The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.

Trump’s campaign visit to Chippewa Falls showed how delusional and out of touch with reality he is. Trump downplayed the economic woes he has imposed on farmers: “Too much emphasis is placed on inflation.” Later, in response to a new economic report showing inflation sharply increasing, largely due to the Iran War, Trump outrageously said: “I love the inflation.” 

Before he left Wisconsin, Trump asked farmers and others to keep their remarks short as “he had to return to D.C. to oversee the war in Iran. He then left to fly to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey … .” (Washington Post). Trump soon resumed bombing Iran after a U.S. helicopter was downed by an Iranian drone. Earlier in Wisconsin, Trump told “Meet the Press” that he’d never promised no new wars. However, while campaigning in Pennsylvania in 2024, Trump said: “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.” Now, an inconclusive truce with Iran? 

GOP Representative and gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany is a Trump clone. Before Trump attacked Iran in February, Tiffany declared on social media that 2026 would see cheap gas prices. The Iran War deep-sixed that campaign prediction. However, Tiffany, believing in 19th-century gunboat diplomacy, strongly supported the Iran War. Once again on June 3, he opposed a House resolution to end the war, which passed 215 to 208. Tiffany disingenuously says “it’s time to wrap things up … .”

Besides being out of touch, Tiffany is always looking backward. He voted for the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, erasing big progress in reducing the healthcare uninsurance rates and hunger. Millions, including thousands of Wisconsinites, have lost healthcare coverage and food assistance, and farmers have lost yet another market for their crops. At the same time Tiffany supported more tax dodges and tax cuts for the wealthy. He supports ending the federal estate tax, which only a handful of estates pay. Wisconsin does not have a state estate tax; it’s a phony issue. Instead, get off farmers’ necks and end the Iran War and Trump’s tariffs.

Worse, Tiffany still casts doubt that Biden won the 2020 presidential election, refusing to say that Biden defeated Trump. Tiffany also thinks January 6 rioters could be owed restitution. Moreover, Tiffany voted to overturn Biden’s victory in Arizona and Pennsylvania, and said he would have done the same for Wisconsin if given the chance. However, former Wisconsin GOP Representative Reid Ribble and state Senator Kathy Bernier said: “The winner of Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes in 2020 was President Joe Biden.”

Wisconsin has a far better option than Tiffany: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sara Rodriguez. She comes from a working-class family; her grandparents owned a dairy farm, and her father was a Vietnam War veteran. Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez has run statewide and previously flipped a GOP Assembly seat. She is a passionate bread-and-butter Democrat running on “affordable healthcare, fully funded public schools, affordable housing, child care that doesn’t break the bank and protecting our kids online.” Moving forward, not backward.

Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.