Fox threw its support behind Trump policies devastating American farms

AP: “Iran war has US farmers worried about the cost and availability of fertilizer.” The Associated Press reported: “Farmers have complained about costly fertilizer for years, but prices have soared even higher since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, leading to a slowdown in shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas. Besides increasing the price of fuel, which is key in the production of fertilizer, the shipping disruption also has largely stopped the export of nitrogen fertilizers manufactured in the Persian Gulf and limited access to key fertilizer ingredients.” The story noted that “about 15% of fertilizer imports to the U.S. are from the Middle East, and about half the global supply of the key ingredient urea comes from the region, along with 30% of ammonia, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.” [The Associated Press, 3/18/26]
MS NOW: “Iran war’s skyrocketing diesel prices hit American farmers already facing historic drought.” The article reported that “diesel prices have increased by about 48% since the start of the war.” It continued: “Conflict in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz have choked off a significant percentage of the world’s crude oil supply, sending prices soaring for fuel, fertilizer and plastics. And those price hikes are now hitting American farmers.” [MS NOW, 5/4/26]
The Farm and Dairy newspaper reported on comments from American Farm Bureau Federation economist Faith Parum that “the majority of America’s farmers who responded to the organization’s recent nationwide survey — over 5,700 in all — say they cannot afford to purchase enough fertilizer to get them through the year, underscoring just how grim the outlook has become.” From the article: “Parum said high input costs, exacerbated by the conflict in Iran, have driven sharp increases in the price of anhydrous ammonia, urea, liquid nitrogen and diesel, with urea and farm diesel seeing the largest month‑over‑month jumps. The survey found that 70% of farmers nationwide cannot afford all of the fertilizer they need this year, a figure that jumps to 78% in the South, where pre‑booking rates were lowest. Even in the Midwest, about half of farmers don’t believe they’ll be able to purchase their full fertilizer needs.” [Farm and Dairy, 4/22/26]
Wisconsin State Farmer: “In recent months, rising fuel prices have become a major concern for farmers across the nation. The surge in diesel prices, in particular, is significantly impacting the bottom line of agricultural producers.” The article continued: “For many, the increase in fuel costs is yet another challenge in an already difficult financial environment, as input costs for items such as fertilizer and labor have risen.” [Wisconsin State Farmer, 4/7/26]
CBS affiliate KWCH in Kansas reported on the ways the war has “been putting a strain on farmers” as the prices of the products they need for the growing season “skyrocket in recent weeks.” One local farmer said, “All of our yearly needs are pretty much consumed in February, March and April, May. It’s going to make it a lot tougher for a farmer to make it through this year.” [YouTube, KWCH 12 News, 3/6/26]

Multiple Fox hosts told their audiences to accept the “sacrifice” of spiking gas prices caused by Trump’s war against Iran. Fox Business host Dagen McDowell and Fox anchor Martha MacCallum dismissed gas price spikes by invoking World War II rationing and “the big picture importance” of the war. Fox contributor George Murdoch, known as “Tyrus,” also invoked World War II sacrifice and added: “The president said, yeah, you're going to feel a pinch, because this is what happens when you support the great American men and women” in the military. Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said Americans should tolerate high gas prices as a “sacrifice” because “ultimately, we'll be saving money in the big picture.” [Media Matters, 3/12/26]
As gas prices went up from the Iran war, Fox News celebrated the “biggest payday in history” for oil companies. Fox host Jesse Watters said: “The U.S. oil market is open for business, and it is booming. Big Oil just had its biggest payday in history.” Fox host Sean Hannity said “America is now benefiting financially because of the blockade” on Iranian ports. Fox Business host Larry Kudlow crowed that the Iran war is causing “a re-ordering of the world’s energy story … because the United States is the reliable energy supplier, oil, gas.” [Media Matters, 4/23/26]
Fox personalities claimed that the spike in fuel prices would be short-lived. Watters said: “There's going to be some short-term pain for American consumers until the Iranians are defanged, which we hope is within just a few weeks and oil drops back down to the 60s.” Fox Business anchor Cheryl Casone suggested that Trump would keep the conflict with Iran “short-term” because “America First is making sure we can afford our prices at home — our gasoline prices.” A few days later, Casone reassured viewers on Fox’s Outnumbered that “oil prices will go down in weeks. Americans need to be patient and I think they are.” [Media Matters, 4/10/26]
Some Fox hosts and guests downplayed the impact of fertilizer price hikes on American farmers. When confronted with the likelihood that fertilizer price hikes will affect food prices in the future, Kudlow said: “But then … other prices come down, OK?” He added: “I know it’s not a perfect correlate, but I’m just saying, yeah, you have temporary price hikes related to energy, but that means other prices will fall. It is just elementary stuff. That’s why you have to look through it.” On Mornings with Maria, Heritage Foundation Vice President Victoria Coates said: “Things like fertilizer … this impacts China even more than it impacts us,” and gives President Trump “a lot of leverage” in his meeting with China’s leader. On Maria the next day, Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni downplayed the impact of the Strait of Hormuz closure on fertilizer prices, saying: “The oil crisis is very apparent because it hits us in the face every week when we go to fill up our tanks. The fertilizer crisis, not so much, because that’s not going to trickle down into consumer prices — going back to showing up in core CPI, right? That won't show up for many months.” [Fox Business, Kudlow, 4/7/26; Fox Business, Mornings with Maria, 5/7/26, 5/8/26]
Others on Fox used the fertilizer crisis caused by the Iran war to justify escalating the military conflict. Watters argued that “Iran is blocking the flow of fertilizer — a lot of people are going to go hungry if the regime doesn't surrender.” Fox Business host Taylor Riggs noted: “We do import diesel, for example, or things like nitrogen for fertilizer. We’re in spring planting season," She then advocated “get the snake off of that head of Iran,” which would “make the world a safer place.” Kilmeade lauded the decision to send additional troops to the region and said: “If we just look at how susceptible we are in the Strait of Hormuz, look at what they do in terms of the amount of oil that passes through there, helium that passes through there, fertilizer that passes through there.” [Media Matters, 3/27/26]

