In Iowa, Trump touts financial system as protests roil neighboring Minnesota.

 CLIVE, Iowa, Jan 27 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump rallied supporters in Iowa on Tuesday as he labored to shore up assist in a Midwestern political battleground simply south of Minnesota,

where a war of words ​was escalating over federal immigration agents' aggressive tactics.Voters nationwide are concerned about client prices. In the farm states, mounting stress in the agricultural economic system is checking out the ‌patience of farmers and renewable-fuel producers.While the Republican president tries to persuade voters he is bringing prices down, his White House is embroiled in a disaster in neighboring Minnesota.On Saturday, federal immigration dealers shot and killed 37-year-old U.S. citizen Alex Pretti at some point of a protest in Minneapolis, sparking vast demonstrations and calls for impartial investigations. Pretti was once the 2nd American to be fatally shot through federal immigration officers this month in Minneapolis, the place Trump has deployed hundreds of armed and masked agents.In mostly rural Iowa, issues about affordability are combined with developing nervousness over vulnerable crop fees and excessive charges for fertilizers, farm tools and different inputs. These worries, alongside with ‌uncertainty about exchange with China, threaten to erode his aid throughout the U.S. farm belt.Iowa is the nation’s greatest producer of corn, hogs and ethanol. ​It additionally hosts key congressional races in November.

"Whoever wins the presidency has a difficult time with the midterm," Trump instructed the audience. "I'm right here due to the fact I love Iowa, however I'm right here due to the fact we're beginning the marketing campaign to win the midterms."

A VISIT TO THE RURAL HEARTLAND

Trump received Iowa in every of the remaining three presidential elections. Some of the rural voters who have been his most loyal supporters are ‍now struggling to make ends meet.

Like many farmers, 56-year-old Iowa corn and cattle farmer Lance Lillibridge stated he has been hit challenging by means of a alternate combat with China and rising expenses of seeds and fertilizer, and he hopes the administration will pursue some other multibillion-dollar farm bailout.

“Right now everything’s simply terrible; I’ve by no means been so money terrible in my complete life,” Lillibridge said, describing himself as a Trump supporter, “for the most part.”

Even as Trump made his case on the ⁠economy, the U.S. greenback sank to a close to ​four-year low in opposition to a basket of currencies, with merchants on Tuesday citing issues inclusive of the prospect of any other U.S. authorities shutdown, White House intervention in central financial institution ‍policy and Trump's ongoing tariff threats."On the economy, they do not have a plan; there may be nothing to announce," stated Michael Strain, director of monetary coverage research at the conservative American Enterprise Institute assume tank. "They're now not going to ‌roll returned tariffs, ‌they're now not going to say we're going to minimize the deficit. They're now not going to say that attacking the Fed is counterproductive and places upward strain on inflation, and they do not have a sketch to make housing greater affordable."

A Reuters/Ipsos ballot that closed on Sunday confirmed that 30% of Americans authorised of Trump’s dealing with of the rising fee of living, whilst 59% disapproved, which includes 9 in 10 Democrats and one in 5 Republicans.

Trump’s Republicans are defending slender congressional majorities in November’s elections, when incumbent presidents’ events normally lose seats.

Iowa will host two rather aggressive races for U.S. House of Representatives seats held by way of Republican ⁠Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn.

DIFFICULTY IN THE ⁠U.S. FARM BUSINESS

Strain in the U.S. farm financial system ​has been mushrooming, from unsold tractors to agribusiness groups reporting shrinking earnings. Abundant grain substances have weighed on markets, with crop fees vulnerable for a 1/3 straight year.

Also stressing farmers, the administration has delayed closing biofuel-blending quotas for 2026. The quotas are regarded as renewable quantity obligations, or RVOs.

It has additionally no longer finalized tax coaching for renewable-fuel credit recognised as 45Z, and efforts have stalled on a long-standing precedence for corn growers: securing congressional approval ‍for year-round income of gas blended with 15% ethanol.

Trump stated on Tuesday that Republican congressional leaders have been working on rules to permit the ethanol-blended fuel year-round. "They are very shut to getting it done," he said.

The coverage delays have hit Iowa’s biodiesel enterprise specifically hard. Iowa’s biodiesel flora produced 244 million gallons in 2025, down 31% from 2024, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association said. At full capacity, the state’s plant life can produce extra than four hundred million gallons a year.

Scott Irwin, ​an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois, stated that whilst Trump’s change insurance policies have harm crop farmers, the administration ‍has eased policies and saved gasoline expenses decrease to hold support.