A Wisconsin dairy farmer alleged in a federal lawsuit filed on June 16 that the Trump administration is illegally denying financial assistance to White farmers by continuing programs that favor minorities.
The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in federal court in Wisconsin on behalf of a White dairy farmer, Adam Faust.
Faust was among several farmers who successfully sued the Biden administration in 2021 for race discrimination in the USDA’s Farmer Loan Forgiveness Plan.
But the new lawsuit’s framing of White farmers as victims of federal discrimination drew immediate criticism from agricultural policy experts and watchdogs, who said such arguments ignore the broader political and economic context.
Critics argue that farmers like Faust, who overwhelmingly backed Donald Trump in the 2024 election and now face the consequences of trade disruptions and gutted climate programs, are attempting to reposition themselves as casualties of fairness initiatives, while ignoring years of political decisions that fueled their current hardship.
Federal programs that support minority farmers were not designed as perks or political gestures. They were born from generations of systemic exclusion. White farmers supported the dismantling of USDA protections. They backed cuts to conservation programs. They cheered the end of equity-based policies.
Faust is now using his hardship to claim that all White farmers are being oppressed. That is not irony. It is an attempt to turn the consequences of his choices and actions into victimhood. The situation is not about government overreach. It is the outcome of what rural voters demanded when they put Trump back in the White House.
Across rural America, including Wisconsin, many farmers cheered policies that slashed funding for urban populations, supported those who reignited destructive trade wars, only to later demand bailouts when markets tanked.
As the Trump regime pushes to dismantle diversity programs wholesale, critics say lawsuits like Faust’s are part of a larger effort to reframe privilege as persecution. It is a tactic that weaponizes grievance politics while evading accountability for the economic instability those same voters helped usher in.
The Faust lawsuit alleges the government has continued to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that were instituted under former President Joe Biden. The Wisconsin Institute wrote to the USDA in April, warning of legal action, and six Republican Wisconsin congressmen called on the USDA to investigate and end the programs.
“The USDA should honor the President’s promise to the American people to end racial discrimination in the federal government,” Faust said in a written statement. “After being ignored by a federal agency that’s meant to support agriculture, I hope my lawsuit brings answers, accountability, and results from USDA.”
The lawsuit contends that Faust is one of 2 million White male American farmers who are subject to discriminatory race-based policies at the USDA.
The lawsuit names three USDA programs and policies it says put White men at a disadvantage and violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment by discriminating based on race and sex.
Faust participates in one program designed to offset the gap between milk prices and the cost of feed, but the lawsuit alleges he is charged a $100 administrative fee that minority and female farmers do not have to pay.
Faust also participates in a USDA program that guarantees 90% of the value of loans to White farmers, but 95% to women and racial minorities. That puts Faust at a disadvantage, the lawsuit alleges.
Faust has also begun work on a new manure storage system that could qualify for reimbursement under a USDA environmental conservation program, but 75% of his costs are eligible, while 90% of the costs of minority farmers qualify, the lawsuit contends.
A federal court judge ruled in a similar 2021 case that granting loan forgiveness only to “socially disadvantaged farmers” amounts to unconstitutional race discrimination. The Biden administration suspended the program, and Congress repealed it in 2022.
The Wisconsin Institute has filed dozens of such outlandish lawsuits in 25 states attacking DEI programs in government. In its April letter to the USDA, the law firm that has a long history of representing Republicans said it did not want to sue, “but there is no excuse for this continued discrimination.”
Trump has been aggressive in trying to end the government’s DEI efforts to fulfill a campaign promise and bring about a profound cultural shift across the U.S. from promoting diversity to an exclusive focus on merit.
These programs exist because White Supremacy built a system that excluded everyone else. They remain necessary because that exclusion never ended. Generations of discrimination hollowed out opportunity for Black, Indigenous, and other non-White farmers, and decades of federal action have barely begun to close the gap. The only reason DEI policies matter today is because White dominance still defines who gets access, who gets help, and who gets heard.
