He did, however, have something to say to the very first question he was asked – and oddly enough, it involved Australia.
A woman whose son owns a cattle ranch wanted to know how Trump’s sweeping program of worldwide tariffs would affect him in the market, and over the long term.
Some voters want to know what Republicans in Congress are doing to rein in President Donald Trump.Credit: AP
“It’s too early to make a judgment,” Grassley began. “For instance, one benefit might be from the fact that Australia today doesn’t take our beef. So if Australia is one of those 100 countries that have come to Washington now to negotiate because Trump puts the tariffs on, and we can get our beef into Australia, that would be to his benefit.
“But it could also be negative from the standpoint that … when you put something negative like a tariff on some country, they seem to retaliate against agriculture. I think it’s probably more grain than it is livestock.”
Australian diplomats are not rushing to renegotiate with the Trump administration, largely because the government is in caretaker mode ahead of the election. But they should know that from the town halls of country Iowa to the farms of Kentucky, Australia’s reluctance to accept US beef is a hot topic.
I say “reluctance” because it’s not as straightforward as Grassley makes it sound. Australia has agreed to allow American beef products into the country, but only if it can be verified as born, raised and slaughtered in the US. The US routinely imports Canadian and Mexican cattle into its supply chain.
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Senators and members of Congress are back in their home states for the two-week Easter break. But very few Republicans are holding public meetings with their constituents. Party leaders instructed them to avoid in-person events after unhappy voters vented their frustrations about Trump and Elon Musk during the previous recess.
As such, there was an unusual level of interest in Grassley’s tiny town hall session in regional Iowa. “I’ve been doing this for 45 years and haven’t had this much media in most of my meetings,” he remarked.
A softly spoken gentleman dressed in an old-school suit and vest, Grassley was sometimes steamrolled by the lively and partisan crowd. “You’re not doing your job,” one woman shouted. A man sitting up the front wearing a “Make Lying Wrong Again” cap wanted to know what Grassley and his Republican colleagues were doing to rein in Trump’s brazen use of executive power.
Grassley said the only tool the Congress had in that regard was impeachment. “And you missed that opportunity in his first administration,” the man replied, wagging his finger. “You had two opportunities for that.”
The senator was also savaged over the government’s treatment of a man who was deported from Maryland to a notorious prison in El Salvador – a case that may now lead to a contempt of court investigation into the Trump administration.
“Supreme Court said to bring him back … Trump don’t care,” one man bellowed from the back of the room. Grassley said El Salvador was an independent country and its president was not subject to the US high court.
It was a tough day at the office. But even those constituents who were critical of Trump and the Republicans thanked Grassley for at least showing up, which was more than could be said for their other representatives.
The handful of Republicans who held meetings this week also faced hostile audiences. In Georgia, a town hall held by hard-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was repeatedly disrupted by protesters. Police said they removed six people from the room, arrested three and tasered two.
Three months into Trump’s term, there is little sign of America’s deep divisions healing.
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