President Donald Trump traveled to Custer Farms in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin on June 5, 2026, for a roundtable with agricultural producers, Wisconsin lawmakers, celebrity guests, and local business leaders — delivering a freewheeling defense of his farm policy record while making a series of sweeping economic and national security claims. Trump touted a surprise-beating May jobs report, promised farmers that energy and fertilizer prices would soon fall as the U.S. military operation in Iran winds down, and announced that he sees the elimination of the estate tax and year-round E15 ethanol as signature wins for agriculture. The visit, held in a working dairy barn on a multigenerational family farm, also featured a cameo from Wisconsin-born two-time Olympic gold medalist Jordan Stolz and NFL Hall of Famer Joe Thomas — giving the president a high-profile stage ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Assistance from Claude AI.
Participants
| Name | Title/Role |
|---|---|
| Donald Trump | President of the United States |
| Brooke Rollins | U.S. Secretary of Agriculture |
| Ron Johnson | U.S. Senator (R-WI) |
| Tom Tiffany | U.S. Representative (R-WI); candidate for Wisconsin Governor |
| Derrick Van Orden | U.S. Representative (R-WI) |
| Joe Thomas | NFL Hall of Fame offensive lineman; owner, Hall of Fame Farms, Muscatine, WI |
| Jake Leinenkugel | Former President, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company |
| Ken Custer | Owner, Custer Farms, Chippewa Falls, WI (host) |
| Jamie Witcpalek | Dairy farmer |
| Jordan Stolz | Two-time gold medalist, 2026 Winter Olympics (speed skating); Wisconsin native |
| Unidentified participants | Several farmers/agricultural producers (not identified by name in transcript) |
ℹ️ About Custer Farms: This is a working multigenerational dairy operation in Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin — currently in its third generation of family ownership. The setting is deliberately chosen: Wisconsin is one of the nation’s top dairy states, and Chippewa Falls is squarely in the heart of agricultural country.
Opening: Media Jabs, Iran, and the Mood of the Room
Trump opened by disclosing he had just done an interview with NBC News — calling it “fake news” to audience boos — from a barn during a rainstorm, which put him in a bad mood. He quickly pivoted to political framing, warning that a Democratic victory in the 2026 midterms would mean the country is “finished” and characterizing Democrats as “some very sick puppies.” He coined his recurring wordplay: “Dumocrats — D-U-M — you take out the B and change the E.”
The tone throughout was equal parts policy briefing, political rally, and stand-up routine — classic Trump roundtable style.
The Iran Military Operation: What Trump Said
Perhaps the most striking portion of Trump’s remarks concerned the ongoing U.S. military operation against Iran, which he said is nearing resolution and which he connected directly to the farm economy.
On Iran’s nuclear program and the operation’s goal:
“We had to extinguish a nuclear weapon — a capable country that was going to have a massive nuclear presence, and we weren’t going to let that happen. And we’ve largely finished that, one way or the other. It’s either finished with a piece of paper or finished a more difficult way.”
On Iran’s Navy:
“Iran, they have no Navy. 159 ships in four days. Even Ken is impressed by that — four days, 159 ships at the bottom of the sea.”
⚠️ MISLEADING — The “159 ships in four days” figure is significantly overstated and does not match military reporting. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Admiral Brad Cooper stated in a March 5-6, 2026 press briefing that the U.S. had destroyed “over 30 ships” in the first five days of Operation Epic Fury. Over the broader campaign — which continued for weeks — Wikipedia’s summary of Operation Project Freedom notes that “over 150 warships across 16 classes” were ultimately destroyed across multiple phases of operations. But the claim that 159 ships were sunk specifically “in four days” has no basis in contemporaneous military briefings (Cooper, 2026; Malay Mail, 2026). Iran’s entire active naval fleet also numbered far fewer than 159 major combatants. Trump appears to be conflating the broader multi-week campaign total with a four-day timeframe.
On fertilizer and fuel prices:
Trump made an economic promise directly tied to the Iran conflict: once the operation concludes, fertilizer and fuel prices — which have risen during the conflict — will fall back to where they were or lower.
“Your fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four months ago. Your fertilizers down, your energy’s down, your oil, your gas is all coming way down.”
He also recalled seeing $1.85-per-gallon gasoline in Iowa just before the operation began, and pledged to return to those levels.
