Trump Says He Loves Farmers. He’s Dismantling the Agency Helping Their Communities Survive.

By Sky Chadde

In 2016, Tillman County, a politically deep red area in southwest Oklahoma with a population of less than 7,000 and dropping, lost its hospital. Emergency services calls skyrocketed, and health outcomes deteriorated. 

Trey Caldwell, the area’s Republican state representative, said his office found at least three people died after long ambulance rides. “They would have survived,” he said, “if they could have gotten immediate emergency care right then and there.”

But hope for the community dotted with dairy farms arrived in 2023, when construction started on a new hospital. Breaking ground required state and federal law changes, funding from former President Joe Biden’s administration and, perhaps most importantly, seed money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development agency.

“The last thing you want to do is saddle that hospital with a lot of debt,” Caldwell said. “That USDA funding mechanism was massive. It really helped move the needle.”

But former agency officials worry fewer projects like the hospital could be built in rural America as the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE have targeted Rural Development for large staffing cuts. With fewer employees in rural communities assisting local leaders with their funding needs, there is concern Trump’s chainsawing of the federal workforce could leave rural America without a robust safety net.

“We invest in so many businesses in rural America, and when you have fewer businesses, you have fewer jobs and fewer economic opportunities,” said Basil Gooden, who led Rural Development during Biden’s last year in office. “It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take a little while before people realize things have really broken.”

In a statement, the USDA said Biden officials left the USDA “in complete disarray, including hiring thousands of employees with no sustainable way to pay them. … Fortunately, President Trump is taking strong action to support farmers.”

Rural Development is how the federal government ensures rural areas aren’t left behind as those residents move to cities for higher living standards. It funds broadband infrastructure and helps lifelong renters buy homes in population-losing communities. 

Former agency officials said keeping rural areas attractive is essential to national security. Consumers have grown accustomed to the convenience of fully stocked grocery store shelves and freezers, and the country’s fuel supply increasingly uses ethanol grown in Midwestern corn fields. To keep the supply chain running, some people have to live in areas often bereft of modern-day necessities, such as hospitals or high-speed internet.

Investing in rural communities is critical to ensure a long-term agricultural workforce, especially as the average age of U.S. farmers increases rapidly. That means the people growing America’s food and fuel need access to quality grocery stores, childcare and health care.

“Farming ranks among the most hazardous occupations, making access to emergency medical services and hospitals a critical infrastructure need,” said Bette Brand, who led the agency during Trump’s first term. “Ensuring that rural families can live and work safely is fundamental to maintaining a stable food supply and sustaining agricultural productivity.”

The number of projects Rural Development has funded each year has trended downward for years, but it began to nosedive in 2021, agency data shows. Biden officials pointed to the loss of about 2,000 agency employees, out of a total of about 6,000, during the first Trump administration.

“Our investments have gone down because we just don’t have the staffing that we used to have,” Gooden said. “We don’t have the people on the ground. That’s very detrimental.”

Gooden hired about 800 more staffers during his tenure, he said, but they were probationary employees, the classification the administration has targeted for dismissal. More than 500 of the employees were let go in the administration’s mass terminations at the USDA in February.

To date, more than 1,500 Rural Development staffers have left, the USDA said — likely leaving the agency with fewer staffers than at the end of the first Trump administration. That’s roughly 10% of the 15,000 total USDA employees who have left the department.

Brand said the agency made meaningful gains in efficiency in Donald Trump’s first term. Continuing to improve efficiency, DOGE’s stated goal, is important, she said, but the recent job cuts risk destabilizing rural communities, which have largely supported Trump’s candidacies.

“There’s a persistent undercurrent of stress among federal employees that’s slowing the pace of loans and program implementation,” she said. “That doesn’t mean change isn’t needed, but the way it’s executed matters.”

She likened the agency to an ocean liner that’s left port. “It’s as if the agency is mid-voyage — charting a course and making progress — and someone dropped anchor without warning,” she said. “You don’t stop a ship of that size without consequences. The abruptness disrupts momentum, strands key personnel and risks throwing off balance the very systems rural communities rely on. Reform is necessary, but if the process causes collateral damage to people who are simply doing their jobs, it could create long-term harm.”

Brand added reforms must produce lasting results to justify the disruption.

“If you’re going to put the agency — and the communities it serves — through this kind of turbulence, the outcomes better be meaningful and durable,” she said. “Otherwise, the cost to individuals and local economies may never be recouped.”

In an early March speech, Brooke Rollins, Trump’s agriculture secretary, announced she would release a plan to restore rural prosperity in the “coming weeks.” No plan has been released yet, but she said it would improve the agency’s efficiency.

On Trump’s 100th day, Rollins released her own list of accomplishments, which included taking “leadership to make rural America prosper again.” It linked to her previous statement about her unreleased plan. In a statement to Investigate Midwest, the USDA said “more information … will be released soon.”

Rollins also said the USDA would “invite the private sector” to participate in the endeavor, and she specifically mentioned satellite internet. Musk owns Starlink, which provides satellite internet. The White House has said Musk has pledged to avoid potential conflicts of interest, according to NBC News.