Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told a recent rally in Des Moines that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wants to shut down family farms, impose radical regulations, push tax rates on farms and other businesses to 50 percent and impose an estate tax of up to 45 percent on farms. “We rate the combination of claims as False,” concludes the independent fact-checking site Politifact.
There is no evidence, says Politifact, that Clinton opposes family farms; her campaign site says, “A strong agricultural economy remains a critical cornerstone of a vibrant rural economy.” The Trump campaign declined to name the “radical regulations” that would afflict farmers. Clinton supports a higher income tax rate on people with an adjusted gross income above $5 million a year. Only a handful of farms have gross income of that level. Politifact said the estate tax has a much smaller reach than critics suggest because a married couple can exempt $11 million from the tax. Few estates exceed that size.
On Politifact’s six-point rating scale, False is second to Pants On Fire. The site has files on Trump and Clinton. None of its stories on Clinton directly involved agriculture, according to a search of the site.