Grassley's Achilles Heel: Using Corn Subsidies as Leverage Against the Senate's Ethanol Champion

Geopolitical analyst Tom Luongo proposes a bold political strategy for advancing Trump's agenda by targeting Senator Chuck Grassley's dependency on Iowa's corn subsidies and ethanol industry protections. Luongo argues that eliminating "blue slip" procedures—which Grassley supports and which block judicial appointments—could be achieved by threatening to dismantle the Renewable Identification Numbers system and corn-based ethanol subsidies that undergird Iowa's agricultural economy. He contends that with American oil production surging and fracking costs declining due to technological innovations, corn-based ethanol has become economically obsolete, making Grassley's protection of these policies a political vulnerability that could be exploited to force his cooperation on judicial confirmations and other legislative priorities.