AP: “Already under financial pressure, Midwest soybean farmers are squeezed further by tariffs, Iran war.” The Associated Press reported in April on concerns from Midwestern soybean farmers: “Costs, such as equipment, have crept up over time while soybean prices have stayed low. Tariffs levied by the Trump administration last year and the resulting monthslong trade war with China only made things worse, they say.” The AP story also explained: “Sweeping tariffs levied by President Donald Trump in April 2025 exacerbated a trade war with China, the top buyer of U.S. soybeans. China responded with retaliatory tariffs and effectively boycotted U.S. soybeans, cutting off a major export market for Midwest farmers and driving the price of soybeans even lower.” Although a deal with China resulted in resumed soybean exports there and the administration rolled out a $12 billion farmer bailout, AP wrote: “But the damage is already done, experts and farmers say. While China’s renewed purchases and the federal payments are helping, it’s not enough to recover farmers’ losses. Even after federal assistance, farmers still lost almost $75 per harvested acre of soybeans in the 2025 crop, according to the American Soybean Association. And the trade war further pushed China toward competing soybean exporters, such as Brazil — accelerating a trend of declining U.S. soybean exports to China.” [The Associated Press, 4/13/26]
WAMU’s 1A: “The sector hardest hit” by Trump’s trade war: “agriculture.” On 1A, guest host Todd Zwillich helmed an episode titled “Farmers are hit hard by Donald Trump’s tariffs.” During the show, New York Times economic policy reporter Alan Rappeport explained that Trump’s tariffs have had “huge implications for inputs across the economy, particularly things like steel and aluminum, which farmers rely on heavily for, you know, all kinds of products, from soybean bins to tractors and things like that.” Rappepport added: “So it's definitely raised their costs, and the retaliation associated with this, from China in particular, has made it a lot harder for them to sell soybeans, to their biggest customer, which has been China over the last many years.” Rappeport concluded: “So that has really put a lot of economic pressure on farmers around the country.” [WAMU, 1A, 11/4/25]
The New York Times: “A bipartisan coalition of former Agriculture Department officials and leaders of farm groups warned in a letter” that “current economic conditions and Trump administration policies could lead to ‘a widespread collapse of American agriculture.’” Four of the nine areas of focus the February 3 letter flagged for Congress concerned Trump’s trade policies. According to the letter, “the indiscriminate and haphazard nature of the current tariff policies have not revitalized American manufacturing and have significantly damaged American farm economy.” It continued: “By placing tariffs on farm inputs — from fertilizer, to farm chemicals, to machinery parts — the Administration's tariffs have increased prices for farm inputs and have pushed the cost of production well above commodity prices.” The letter also stated that “this Administration's trade policies and lack of Congressional action have also hurt American farmers by reducing our global competitiveness, disrupting export markets, and reducing commodity prices.” It further called out Trump’s “bellicose rhetoric and chaotic trade policies” which “have caused our traditional trading partners to question the reliability of the U.S. as a trading partner and to turn to other countries to stabilize international trade.” [The New York Times, 2/3/26; Letter from agriculture leaders to Congress, 2/3/26]
Nebraska Public Media: “From chocolate to farm equipment, Trump’s tariffs are ‘pain points’ for Nebraska manufacturers.” Farm equipment manufacturer Bish Enterprises, according to its chief operating officer, was “hit hard” by the first year of Trump’s tariffs. Nebraska Public Media reported that “Bish Enterprises buys U.S. steel, but relies on electronic and hydraulic components from Germany, China and other countries. Under Trump, every trading partner is subject to tariffs, with rates that vary depending on the country and the product. Bish said 2026 prices for some components of his company’s products are up 75% to 80% over this time last year, so the company is evaluating how to keep costs down.” [Nebraska Public Media, 2/3/26]
USDA’s Economic Research Service: Trump’s first-term trade war resulted in retaliatory U.S. agricultural export losses of more than $27 billion. As the research paper explained, “In 2018, the United States imposed Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from major trading partners and separately Section 301 tariffs on a broad range of imports from China. In response to these actions, six trading partners—Canada, China, the European Union, India, Mexico, and Turkey—responded with retaliatory tariffs on a range of U.S. exports, including agricultural and food products.” According to the study: “From mid-2018 to the end of 2019, this study estimates that retaliatory tariffs caused a reduction of more than $27 billion (or annualized losses of $13.2 billion) in U.S. agricultural exports, with the largest decline in export losses occurring for exports to China.” [U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, 1/11/22]

