President’s speech touts tax bill as win for farmers

NASHVILLE, TENN.— Connecting with rural Americans, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday hailed his tax overhaul as a victory for family farmers and pitched his vision to expand access to broadband internet, a cornerstone of economic development in the U.S. heartland.

“Those towers are going to go up and you’re going to have great, great broadband,” Trump told the annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation. “Farm country is God’s country.”

The speech was Trump’s first policy address since Congress passed the $1.5-trillion (U.S.) tax overhaul. He said agricultural producers, businesses and workers will all benefit from the legislation, and that easing regulations will get better biotechnology products into farmers’ hands.

“The American Dream is roaring back to life,” Trump said. “Businesses across America have already started to raise wages.”

Farmers overwhelmingly backed Trump in his 2016 campaign, but some of his policies have raised concerns with them, including his threat to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, the tightening of immigration rules and cutting crop-insurance payments.

Trump told the group he’s “working very hard to get a better deal for our country.”

“When Mexico is making all of that money, when Canada is making all of that money, it is not the easiest negotiation,” Trump said. “But we’re going to make it fair for you people again.”

Farming is one of the few sectors of the U.S. economy with a trade surplus, but farmers have struggled financially since the end of a commodities boom in 2013. Profits in 2017 are estimated to be less than half the record levels of four years earlier.