🔍 UNVERIFIABLE. Whether fertilizer and fuel prices will return to pre-conflict levels depends on the outcome and timeline of the Iran operation. The directional claim — that energy prices were lower before the conflict and could return to those levels — is accurate in its premise; the promise of specific price levels is a forward-looking pledge that cannot be verified at the time of the statement.
May Jobs Report: Numbers That Beat Expectations (With a Caveat)
Trump drew on the May 2026 Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report, released the same morning, as a centerpiece of his economic case.
“172,000 jobs were created in May. That’s about four times higher than anticipated. Experts predicted 30,000 jobs. These are the strongest job numbers of the entire administration so far, and that’s during this [Iran] conflict.”
✅ ACCURATE — The 172,000 job figure is confirmed by the official BLS Employment Situation report for May 2026, released June 5, 2026 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026). The report also showed the unemployment rate held at 4.3 percent.
⚠️ MISLEADING — on the forecast figure. Trump claimed “experts predicted 30,000 jobs,” making the May number appear roughly five times better than expected. In reality, the mainstream pre-report consensus estimate was approximately 80,000 to 85,000 jobs (Fox Business, 2026; CNBC, 2026; LSEG polls). The actual number was about double the consensus estimate — a genuine and significant surprise, but not the five-fold beat Trump described. Saying “four times higher” than 30,000 misrepresents the actual forecast.
Trump also credited his administration for upward revisions to prior months:
“The previous two months, we were revised upward by nearly 100,000 jobs.”
✅ ACCURATE. The BLS revised March upward by 29,000 and April upward by 64,000, for a combined revision of 93,000 additional jobs — which does round to “nearly 100,000” (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026).
Trump added a note about the stock market and interest rates, arguing that good economic news should push markets up rather than down, and previewing his incoming Fed chair:
“We have a great gentleman coming in, Kevin Warsh. He’s going to do a fantastic job at the fed. We’re getting rid of ‘too-late.’”
✅ ACCURATE. Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, was nominated by Trump to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair. Trump’s nickname “too-late” is his derisive label for Powell, whom he has frequently criticized for what Trump characterizes as delayed rate decisions.
Border Security: A “Zero” That Needs a Closer Look
Border security came up not by farmer request but by Trump’s own desire to tout his record — a brief comedic exchange with (implied) Senator Johnson suggests advisors told him voters have moved on, but he insisted on addressing it anyway.
“For the last 12 months, zero people have come into our country through our southern border, zero.”
⚠️ MISLEADING. The “zero” figure refers specifically to zero releases of apprehended individuals by U.S. Border Patrol into the interior of the United States — a genuine milestone that DHS has tracked consecutively since approximately May 2025. However, thousands of people per month are still being apprehended at the southern border — the April 2026 figure was 8,943 southwest border apprehensions, and the April data showed a 12-consecutive-month trend of releases at zero (Department of Homeland Security, 2026). Crossings have fallen dramatically — roughly 94 percent below Biden-era peaks — but characterizing this as “zero people have come into our country” overstates the case. The correct framing is that no apprehended individuals were being released; apprehensions themselves continue.
Trump also repeated a figure he has used frequently:
“25 million people came in through Sleepy Joe Biden.”
⚠️ MISLEADING. Official CBP data shows that during the Biden administration, southwest border encounters totaled roughly 6 to 8 million over four years — a historic high, but far below 25 million. The inflated figure appears to aggregate all enforcement encounters, possibly including multiple apprehensions of the same individuals. Trump has used this number repeatedly without credible sourcing.
Farm Policy: The Record and the Claims
This was the heart of the roundtable. Trump moved through a lengthy list of farm-specific policy accomplishments. Here is a detailed breakdown of each major item:
The Estate Tax (“Death Tax”) for Farms
Trump described the elimination of the estate tax on family farms as one of his most important accomplishments for agriculture:
“We got rid of the estate tax, or the death tax… if you have a farm like this, someday it’s going to come the time. The father would die, the mother would die, leave it to the kids. The kids would have a big estate tax problem — they’d go to the bank, borrow a lot of money.”