The Washington Post: Trump’s “Labor Department said that tougher immigration enforcement is hurting farmers and the food supply.” The Washington Post reported in October 2025: “The Trump administration said that its immigration crackdown is hurting farmers and risking higher food prices for Americans by cutting off agriculture’s labor supply. The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that ‘the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.’” The Post continued: “The Labor Department’s comments appear to be the first time that the Trump administration has publicly acknowledged that its hallmark immigration policy — sealing the border and deporting undocumented immigrants — threatens labor shortages and higher food prices. However, economists have been sounding the alarm since Trump campaigned on the issue during last year’s presidential election.” [The Washington Post, 10/11/25]
NPR: “Some Florida farmers reduce crops as deportation fears drive workers away.” One Florida farmer, referring to Trump’s mass deportation policies, told NPR, “The government is killing farming. … This is going to end us.” The farmer said he had lost half his workforce. The August 2025 story reported that “economists have warned that Trump's ongoing deportation campaign will hurt the U.S. economy, especially sectors that rely on migrant labor. Just in the last four months, agricultural employment has fallen by 155,000 workers, the biggest dip in nearly a decade.” [NPR, 8/20/25]
Investigate Midwest: “Trump’s deportations are causing farm labor issues. He hasn’t presented a viable, long-term solution.” Nonprofit newsroom Investigate Midwest, which focuses on watchdog journalism in the agriculture industry, reported in October: “President Trump’s deportation of more than half a million people, along with his ending of several programs that allowed immigrants to work in the country legally, has created labor issues across the agriculture sector, including for farmers, an important political constituency. While experts warned mass deportation would result in agricultural labor shortages, which could then lead to food shortages, Trump officials predicted U.S.-born workers would happily fill those vacant jobs. So far, that hasn’t happened.” The article continued: “Immigration raids, or the threat of them, have led to worker shortages across the country. In Pennsylvania, some dairy farmers, who often have to rely on undocumented laborers, have sold off their herds because they could not find any interested workers, according to Politico. In California this summer, some fields were not harvested because many workers stayed home, according to Reuters. In Idaho, similar concerns pervade farm country.” [Investigate Midwest, 10/29/25]
Nebraska Public Media: “ICE raids push farm workers to stay home ‘out of fear.’ That could hurt US food production.” Matt Teagarden, head of the Kansas Livestock Association, said the Trump administration’s immigration raids targeting farm workers “disrupt our food supply and contribute to higher food prices.” He continued: “In addition to the workers who’ve been detained, these raids contribute to fear in these communities and lead to workers — fully legal workers — staying home out of fear.” [Nebraska Public Media, 6/24/25]

