Donald Trump has announced $8bn worth of economic aid for farmers hit by soaring diesel prices, as polling shows Republicans on course for a midterms drubbing. The president’s announcement came 15 days before a midterm election dominated by anger over rising fuel costs caused by the US war on Iran. Farmers in Kansas, a heavily agricultural state, have been hit hard by the consequences of the Iran war.
A gallon of diesel costs nearly $6, nearly double from this time a year ago. In August, the president upset cattle ranchers with a plan to reduce import tariffs to lower the price of beef and with aggressive immigration raids that prompted some agricultural workers to stay at home. Trump’s announcement came during a rally in Kansas on Monday night as Republicans faced mounting anger over the cost of living and the ongoing war in Iran.
As my colleague David Smith wrote last night: “The fact that Donald Trump was here at all said more about a looming electoral disaster facing his Republican party next month than anything contained in his dark and discursive 98-minute stump speech.” Trump seemed to acknowledge there was a risk Democrats could win in the state, where no Democrat has won a US Senate seat since 1932. As he stumped for first-term senator Roger Marshall, the president told the crowd: “You’re really sort of – I hate to say it – you’re sort of tending toward the purple,” the president told about 5,000 supporters in a multipurpose arena outside Wichita, acknowledging that Kansas already has a Democratic governor in Laura Kelly.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