⚠️ MISLEADING. The One Big Beautiful Bill (signed July 4, 2025) did not eliminate the federal estate tax. It permanently raised the exemption to $15 million per individual ($30 million for married couples), indexed for inflation — a very significant and farm-friendly change (Pierce Atwood, 2025). But the estate tax itself remains at a 40 percent rate on assets above that threshold. FactCheck.org (2026) noted that only a small fraction of farms actually pays the estate tax, and the bill significantly reduced that fraction further. Trump’s use of phrases like “we got rid of the death tax” is therefore an exaggeration of real but more modest legislative accomplishment.
Bonus Depreciation and Equipment Expensing
“We gave you 100 percent expensing and bonus depreciation. So when you buy a new tractor or anything else you buy, you’re allowed to deduct it… the full cost of the tractors, one year, any equipment, one year, all.”
✅ ACCURATE. The One Big Beautiful Bill made 100 percent bonus depreciation permanent (AgAmerica, 2025). This allows farmers to immediately deduct the full purchase cost of equipment — tractors, buildings, improvements — in the year of purchase rather than depreciating it over many years. This is a genuinely significant benefit for capital-intensive farm operations.
E15 Year-Round
“We eliminated all unnecessary restrictions on sales of E15. And I’ve made it clear that we’re going to go E15 all year round.”
✅ ACCURATE. The Trump administration has actively moved to allow year-round sale of E15 (gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol), removing seasonal restrictions that previously limited sales during summer months in many states. This was a top priority of corn-state lawmakers and ethanol producers (Van Orden, 2026, transcript).
ℹ️ Context for general readers: E15 matters enormously to Midwestern farmers because corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol. Expanding E15 sales creates additional demand for corn, supporting prices. The previous summer restriction was based on air quality concerns that critics say were outdated.
Right to Repair
“To stop major equipment manufacturers from restricting you from fixing your own farm equipment, we gave you the right to repair.”
✅ ACCURATE. The administration issued executive action supporting right to repair for agricultural equipment — addressing the longstanding complaint that manufacturers like John Deere required farmers to bring equipment back to authorized dealers for repairs, even when farmers were capable of doing the work themselves.
Electric Vehicle Mandate Terminated
“On day one, I terminated the insane electric vehicle mandate. They wanted your tractors to be all electric.”
✅ ACCURATE in broad terms. Trump rescinded Biden-era EPA rules and executive guidance that had accelerated the transition to electric vehicles. The application to agricultural equipment was more indirect than “they wanted your tractors to be all electric” suggests, but the repeal of EV mandates was a real Day One action.
Trump also used this section to note his relationship with Elon Musk had become strained and then repaired: “Elon, he had a bad moment, but now he’s a friend of mine again. He had a very bad moment. He’s 80 percent brilliant and 20 percent, he’s got little, bad moments.”
Diesel Exhaust Fluid Requirement Terminated
“I terminated the ridiculous so-called diesel exhaust fluid requirement.”
✅ ACCURATE. Trump signed executive orders rolling back EPA emissions requirements including diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) mandates for agricultural equipment.
Waters of the United States Repeal
“I repealed the Biden-era EPA — ludicrous — crazy waters of the United States… it was like taking your land away from you.”
✅ ACCURATE. Trump repealed the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which had expanded federal jurisdiction over bodies of water on private land. The rule was widely criticized by farmers and landowners who said it gave the federal government authority over puddles, drainage ditches, and seasonal wet areas on their property, effectively limiting how they could use their own land.
ℹ️ Context for general readers: WOTUS was one of the most contentious environmental rules in recent memory. Supporters said it protected headwaters and wetlands critical to water quality. Opponents — including farmers, home builders, and property rights advocates — said it was regulatory overreach that treated muddy fields like protected waters.
Farm Relief Payments ($12 Billion This Term, $28 Billion Last)
“We massively expanded crop insurance and issued a historic $12 billion in Farm Relief.”
✅ ACCURATE. On December 8, 2025, Trump announced $12 billion in Farmer Bridge Payments through a new USDA Farmer Bridge Assistance program, with $11 billion directed to row crop farmers and $1 billion reserved for specialty crops (USDA, 2025).
“In the first term, I got the farmers $28 billion.”
✅ ACCURATE. The Market Facilitation Program (MFP) in Trump’s first term paid approximately $28 billion to farmers in 2018 and 2019 to compensate for losses from China’s retaliatory tariffs (CNBC, 2020; ABC News, 2025).
