President Donald Trump spent the afternoon delivering lie after lie in Iowa, subjecting Iowans to yet another delusional rant filled with falsehoods, deflections, and just plain weird statements about his terrible economy as ICE ravages their neighbors to the north. This visit was just another desperate effort by Trump to hide his record of failure: a blue-collar bust, slow job growth, stagnant wages, layoffs, high utility bills, rising grocery prices, soaring health care costs – the list goes on and on. Less than a third of Americans say they are better off than a year ago and Trump’s approval rating in Iowa, a state he won by a double-digit margin in 2024, is deep in the red. The truth is, Trump and his GOP allies have spent the past year screwing working families, raising prices to benefit themselves and their powerful friends.
Here are the key facts about what’s actually happening in Trump’s terrible economy:
FACT: Farmers Are Struggling As A Result of Trump’s Terrible Trade Policies
- During his speech, Trump said he “loves” farmers and is “standing up” for them, but across Iowa farmers are struggling to survive because of his terrible trade policies.
- Farmers across the country have been caught in the middle of trade wars with top export partners like China, undermined by Trump’s $40 billion Argentina bailout, and had their labor force gutted by Trump’s massive deportation scheme.
- 88% of Iowa farmers agree that profit margins on corn and soybeans are dropping due to increased input costs.
- In late 2025, Iowa recorded the second-most farm bankruptcies in the country, the most since 2021, doubling 2024’s total.
- Iowa farm income is expected to decline 24% in 2026, dropping by $3 billion.
FACT: Trump Promised A Blue Collar Boom, The Opposite Has Happened
- Trump claimed that “economic growth is exploding” in his Iowa speech today and bragged about John Deere stock making his friends richer, but the company laid off over 100 Iowans last year because of his tariffs and the blue collar boom is a bust.
- Donald Trump promised a manufacturing and blue-collar jobs boom, but month after month, we’re losing blue-collar jobs. Factory jobs nationwide fell by 8,000 in December to the lowest level in four years, and there’s no end in sight with 10 straight months of contraction, 70,000 fewer jobs in the factory sector under Trump.
- Logistics, manufacturing, and supply-chain firms started 2026 with a fresh surge of layoffs, facility closures, and bankruptcy filings, impacting more than 2,200 workers nationwide already.
- In Iowa alone, the manufacturing sector lost 5,400 jobs between 2024 and 2025.
FACT: Job Growth Has Slowed To A Trickle Under Trump, And Over A Million People Have Been Laid Off
- Trump claimed tonight that our economy is “roaring” and workers are “thriving” but that will be news to the millions of Americans who have been laid off or are struggling to string together multiple jobs just to survive.
- Layoff announcements topped 1.1 million in 2025 – the most since the last time Trump was in office during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The native-born unemployment rate has actually risen since Trump took office, and overall unemployment has risen to a four-year high of 4.6%.
- Wage growth has shrunk since Trump took office.
- Outside of the two most recent recessions, 2025 saw the lowest pace of average monthly job growth since 2003. People are spending longer looking for jobs and millions of Americans are involuntarily working part-time or scrambling to string together multiple gigs just to survive.
- Iowa ranks 48th in the nation for personal income growth, is considered in or at high risk of recession, and was recently rated the worst state economy in the country.
FACT: Trump Said Today That “Inflation Has Been Defeated” And “You’re Not Hearing The Word Affordability Anymore” But Prices Are Still Soaring
- Appearing at a podium emblazoned with “LOWER PRICES” Trump falsely claimed that “inflation has been defeated” and “you’re not hearing the word affordability anymore because prices are coming down so much.” In a press appearance hours before his speech, Trump lied, “Groceries are going down.”
- A year into Trump’s term grocery prices are still rising. The overall cost of groceries in December was up 2.4% from a year ago. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs all went up in price over the last 12 months, rising 3.9%. Coffee prices rose 20% in 2025, and beef and veal prices reached record highs in 2025, rising nearly 15%.
- Energy bills have increased 13% since Trump took office and in Iowa, utilities and fuel costs have increased three times faster than regional inflation. Iowans’ winter heating bills are spiking this season, costing 20% more than last year.