Fox hosts defended Trump’s immigration enforcers targeting farm workers. Fox host Laura Ingraham called a potential “carve out coming for agriculture” from immigration enforcement “dangerous.” After a California farm worker died while fleeing from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Kilmeade said: “They are talking about the guy that jumped and fell off a roof and died, sad, but why are you running?” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/11/25; Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/14/25]
Fox relentlessly pushed the false claim that ICE is going after the “worst of the worst.” In reality, data analyzed by The Washington Post from June through mid-October 2025 showed that “more than 60 percent of the people detained in at-large arrests since June did not have criminal convictions or pending charges.” [Media Matters, 1/23/26]
Fox fearmongered about “illegal alien truckers” and expressed support for Trump’s rules stripping commercial driver’s licenses from legal immigrants. Fox Business host Elizabeth MacDonald repeatedly used her program to advocate for the removal of immigrant truck drivers. Several other Fox hosts congratulated Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for removing hundreds of thousands of immigrant truckers from the roads. [Media Matters, 5/11/26]
Fox supported Trump’s immigration raids in multiple major American cities. This included justifying ICE’s violent tactics in Chicago, encouraging the use of the Insurrection Act against protesters in Los Angeles, and hyperbolically portraying Portland as a “war zone” to support the deployment of National Guard troops there. [Media Matters, 3/9/26]

As the Trump administration began shutting down USAID, Fox personalities spread baseless conspiracy theories about the agency’s work and called for its staff to be criminally investigated. Watters called USAID “one of the country's biggest soft power slush funds” and ranted about “DEI” projects. Then-Fox contributor Katie Pavlich called USAID a “money laundering scheme of taxpayer money.” Then-Fox host and current U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro called USAID “a criminal organization.” Ingraham celebrated the dismantling of the agency and claimed that “in 2023, USAID sponsored scores of DEI events here and abroad.” Fox contributor Paul Mauro called for then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to criminally investigate USAID workers. [Media Matters, 2/7/25; Fox News, Outnumbered, 2/5/25]
Fox celebrated cuts to SNAP and pushed new policies that could kick millions more off the program and reduce beneficiaries’ access to groceries. After Fox personalities celebrated the Trump administration’s announcement that 4.5 million people had been removed from the food stamp program, the network pushed a right-wing goal of ending Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility, which could remove 6 million more people from the program, and pushed for a regulatory change that could drastically reduce the number of stores at which SNAP enrollees can use their benefits. [Media Matters, 5/6/26, 5/13/26]
Multiple Fox hosts gushed over supposed savings from program cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency early in the Trump administration, but reports have shown those savings were exaggerated. Hannity claimed that “we’re getting into the trillions of dollars which was the goal originally.” Watters claimed in early February 2025 that the DOGE “whiz kids” are “already saving a billion bucks a day.” Ingraham celebrated announcements of contract cancellations with the chyron “DOGE ends the gravy train.” Fox & Friends hosts gushed over the supposed DOGE savings and supported a DOGE “dividend check” to Americans. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo celebrated that “DOGE has exposed so much wasteful spending.” Yet multiple news reports at the time explained that the savings DOGE claimed to have made were “either misleading or incorrect” and a substantial portion of canceled contracts were not expected to yield any savings. Other reports noted that DOGE had removed from its website some claims of its supposed savings after they were exposed as false. [Media Matters, 3/28/25]

Fox threw its support behind Trump policies devastating American farms

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Trump’s Iran war has sent diesel and fertilizer costs for farmers skyrocketing

Fox has supported Trump’s Iran war and defended or downplayed the resulting spike in fuel and fertilizer prices

Trump’s tariffs have raised costs for farmers, and his trade war has ruined their export markets

Fox has enthusiastically embraced and defended Trump’s tariffs and trade wars

Trump’s immigration raids have disrupted farm work

Fox has thrown its full support behind Trump’s crackdown on immigrant workers

The Trump administration’s shuttering of USAID, gutting of SNAP benefits, and other spending cuts are financially harming American farmers

Fox attacked USAID as it was being closed and celebrated cuts to SNAP and other spending

Nick Fuentes: “Women say shit like that, and then we want to kill them, then we want to cut their heads off”

Megyn Kelly on California primary mail-in voting: “If they can't get off their fat asses and get to election polling stations on Election Day, then we don't want you, OK? We don't want your vote.”

Green Bay, Wisconsin’s WFRV Local 5 reports on businesses raising menu prices to offset high fuel costs

Local media are inoculating their audiences against the false narrative that gas prices will plummet once the conflict in Iran is resolved

Nick Fuentes on Trump's weaponization fund: “I called up my people in the administration immediately. I said, ‘Hey, can I get in on this? How much money can I get? I'm a victim.’”

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Fuel Files: Rising Gasoline, Oil, And Fertilizer Prices

U.S. – Iran relations