ℹ️ Nuance worth noting: A CNBC analysis found that roughly 95 percent of MFP payments went to the top half of recipients by farm size, with large farms receiving disproportionate shares. Critics argued the payments primarily benefited large agribusinesses rather than family farms (CNBC, 2020). A similar early analysis of the current $12 billion bridge payments found comparable distribution patterns (Environmental Working Group, 2026).
Trade and Farm Income: Big Numbers in Context
Farm Income Up 20 Percent
“In my first year back in the Oval Office, average farm incomes for agricultural producers in our country have skyrocketed by more than 20 percent.”
〜 APPROXIMATELY ACCURATE WITH IMPORTANT CONTEXT. USDA’s Economic Research Service forecast net farm income (NFI) to increase by approximately 26.4 percent in 2025, which is consistent with Trump’s “more than 20 percent” claim (USDA ERS, 2025). However, the USDA analysis notes that the majority of this increase came from a surge in direct government payments — from $9.6 billion in 2024 to $42.4 billion in 2025 — rather than from market conditions or trade policy (USDA ERS, 2025). The headline number is real; attributing it primarily to Trump policy is an oversimplification.
Trade Deals and Dairy Exports
Secretary Rollins stated that “19 new trade deals have been struck” and that “the markets have opened around the world.” Trump referenced his recent meeting with President Xi Jinping and a deal for China to purchase “billions and billions of dollars’ worth of soybeans.”
“Dairy exports have surged nearly $1.2 billion under our leadership.”
Trump also listed dairy export increases to specific regions: 41 percent to Japan, 48 percent to the Middle East, 61 percent to the EU, 63 percent to South Asia, and 85 percent to Australia.
🔍 UNVERIFIABLE FROM AVAILABLE SOURCES at the time of this writing. The directional claim — that dairy exports have risen since Trump returned to office — is consistent with USDA’s market access activities. The specific percentages and the $1.2 billion figure have not been independently verified here against USDA export data.
Washington, D.C. Beautification: The Reflecting Pool Story
In a lengthy and enthusiastic digression, Trump presented before-and-after photos of the National Mall’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which he said his administration repaired for approximately $10 million in about one month — against an earlier estimate of $400 million over four years.
“Barack Hussein Obama spent — and Joe Biden — they spent a total of about $150 million trying to fix it. They never got it opened. I sent my pool guy.”
Trump described applying industrial pool coating to the reflecting pool rather than undertaking a full stone-and-granite rebuild: “I said, why can’t we use wonderful material, which is thick, pasty, beautiful, like rubber, but industrial strength? And let’s pick the color blue from the American flag.”
🔍 PARTIALLY VERIFIABLE. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has had a long documented history of leaking and repair challenges. The pool did undergo significant renovation work during the Obama administration. Trump’s specific cost figures ($10 million vs. $400 million; one month vs. four years) reflect his own administration’s characterizations and have not been independently audited here. The basic premise — that a pool-coating approach was significantly cheaper than a full stone reconstruction — is architecturally plausible. The pool appears to have reopened as Trump described.
The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act
Multiple participants celebrated Trump’s signing of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which allows whole milk to be served in schools — reversing a longstanding federal policy that had limited school milk to lower-fat varieties.
Dairy farmer Jamie Witcpalek said: “Whole milk provides essential nutrients that our kids need for bone growth, muscle growth, and brain development.”
Rep. Derrick Van Orden framed it in terms of school lunch markets: “You just reopened every single domestic market in our schools, and that is amazing for the MAHA movement, for our kids and for our dairy farmers.”
✅ ACCURATE. The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act was signed into law. The legislation reversed USDA nutrition standards that had required schools to offer only fat-free or low-fat milk. The change is significant for Wisconsin’s dairy industry, which produces substantial quantities of whole milk.
The Farm Bill
“Now we’re working with Congress to quickly pass the new Farm Bill. We’re very well into — we got some great approvals, the hardest approvals, and I think we’re very well on our way to getting the Farm Bill finished and approved.”
ℹ️ Context for general readers: The U.S. Farm Bill is a sweeping piece of legislation passed roughly every five years that governs agricultural subsidies, crop insurance, food assistance (SNAP), conservation programs, and rural development. The most recent Farm Bill had been operating under extensions and was overdue for reauthorization. Trump’s comment suggests active negotiation but no final passage as of June 5, 2026.
