Farmers, ranchers gather on the White House South Lawn for Great American Agriculture Celebration

President Donald Trump addressed a gathering of farmers and ranchers on the South Lawn of the White House during the Great American Agriculture Celebration. Trump said many groups come to his office making requests. All the farmers and ranchers ask for, he said, is a level playing field and he offered examples of how his administration is serving American agriculture.

President Trump was joined by Sec. of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, Sec. of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Nebraska Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee GT Thompson, American Farm Bureau Federation president Zippy Duvall and other ag leaders from across the country.

Among the crowd filled with felt cowboy hats and calloused hands situated near a metallic gold painted Fendt 1167 Vario MT tractor were South Dakota’s Charles and Heather Maude and R-CALF USA Private Property Rights Chair and Colorado rancher Shad Sullivan.

Trump said the Biden administration crippled the American agriculture industry with “brutal restrictions and failed to negotiate even a single trade deal”.

“We happen to be the exact opposite,” he said. “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 are producers once again.”

He said the Big Beautiful Bill is not only the biggest tax reduction in U.S. history, it’s also the biggest regulation reduction. By making the small business tax deduction permanent, he said ag producers benefit by allowing them to deduct 100% of the cost of new tractors and all equipment in the first year rather than over 38 years.

He said his administration “saved 2 million American farms from extinction by virtually ending the unfair estate tax” or death tax, a tax that caused much financial distress and even suicides by heirs attempting to pay the amount borrowed to pay the tax and still maintain a profitable operation.

He said there were no agriculture trade deals negotiated and finalized during the previous administration but a recent deal with China will be a boon to soybean growers.

“You’re now sending over $40 billion in American soybean to China,” he said. “I want to thank President Xi of China because we had a deal at $20 (billion) and I said, could you do me a favor? It’s a big place, could you double it? Could you make it 40 instead of 20?… he said all right, I’ll do it and you got 40 instead of 20 so now you go out and buy bigger tractors.”

He said in addition to giving ag producers a level playing field, his administration took proceeds from tariffs and awarded $12 billion in relief to agriculture producers. He said he has also asked Congress to pass a Farm Bill.

He said his administration’s Right to Repair rule will save the typical farm up to $30,000 on major repairs. Additionally, he said they will be announcing new guidelines limiting restrictive diesel exhaust fluid requirements, saving farmers and consumers billions of dollars.

He also announced a new voluntary Product of the USA label for beef. According to a release by the USDA, under this standard, the “Product of USA” label is reserved exclusively for meat, poultry, and egg products from animals that were born, raised, harvested, and processed in the United States. The claim is voluntary, but companies using it must meet this transparent and verifiable requirement. This ends the prior practice which allowed imported products to carry the claim after minimal processing and strengthens consumer confidence by aligning with what Americans expect and demand.

“It’s good,” he said. “They want the USA product where Americans can see those words at the grocery store and know that it was raised, harvested, and processed by the greatest farmers and ranchers anywhere on the face of the Earth. You are the greatest, nobody’s even close.”

He said consumer prices for other staples are also coming down.

“It was an amazing thing I was told by Brooke,” he said. “I said I don’t really believe it – they wanted to have less cattle in the country for environmental reasons… .who would think of this? These are sick people. They want less cattle for environmental reasons.”

Trump said in order to lower gasoline prices for farmers and consumers, he issued an emergency order to allow immediate sales of E 15 ethanol.

“Just as I promised in the campaign, I’m seeking congressional action to allow E-15 all year round and I’m trusting (Rep. Dusty) 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 midsize 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 then we’re going to get that done.”

He also alluded to new loan guarantees for ag producers and grocery wholesalers.