Trump Goes to Dairy Country, Talks About D.C. Décor

On Friday, June 5, President Trump made his first Wisconsin visit of his second term, landing at Custer Farms in Chippewa Falls for what was billed as an agricultural roundtable.

Wisconsin farmers are under real economic pressure. Fertilizer costs, energy prices, and trade uncertainty have been battering the agricultural sector for months. Trump's net approval rating in Wisconsin hit an all-time low in the March Marquette Law School Poll — 42% approval, 56% disapproval, a net of minus 14, according to WisPolitics.

This was a trip that demanded a tight, on-message performance. Instead, according to WisPolitics and CNN, Trump spent a significant portion of the event discussing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, Washington D.C. fountains, and the repainting of the reflecting pool basin. He held up a picture of the pool and told the room it had been completed in roughly a month at far less cost than originally projected.

"It was going to take four years, $400 million. It took really about a month," Trump said, per the Raw Story clip that circulated Friday.

He also praised two local congressmen — Rep. Derrick Van Orden and Rep. Tom Tiffany, both Republicans — and backed Tiffany's gubernatorial run. Olympic gold medalist speed skater Jordan Stolz was there and put his medal around Trump's neck, which the president wore for part of the event.

Trump did promise farmers that fertilizer prices, energy costs, and oil prices are coming down — crediting his administration's policies, including movement on Iran. "We're going to come out and your fertilizer prices are going to go way down just like they were four months ago," he said, according to WisPolitics.

But the event was, by multiple accounts, dominated by Trump speaking rather than farmers.

The Reflecting Pool Numbers Don't Add Up

Trump has publicly put the Reflecting Pool renovation cost at $1.5 million to $2 million. According to PBS NewsHour and the Associated Press, federal contract records show at least $14.8 million in contracts has been awarded for the project. That is a 7-to-10x discrepancy.

The project was announced in April after Trump said a friend visiting from Germany called the pool "dark and disgusting." The basin was painted what Trump calls "American flag blue." According to PBS, the administration confirmed in a court filing it would be refilled with water no later than Sunday, June 7.

Washington and surrounding states are currently facing drought conditions, according to PBS. The pool holds roughly 6.5 million gallons — equivalent to about 10 Olympic-size swimming pools.

What the Media Is Getting Wrong

Left-leaning outlets and progressive social media ran hard with a clip of Trump appearing to momentarily lose the name "Washington Monument" mid-sentence. Raw Story ran it under a headline about 25th Amendment calls. Progressive accounts like Harry Sisson and MeidasTouch called it evidence of cognitive decline.

Trump stammered mid-sentence while describing the Reflecting Pool — which sits between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. He recovered and continued. Calling that a "cognitive exam failure," as MeidasTouch did, is partisan spin dressed up as medical analysis. None of those commentators are neurologists. It was an awkward moment.

At the same time, right-leaning media and the White House have largely glossed over the gap between the $2 million claim and the $14.8 million in awarded contracts. That discrepancy deserves a straight answer, and it hasn't gotten one.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the Wisconsin Democrat, said on a pre-visit call that Trump's policies have hurt rather than helped farmers — a charge Trump was there specifically to rebut. Neither side has offered clean data on net farm income changes since January 2025.

Andrew Bates, a former Biden White House deputy press secretary, captured the optics problem bluntly: Trump's "message to the farmers paying higher prices is that he's having fun redecorating DC with taxpayer money."

Trump's trip to the Reflecting Pool while visiting struggling farmers created a political problem regardless of the project's merits.

The Bottom Line

Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes and a history of swinging elections. Trump lost it in 2020. The farmers he visited Friday are dealing with real input cost pressures, and they showed up to hear the president make their case.

Instead, they got Washington Monument fountain updates.

The Reflecting Pool itself is a fine project — whether it costs $2 million or $14.8 million is a legitimate question for Congress and the press. But spending taxpayer money to beautify D.C. while telling struggling farmers that prices are coming down requires actual proof.

Trump has until November 2026 — and a Wisconsin Senate seat on the ballot — to show Wisconsin the data. Showing them pool photos won't cut it.