Trump-Voting Farmer Says Prez Has Pushed Her Toward Dems
“We want change,” cattle farmer Shanen Ebersole said.
An Iowa farmer who voted for Trump says she’s ready to switch parties a year into his second term.
In a report analyzing the opinions of Iowa voters ahead of the midterm elections, CNN’s John King spoke with Shannon Ebersole, a cattle rancher in Killerton. She said that some of President Donald Trump’s actions since January have deeply disappointed her.
Initially a supporter of Nikki Haley, Ms. Ebersole ultimately voted for Trump, convinced that his policies would benefit her family farm. A year later, she believes the economy has improved and illegal border crossings have decreased under Trump’s presidency. She gives him an overall rating of 3 out of 5.
However, she is dismayed by his $20 billion bailout plan for the Argentine meat industry, which disadvantages local farmers like herself, as well as his controversial plan to annex Greenland.
“I’m totally against it,” Ms. Ebersole said, referring to Trump’s proposed annexation of Greenland. “We need to focus on the 50 states we have.”
When King asked her if she was open to the idea of voting for a Democratic candidate, Ebersole responded firmly: “Absolutely.”
“I think you have to vote for the person who best represents your interests,” she said. “With every new election, I remain open to all possibilities.”
“We want change,” Ebersole added. “We need renewal.”
She said she believes that members of Congress, preoccupied with their own money and power, forget about family farmers like her, and she wishes there was more room for bipartisan compromise on important issues like healthcare.
“I wish the people in Washington would cooperate like cattle,” she said. “They need to find a way to cooperate for our sake, because that’s why we, the taxpayers, pay them.”
Trump’s actions during his second term have bewildered many Americans.
The 79-year-old US president jeopardized the integrity of NATO, the world’s most powerful military alliance, by repeatedly threatening to seize Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory—an invasion he refuses to rule out, even by military force. “Whether they like it or not, we’re going to have Greenland,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on January 11.
On Sunday, in a surprising letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump revealed that his ambitions regarding the world’s largest island were linked to his not being awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, for which he was not eligible.
“Since your country decided not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize for preventing eight wars, I no longer feel obligated to think solely about peace, although it will always remain a priority, but I can now consider what is good and right for the United States of America,” Trump wrote in his reply to the Norwegian leader, who has no say in the decisions made by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
