Trump Budget Proposal Once Again Brings Culture War Casualties to Rural America.
In his proposed budget starting October 1, Trump would slash billions in funding and services that rural people and rural communities depend on.
President Donald Trump released an outline budget proposal Friday, May 2, 2025, laying out his priorities for spending starting October 1. Trump’s budget would slash non-defense discretionary spending by $163 billion (23%) from the 2025 level. This includes many billions of dollars in cuts that directly impact rural America.
The Trump “skinny budget” proposal is for the next fiscal year (FY 2026) and is separate from the ongoing budget reconciliation process Congress is currently negotiating. The Trump Administration’s FY 2026 budget is not expected to have any chance of being enacted, as Congress (at least for now) retains their Constitutional authority of taxing and spending.
That said, Presidential budget requests are said to be “statements of values.” From that perspective, Trump’s values appear to be contempt, ignorance, and retribution.
Trump targeted many programs important in rural America in his budget outline, including $4.58 billion in cuts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), such as:
$721 billion in cuts from USDA Rural Development—Cuts would focus on rural water and wastewater support, eliminate community facility grants, zero out future funding for rural internet spending, end business and cooperative programs, slash rural low-income housing support, eliminate discretionary rural telecommunications programs, and cut Rural Development staff.
$754 billion in cuts to USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)—The Trump budget proposal would eliminate discretionary funding for conservation technical assistance. These funds help to pay for NRCS staff and contractors that support implementation of conservation practices on farms in all 50 states.
$602 billion in cuts to National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)—Calling much of NIFA’s critical research “wasteful,” and “woke,” the Trump budget cancels climate change, renewable energy, and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) research.
$358 billion in cuts to Farm Service Agency staff.
$1.386 billion in cuts to the U.S. Forest Service—The Trump budget reduces salaries and expenses by $342 million, eliminates funding for the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration program, reduces Forest Service Operations staffing budgets by $391 million, and cuts support for state and private forest management among other Forest Service activities.
$425 billion cuts to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP)—The Trump budget ends CSFP, stating that it has “been misused for DEI and logrolling.” Instead, the program would focus MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) food boxes, stating: “This approach of boxing commodities was highly successful at the end of the first Trump administration as a COVID pandemic response.” (NOTE—those first-term Trump food boxes are widely regarded as an enormous waste of federal funding, resources, corruption, and corporate handouts.)
The budget also proposes moving wildland firefighting responsibilities from the USDA to a “Federal Wildland Fire Service” under the Department of Interior (DOI). The new service would “be distinct in command and appropriations from existing wildland firefighting agencies and would streamline Federal wildfire suppression response, risk mitigation efforts, and coordination with non-Federal partners to combat the wildfire crisis.”
In addition to USDA, the Trump proposal makes deep cuts to many other discretionary budgets that impact rural America. The proposed budget cuts are largest at Interior, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, State, the Small Business Administration, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Science Foundation (NSF). EPA and NSF would be cut the deepest, with a greater than 50% reduction.
The Cocklebur covers rural policy and politics from a progressive point-of-view. Our work focuses on a tangled rural political reality of dishonest debate, economic and racial disparities, corporate power over our democracy, and disinformation peddled by conservative media outlets. We aim to use facts, data, and science to inform our point-of-view. We wear our complicated love/WTF relationship with rural America on our sleeve.
Let us hope that Iowa finally starts to get smart and its representatives in Congress figure out who they support, Trump or the people of Iowa who elected them! Judging from the protest movement across the state, and the fact many are abandoning talking to Iowa voters other than those true believers of Trumpism, the hand writting is already on the wall if they don't start to act responsibly for Iowa's voters. All of them!