Roundtable Participants’ Remarks: Key Points
Secretary Brooke Rollins offered the most substantive policy remarks among the invited guests. She said the administration inherited a $50 billion agricultural trade deficit from the Biden administration and has since struck 19 new trade deals that are reopening global markets. She said records are expected across dairy, tree nuts, corn, and ethanol.
Sen. Ron Johnson praised Trump for transforming the Republican Party into “the party of the working men and women in this country” and acknowledged farmers understand the challenges inherited from the Biden years.
Rep. Tom Tiffany — running for Wisconsin governor — thanked Trump for the Whole Milk bill and for restored forest management. He raised the issue of wind and solar development on agricultural land, saying the conversion of farmland to intermittent energy sources had “led to higher utility rates and the destruction of our farmland.”
Rep. Derrick Van Orden listed specific Wisconsin wins: $50 million in federal funding for clean coal, a $50 billion rural health care infrastructure bill bringing over $200 million to Wisconsin, the Whole Milk bill, and year-round E15.
🔍 NOTE: The $50 billion rural health care infrastructure bill cited by Rep. Van Orden could not be independently verified in available sources at the time of this writing.
Joe Thomas — the NFL Hall of Famer who now runs Hall of Fame Farms in Muscatine, Wisconsin, raising Wagyu and Angus beef — used his time to advocate for small meat processing and packing plants, arguing that dependence on the four major beef packers creates bottlenecks, higher consumer costs, and lower farm-gate prices. He praised Secretary Rollins’s “small processors action plan.”
Jake Leinenkugel of the famous Wisconsin brewing family expressed gratitude from the craft brewing industry, noting that farmers supply the barley, malt, wheat, and corn essential to brewing.
Ken Custer, the host and farm owner, offered a brief, heartfelt statement: “I thank you for being who you are, the integrity that you hold, doing what you say you’re going to do.” He echoed the recurring refrain from farmers: “We can compete with anybody in the world. We need fair trade.”
An unidentified farmer raised a pointed concern about market concentration in agriculture: four seed and chemical companies control 78 percent of the market; three fertilizer companies control 90 percent; four beef companies control 85 percent of the beef market. “Our inputs just rise with the commodity prices,” he said, asking for help addressing monopolization. Trump’s response was brief: “Good. That’s right. Thank you.”
The same or another unidentified participant mentioned his pipeline construction business — noting his workforce fell from 8,000 to 1,200-1,500 employees under the current environment — and raised the Glenfarne Alaska gas pipeline project, asking for White House support. Trump replied, “We’ll take care of it.”
Olympic Star: Jordan Stolz
Trump introduced Jordan Stolz — a 21-year-old Wisconsin native who won gold medals in both the 500m and 1000m speed skating events at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan — setting Olympic records in both events (Olympics.com, 2026).
Trump briefly confiscated one of Stolz’s gold medals for comic effect: “I’m keeping it. I’m never giving this back. I like gold.” He then asked Stolz about his future plans.
Stolz said: “I plan to be doing it until 2030. Salt Lake City in 2034 — that’ll be on home soil.”
✅ ACCURATE. Stolz did win two gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan (in the 500m and 1000m) plus a silver in the 1500m, making him one of the most decorated American speed skaters since Eric Heiden in 1980 (NBC Olympics, 2026; US Speedskating, 2026).
Election Integrity and the California Race
Trump pivoted to criticize ongoing vote counting in what he characterized as a California election still unresolved four days after polls closed:
“You’re going to be waiting weeks to get these votes. It’s corrupt. Because with their policies, the only way they can get elected is to cheat.”
He promoted his SAVE America Act, which includes voter ID requirements, citizenship verification, and restrictions on mail-in ballots. He also mentioned he had added provisions prohibiting men in women’s sports and transgender surgery on minors to the legislation.
Closing Remarks
Trump closed the roundtable with a brief inventory of foreign policy developments beyond Iran — noting “a tremendous success” in Venezuela and “amazing oil business” now operating there — before offering general praise for the assembled farmers:
“You built this country. Not the complainers, not the wise guys. You built this country.”
MLA Citation
“Remarks: Donald Trump Joins a Roundtable on Agriculture in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin — June 5, 2026.” Factbase, powered by FiscalNote StressLens / CQ and Roll Call, 5 June 2026, factba.se. Transcript.
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