl Plume and Trevor Hunnicutt

CLIVE, Iowa, Jan 27 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump rallied supporters in Iowa on Tuesday as he worked to shore up support in a Midwestern political battleground just south of Minnesota, where a confrontation was escalating over federal immigration agents’ aggressive tactics.

Voters nationwide are worried about consumer prices. In the farm states, mounting stress in the agricultural economy is testing the patience of farmers and renewable-fuel producers.

While the Republican president tries to convince voters he is bringing costs down, his White House is embroiled in a crisis in neighboring Minnesota. 

On Saturday, federal immigration agents shot and killed 37-year-old U.S. citizen Alex Pretti during a protest in Minneapolis, sparking widespread demonstrations and calls for independent investigations. Pretti was the second American to be fatally shot by federal immigration officers this month in Minneapolis, where Trump has deployed thousands of armed and masked agents.

In largely rural Iowa, concerns about affordability are mixed with growing anxiety over weak crop prices and high costs for fertilizers, farm equipment and other inputs. These worries, along with uncertainty about trade with China, threaten to erode his support across the U.S. farm belt.

Iowa is the nation’s largest producer of corn, hogs and ethanol. It also hosts key congressional races in November.

“Whoever wins the presidency has a hard time with the midterm,” Trump told the audience. “I’m here because I love Iowa, but I’m here because we’re starting the campaign to win the midterms.”

A VISIT TO THE RURAL HEARTLAND

Trump won Iowa in each of the last three presidential elections. Some of the rural voters who were his most loyal supporters are now struggling to make ends meet.

Like many farmers, 56-year-old Iowa corn and cattle farmer Lance Lillibridge said he has been hit hard by a trade war with China and rising costs of seeds and fertilizer, and he hopes the administration will pursue another multibillion-dollar farm bailout.

“Right now everything’s just terrible; I’ve never been so cash poor in my entire life,” Lillibridge said, describing himself as a Trump supporter, “for the most part.”

Even as Trump made his case on the economy, the U.S. dollar sank to a near ​four-year low against a basket of currencies, with traders on Tuesday citing concerns including the prospect of another U.S. government shutdown, White House intervention in central bank policy and Trump’s ongoing tariff threats.

“On the economy, they don’t have a plan; there’s nothing to announce,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank. “They’re not going to roll back tariffs, they’re not going to say we’re going to reduce the deficit. They’re not going to say that attacking the Fed is counterproductive and puts upward pressure on inflation, and they don’t have a plan to make housing more affordable.” 

A Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Sunday showed that 30% of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the rising cost of living, while 59% disapproved, including nine in 10 Democrats and one in five Republicans.

Trump’s Republicans are defending narrow congressional majorities in November’s elections, when incumbent presidents’ parties typically lose seats.

Iowa will host two highly competitive races for U.S. House of Representatives seats held by Republican Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn. 

DIFFICULTY IN THE U.S. FARM BUSINESS

Strain in the U.S. farm economy has been mushrooming, from unsold tractors to agribusiness companies reporting shrinking earnings. Abundant grain supplies have weighed on markets, with crop prices weak for a third straight year.

Also stressing farmers, the administration has delayed final biofuel-blending quotas for 2026. The quotas are known as renewable volume obligations, or RVOs.

It has also not finalized tax guidance for renewable-fuel credits known as 45Z, and efforts have stalled on a long-standing priority for corn growers: securing congressional approval for year-round sales of gasoline blended with 15% ethanol.

Trump said on Tuesday that Republican congressional leaders were working on legislation to allow the ethanol-blended gasoline year-round. “They are very close to getting it done,” he said.

The policy delays have hit Iowa’s biodiesel industry particularly hard. Iowa’s biodiesel plants produced 244 million gallons in 2025, down 31% from 2024, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association said. At full capacity, the state’s plants can produce more than 400 million gallons a year.

Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois, said that while Trump’s trade policies have hurt crop farmers, the administration has eased regulations and kept fuel prices lower to maintain support.

“As long as Trump and a Republican Congress are willing to backfill a significant amount of crop losses with special programs, his support will remain solid,” Irwin said.

(Reporting by Kevin Lamarque in Clive, Iowa, Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, Karl Plume in Chicago and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Additional reporting by Christian Martinez; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Colleen Jenkins, Ethan Smith, David Gregorio and Shri Navaratnam)