HOLMEN, WIS. — Randy Messelt thought little of President Trump’s recent trip to central Wisconsin to announce tens of billions of dollars in additional federal aid for farmers.
Messelt, 54, a lifelong Democrat, was one of the many Wisconsin farmers who helped tip the presidential election to Trump in 2016 because he felt Hillary Clinton and other Democrats had neglected the needs of rural America. But just one year into Trump’s administration, Messelt was ruined financially due to a long-running crisis in dairy country, exacerbated by the president’s international trade wars. His son, Timothy Messelt, 26, who planned to inherit the farm that had been passed down for five generations, killed himself as the family business collapsed and he went through a breakup.