Question

Farmers overwhelmingly support Trump and Trump supports them. He can and will increase seasonal worker visas if they need them.

Answer 1

The claim itself is biased/opinionated in phrasing, but the farmer support and seasonal work visas claims are technically correct. 

Rural voters did largely vote for Trump according the 2024 AP VoteCast (around 63%, a 3% increase from the 2020 election). According to a poll from AgWeb, >70% farmers favored Trump's abilities regarding issues including inflation, farm policy and crop insurance, and trade expansion. 

As for supporting farmers via seasonal worker visas: While Trump hasn't spoken on increasing seasonal worker visas since his re-election, there is precedent to believe he would. "Seasonal work" visas fall under the H-2A program, which allows for 10 months of agricultural work. In his first term, Trump expanded the temporary work visa programs by 13%, according to FERM. That being said, "roughly half of hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status" (ERS), and according to the Trump's mass deportation plan, which is now underway, these farm workers would all be deported. It's expected that Trump will expand the H-2A program to meet this agricultural labor deficit. "The administration has signaled plans to expand these programs to meet labor shortages in agriculture and hospitality, while imposing stricter compliance requirements on employers." (EconoTimes) Brooke Rollins, Trump's pick to lead the USDA, said she "would work with lawmakers to modernize a temporary visa program for farmworkers." (New York Times)

AP VoteCast: A visual explainer of how key groups voted in 2024 | AP News

Presidential Poll Results: How Farmers and Economists View Candidates' Impact on Agriculture - AgWeb

How Trump’s deportation plan could actually increase migrant labor | Food and Environment Reporting Network

Farm Labor | Economic Research Service

Brooke Rollins, Trump’s Agriculture Pick, Addresses Tariff and Immigration Impact on Farmers - The New York Times

What changes will Donald Trump make to visa programs during his second term? - EconoTimes

Answer 2

The claim that “farmers overwhelmingly support Trump” is true. According to a graphic from Investigate Midwest, in the 2024 election, Trump won all but 11 of the 444 farming-dependent counties, with an average of 77.7% backing him. Regarding seasonal worker visas, which fall under the H-2A program, Trump previously expedited their processing during his first term (The Guardian) and stated in his campaign that H-2A labor is a “source of legal and verified labor for agriculture” (Investigate Midwest). This indicates past support for the program. However, since being re-elected, Trump has not explicitly addressed H-2A visas. Trump may expand the existing H-2 visa program to replace the labor force removed by his current mass deportation plan seeing as about 40% of US farmworkers are undocumented, according to FERN. However, the Project 2025 plan which former Trump administration officials authored proposes phasing down the H-2A visa program (The Guardian), so if Project 2025 were to be enacted, the number of H-2A visas would be reduced. Therefore, it is unclear whether Trump would actually support increasing seasonal worker visas at this time.  

https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/11/13/trump-election-farming-counties-trade-war/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/07/trump-immigration-trade-policy-farmer-votes

https://thefern.org/2025/01/how-trumps-deportation-plan-could-actually-increase-migrant-labor/

https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/11/15/us-could-rely-more-on-foreign-ag-workers-under-trump-high-demand-is-already-straining-the-government/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/11/mass-deportations-food-chain-california

Answer 3

Farming dependent counties support for trump increased by 2% since the 2020 election with a total of 77.7% supporting him in 2025. Farm dependent counties are places with at least 25% of annual income deriving from farming, and/or 16% of jobs are in farming.

It actually is true that Trumps administration will need to increase their handouts of migrant worker visas, especially if trump proceeds with his deportation policies. Since at least 70% of agricultural workers are foreign born and around 40% are undocumented, forcing these people to leave the US would cause major problems in the functionality of food industry.

H-2 programs create seasonal work visas for "unskilled workers". H-2A workers are specifically brought in for agriculture help. The Food and environment Reporting Network says "the number of H-2A workers that farmers brought into the country spiked by over 64 percent between 2017 and 2022 and has continued to grow" . Though there are a lot of problems with mistreatment by authority in these programs, their existence will not diminish, but will rather most likely expand during Trump's term. Since the US's food system is so reliant on migrant workers, even with deportation, H-2 visas will need to be available as to prevent a huge loss of production. [3] In fact, Trumps administration has already planned to expand these programs to help face labor shortages.

[1]https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/11/13/trump-election-farming-counties-trade-war/

[2]https://thefern.org/2025/01/how-trumps-deportation-plan-could-actually-increase-migrant-labor/

[3]https://www.econotimes.com/What-changes-will-Donald-Trump-make-to-visa-programs-during-his-second-term-1698165