- A recent poll found that Iowans are most concerned about stopping inflation and rising living costs.
FACT: Health Care Costs Are Going Up For Americans Under Trump, And Millions Will Lose Their Care All Together
- Trump claimed that he’s “fixing” the Affordable Care Act because premiums now cost many families more than a mortgage, but it’s his own policies that are the cause of skyrocketing premiums and millions of Americans losing their care all together.
- Over 24 million Americans are seeing their health care premiums skyrocket an average of 21% this year. Premiums are increasing an average of:
- The Trump-GOP Big, Ugly Bill kicks nearly 15 million people off their health insurance and cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid. 117,000 people across Iowa who buy health insurance on their own through the Affordable Care Act are seeing their coverage costs at least double on average this year after the Trump-GOP budget ripped away critical tax credits that make ACA coverage affordable.
- Hundreds of thousands of Americans are dropping coverage after Republicans ended the health care tax credits to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations – and it’s only going to get worse. Up to 115,000 Iowans stand to lose their health care because of Trump and Republicans’ deep health care cuts
- Nearly two-thirds of Iowans (61%) say their health care costs have increased.
- Across the country, over 600 health care facilities, including hospitals and clinics, are at risk of closing or reducing services, forcing more Americans to travel farther for maternity care and emergency rooms, and face longer wait times and higher costs. Iowa hospitals are estimated to lose $290 million a year due to Medicaid cuts alone.
- 86% of Iowans who buy insurance through the ACA say they would delay or skip care if Republicans ripped away tax credits.
FACT: Donald Trump’s “Favorite Word” – Tariffs Are Devastating The Economy And Driving Up Costs For American Families
- Trump claimed tonight that tariffs are making us a “rich country” but the reality is they’re making Americans poorer.
- Trump’s tariffs have cost the average American household nearly $1,200 since he took office.
- Prices have increased and American businesses are footing the bill for Trump’s tariffs.
- 80% of Iowa businesses surveyed last year expressed concerns about Trump’s tariffs.
- Housing costs are at an all-time high and the Trump tariffs are doing nothing but driving up new home costs by tens of thousands of dollars. The Center for American Progress estimates that tariff-induced higher building costs will lead to 450,000 fewer homes being built over the next five years, exacerbating the housing supply shortage.
- The Trump-GOP Big Ugly Bill takes food assistance away from at least 3 million Americans and eliminates school meal access for more than 18 million kids.
FACT: It’s Not “Fake News”: Americans Broadly Dislike Trump’s Cruel Immigration Policies As ICE Ravages Neighbors to the North in Minneapolis
- In an interview with Fox News before his speech Trump continued to spread hideous lies about his immigration policies and about Alex Pretti. And at his speech tonight Trump blatantly lied about how popular his cruel and deadly immigration policies are.
- Trump’s approval rating on immigration hit a record low this week. The latest Reuters/IPSOS poll published yesterday found a majority of Americans say Trump’s crackdown on immigration has gone too far. Just 39%of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing on immigration, down from 50% last February, and 58% say ICE agents have gone too far.
- A majority of Americans also disapprove of how immigration enforcement officers are handling their jobs, with a majority saying ICE’s tactics are “too forceful.”
- Since Trump took office, seven people have been shot and killed by federal immigration officers, including unarmed U.S. citizens.
- There have been at least 13 instances of immigration agents firing at or into civilian vehicles since July, and more than 40 cases of immigration agents using banned chokeholds and other moves that can cut off breathing.
- More than a third of the roughly 220,000 people arrested by ICE officers in the first nine months of the Trump administration had no criminal histories. In the highest profile ICE operations in Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and across Massachusetts, more than half of those arrested had no criminal record.
FACT: Americans Hate What Trump Has Done To The Economy
- Just 35% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance on the economy according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.
- 37% of Americans approve of how Trump is handling the economy, according to the latest AP-NORC poll.
- Just 36% of Americans approve of President Trump’s handling of the economy, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.
- 57% of Americans blame the current state of the U.S. economy on President Trump, according to the most recent Quinnipiac poll.
- Nearly half of Iowans now believe they will have a lower standard of living in the future.