Trump touts tax cuts to farmers amid immigration, trade concerns

WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump told a group of farmers on Monday that recent tax cuts and deregulation will revitalize the U.S. rural economy.

Trump's speech at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual conference in Nashville was his first policy address since Congress passed the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul. He said agricultural producers, businesses and workers will all benefit from the new legislation, and that easing regulations will get better biotechnology products into farmers' hands.

"The American Dream is roaring back to life," Trump said in prepared remarks. "Businesses across America have already started to raise wages."

While farmers overwhelmingly backed Trump in his 2016 campaign, some of his policies have raised concerns with them, including his threat to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, the tightening of immigration rules and cutting crop-insurance payments. Trump is the first sitting president in 26 years to address the Farm Bureau.

Farmers play a key economic role in rural areas, and their finances have struggled since the end of a commodities boom in 2013. Profits in 2017 are estimated to be less than half the record levels of four years earlier.

Trump also on Monday issued an executive order expanding rural broadband access to towers on federal lands and streamlining regulation to bring more digital technology to sparsely populated areas.

Trump used the moment to attack Democratic lawmakers, none whom supported the tax legislation: "Every Democrat in the House, and every Democrat in the Senate voted against tax cuts for American farmers," he said in the prepared remarks.

With offices in 2,795 of the nation's 3,144 counties, the farm bureau has a broad reach and has long been recognized as the most influential lobbying group for farmers in Washington. Agribusiness is listed as the 10th-biggest industry in campaign contributions, just behind energy and ahead of construction, transportation and defense, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington.

The farm bureau spent more than $3 million on lobbying in 2017, ranking second in agribusiness behind Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed company and pioneer of genetically modified crops.