AGRICULTURE/BORDER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “Facing people who have felt the full force of the partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump told a farmers convention Monday [1-14-19] that he is insisting on a border wall because of a ‘humanitarian crisis’ at the border…Telling the farmers ‘we’re going to have a wall, we’re going to have a barrier,’ Trump spent more time talking about border security than about the fallout from the shutdown that has hit farmers especially hard. One part of the government basically shuttered for more than three weeks – the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More than 25 minutes into his speech, Trump finally said that “the USDA is doing everything in its power to help the farmers” deal with the shutdown. Calling himself ‘a great friend of the farmer,’ Trump also asked Farm Bureau members to lobby Democratic members of Congress to end the shutdown by backing his plans for a border wall. Throughout the shutdown, farmers have complained that loan applications have not been processed, and crop payments have been suspended.”
–David Jackson and Michael Collins, “Donald Trump defends government shutdown to convention of hard-hit farmers,” USA Today, January 17, 2019 5:07 pm