Is Donald Trump's special interest the ethanol industry?

The First generation alternive fuel, Etanol, was made from corn. Iowa grows a lot of corn. So Trump made the remark he thought would resonate with corn growers.
But… First gen has been supplanted by Second gen, or cellulosic ethanol. That uses any plant fiber. No more food or fuel arguments. Just use the stover left in the field after harvesting the desire crop. Also companies like Ceres are making dedicate energy crops that will be used in the future. Every farmer knows this already so Trump’s statement was hopelessly out of date or just ignorant.

The closest I’ve seen is:

“Everything I say, he agrees with me—no matter what I say,” Trump said. “But with the ethanol, really, he’s gonna come a long way because he’s right now for the oil. But I understand because big oil pays him a lot of money. He’s got to be oil, right? The oil companies give him a lot of money…..” Source 1 Source 2

Also, when Trump was asked about whehter Cruz’s position on ethanol was due to his (Cruz’s) ties to big oil:

“Yes, it is,” Trump said. “It is. Well look, he’s from Texas—to the best of my knowledge, there’s a lot of oil in Texas, right? So, you know, he gets a lot of money from the oil companies, and he’s totally against ethanol…..I say to myself: ‘If Ted Cruz is against ethanol, how does he win in Iowa?’....Because that’s very anti-Iowa.”

This quote from Trump is probably most telling though;

“Look, I’m self-funding. I have no oil company. I have no special interest. I have no lobbyists.”

While I normally regard just about everything coming out of Trump’s mouth as bullshit, I think that that statement has an uncharacteristically high percentage of truth to it. My take is that Trump’s real special interest is Trump. Ethanol and oil are red herrings here; this is about Trump finding a way to undermine one of his competitors for the GOP nomination.

Also, relevant

@LuckyGuy “Every farmer knows this already so Trump’s statement was hopelessly out of date or just ignorant.”

Even if every farmer knows it, not every voter does. Amongst those that don’t follow alternative fuels closely, the “Ethanol = Corn” meme still pulls weight. Personally, even I wasn’t aware of the cellulosic ethanol, but I’ve always regarded ethanol with disdain anyways (it does bad things to older cars like mine).

So if even someone like me who has uncommonly high scientific literacy and some interest in alternative energy could be fooled, what chance do people who lack my blend of fuel knowledge, science, and skepticism have?

My car was not designed to run on corn.

Abolish ethanol fuels.