Matt Russell is a farmer, political writer, and progressive ag and rural leader. He has published work in the New York Times, TIME, AgInsider, Civil Eats, and many state or local publications. He co-owns Coyote Run Farm with his husband Patrick Standley in rural Lacona, Iowa. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Growing New Leaders: Perspectives from Coyote Run Farm.

The media is covering the federal government shutdown as a battle between Democrats and Republicans. I disagree that this is a fair assessment. The battle is about more than partisan politics. For President Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, and Republicans, this is a battle about redefining the federal government, the Constitution, our democracy, and our nation as it has developed over 250 years.

I don’t think the federal government has ever been used for this kind of obviously partisan communication, other than what Trump has previously said and done. As a reminder, the president is not covered by the Hatch Act, the law that prevents federal employees from engaging in partisan politics while performing their duties as well as other aspects of their lives.

Without doing further research, I don’t want to claim something like this has never happened, but unless someone can show evidence that it has, I’m willing to suggest it likely hasn’t.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is not the President’s Department. It is the Peoples’ Department. It is ours. While the president appoints the agency’s leaders, the federal government by law is not to be used for partisan politics. Have there always been examples of presidents pushing against the guardrails? Yes. But we have never blown up the guardrails and turned the power of our federal government into a purely political tool of the president or his political party.

This is not Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins making a statement at a press conference. Using the official website (meant to serve Americans) to make a partisan political statement about the “Radical Left Democrat shutdown” is new territory.

I’ve been checking other federal agency websites, and as far as I can tell, the USDA’s message is unique. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made news: HUD website blames looming shutdown on ‘Radical Left’ was the headline at Federal News Network. Many news outlets covered that story.

I’m not finding any media coverage of USDA specifically. Notice the difference. HUD calls out the “Radical Left,” whereas Secretary Rollins name drops Democrats. This may be the biggest violation of the Hatch Act in the history of the Hatch Act. There are now attempts to force the courts to weigh in on interpreting this violation. 

There has been some reporting about this, but I have yet to see a news media outlet call out the difference between what many federal websites have posted and the specific language on the USDA website. This story in The Guardian did a good job of covering the administration’s messaging across the federal government.

If you’ve bought into the argument that the federal government and the “deep state” has been a tool of one party, and Trump is simply correcting that problem, I’m not going to change your mind.

But for the rest of us, this is not a drill. This is new territory. This is a blatant use of the federal government for open, political warfare. Remember, the federal government is meant to serve us. Everyone working in it must take an oath to the Constitution of the United States of America.

This is the time to stand up and push back. If you aren’t pushing back, then you’re embracing the very thing Trump falsely claims to be fighting. He’s literally turning the entirety of the federal government into a tool to serve him, his administration, and his political party with no guardrails or limits.

It’s not news that Trump, MAGA, and Republicans are using the power of the federal government for partisan political power. They have been willing to ignore the law. They have been willing to push the limits to reshape the law.

When serving in the Biden Administration and working with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, I watched as we were all directed to follow the Hatch Act. I was in the room when Secretary Vilsack refused to be baited by reporters to violate the Hatch Act.

We did trainings and were told that if we willfully violated the Hatch Act, we would be charged. Ignorance would be no excuse.

This is not ignorance. This is a willful violation. This is a test.

To my fellow farmers and ranchers. This is what’s happening at USDA under President Trump. This is what’s happening while our president bails out the president of Argentina, allowing him to empower China to continue to not buy our soybeans. This is what’s happening while President Trump promises a $10 to $14 billion bailout for commodity farmers, especially those growing soybeans, that are caught in the crossfire of his trade war. The promise has been being made now for months, but the first specific date of October 7 for the announcement has come and gone. 

Trump is now saying that the details of that payment cannot be made while the government is shut down. And for any farmer checking the USDA website, Secretary Rollins is continuing to make the case that it’s the Democrats who are keeping the government and the county offices of USDA shuttered.

To my friends in the media, please cover this story about the unique details of the USDA partisan messaging. It’s important.

We’ve known for months now, we are not living in a drill. We are living in the takeover of our federal government for the purpose of advancing a radical political agenda that is consolidating power and wealth among a few. The consequence of this is that the rest of us, all of us, are becoming victims of the federal government rather than the beneficiaries of “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”