Wisconsin farmer responds to Tom Tiffany’s defense of Trump’s tariffs: ‘Tariffs are killing farms’

Wisconsin dairy farmer Les Danielson says every farmer he knows will be out of business soon because of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies which U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany’s (R-WI) recently applauded.

In a statement obtained by Heartland Signal, Danielson did not mince words while responding to Tiffany’s recent interview with NOTUS, where the Republican gubernatorial candidate defended Trump’s tariffs by saying, “Wisconsin, at the end of the day, is going to benefit as we bring manufacturing back to the state.”

In his statement, Danielson endorsed Democratic candidate Mandela Barnes’ economic platform. Barnes is Tiffany’s possible opponent in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race later this year. 

“Tom Tiffany is supposed to be representing our interests in Congress, instead he’s just worried about staying on Trump’s nice list,” Danielson said. “I’m the fourth-generation farmer of our family farm and I can tell you, by the time that day comes, every farmer I know will be gone and out of business. Family farmers are already hanging on by a thread. You can only run in the red for so long before there’s nothing left. Mandela Barnes gets that and has a plan to fight for farmers like me by taking on corporate interests and standing up to Trump and his tariffs that are killing farms. Not telling us to wait it out while we go under.”

Barnes, who led a field of nine Democratic primary candidates for governor in a recent poll conducted by TIPP Insights, said Tiffany’s support for Trump’s policies will hurt farmers if he is elected governor.

“Farmers don’t have until ‘the end of the day.’ We are already seeing eight times more farm bankruptcies than just a year ago under Trump and Tiffany’s agenda,” Barnes said. “Our farmers don’t need a governor who asks them to wait patiently for Trump’s broken promises while they struggle every day. They need a governor who rejects the Washington Way—bailing out foreign countries while tariffs tank our soybean markets—and gets things done the Wisconsin Way. As Governor, I will fight to lower costs, keep farms in the family, and actually show up for the people who feed this state and country.”

Tiffany’s campaign did not respond to Heartland Signal’s questions, which included how and when Trump’s policies will help American farmers.

16 Wisconsin farms filed for bankruptcy last year

The American Farm Bureau Federation published a report earlier this month showing that Chapter 12 bankruptcies for farmers across the country were 46% higher last year compared to 2024. Of the 315 filings in 2025, Wisconsin saw 16 farms file for bankruptcy in Trump’s first year in office, up from just two in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

David Krekeler, a bankruptcy attorney based in Madison, Wis., told Wisconsin Public Radio this week that farmers often exhaust all financial options before filing for bankruptcy, including retirement accounts and maxing out loans.

“It’s the rare case that somebody comes to me early,” Krekeler said. “They often wait until it is too late, when the options are very, very limited.”

Last December, Trump’s Department of Agriculture announced a $12 billion bailout for farmers. However, Wisconsin agricultural experts told NOTUS that the bailout is a short-term solution that won’t fix farmers’ revenue problem.

“They [financial bailouts] don’t solve the long-run problem of higher input costs and low prices; they are a Band-Aid to get us through this short-term problem,” said Renk Agribusiness Institute Director Paul Mitchell.

On Feb. 3, The New York Times reported that a bipartisan group of agricultural experts sent a letter to the Senate Agricultural Committee detailing the significant financial harm Trump’s tariffs are doing to farmers.

“Unfortunately, the indiscriminate and haphazard nature of the current tariff policies have not revitalized American manufacturing and have significantly damaged the American farm economy,” a portion of the letter reads. “By placing tariffs on farm inputs — from fertilizer, to farm chemicals, to machinery parts — the Administration’s tariffs have increased prices for farm inputs and have pushed the cost of production well above commodity prices.”

Manufacturing jobs shrunk in 2025

Tiffany’s manufacturing job growth assurance echoes the empty promise Trump made to revitalize the industry. Contrary to Trump’s claims that the economy is booming, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that nearly 70,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs were lost in 2025.

A Feb. 11 report from the Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee said that the figure is closer to 108,000 jobs lost.

“While President Trump promised us a manufacturing boom, the reality of his first year has been a bust,” said U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee. “It is critical for both our national security and our economic future that we grow our manufacturing sector. The President has instead spent his first year burdening manufacturers with reckless tariffs, and this loss of jobs is the result.”

The Wisconsin governor’s race

Tiffany, 68, has served in the U.S. House since 2020, after nine years in the Wisconsin state legislature. 

Tiffany entered the Wisconsin gubernatorial race last August, and he is the frontrunner to win the Republican primary. During Trump’s second administration, Tiffany has routinely championed and voted for Trump’s economic policies.

Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) defends Attorney General Pam Bondi’s disastrous testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee meeting yesterday to Newsmax.

“I thought Attorney General Bondi really hit the nail on the head … when she… pic.twitter.com/urWCvdt0Hz

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) February 12, 2026

Tiffany garnered an endorsement from Trump last month, who said the Wisconsin representative has “always been by his side.” 

Barnes, 39, previously served as Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor from 2019-23. He stepped down to pursue an unsuccessful U.S. Senate run against Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) in 2022.