Trump Speech Doesn’t Mention Rural America

The Hagstrom Report says President Donald Trump’s first speech before Congress took a more moderate stance but noted that his speech “didn’t mention rural America.” Trump brought up immigration, suggesting a switch “away from lower-skilled immigration to a merit-based system.” While farm and labor leaders say the work done by farm workers is more skilled than most realize, farm labor is still classified as unskilled labor. Trump’s idea has Ag groups concerned that the White House still doesn’t understand how important immigrant labor is to the farm economy. North Dakota Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp notes some very good things in the President’s speech but says “I expressed concern when previous Presidents didn’t mention rural America and I have the same concerns about this speech. There wasn’t any mention of a farm bill or agricultural workers.” National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson says Trump failed to mention the words ‘rural,’ ‘farm,’ or ‘agriculture,’ but talked about policies that could have major impacts on rural America. “While he did focus on trade,” Johnson says, “our members are concerned that earlier harsh rhetoric has placed a strain on our trading partners