Trump set to unveil $12 billion aid for farmers hit by trade war

Trump unveils $12bn farm aid

The Trump administration on Monday plans to unveil a long-awaited farm aid package, according to a White House official, offering $12 billion in assistance to a key base of support hit hard by low crop prices and the impact of the president’s tariff policies.

The aid will include up to $11 billion in one-time payments to crop farmers under the Department of Agriculture’s newly designed Farmer Bridge Assistance program, while the remaining is reserved for crops not covered under the FBA, according to the official, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

President Donald Trump plans to announce the package during an event with corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean, rice, cattle, wheat and potato farmers, alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, according to the official.

The action echoes support Trump offered during his first term, when the US and China were also locked in a trade war, and comes amid mounting frustration from lawmakers in the president’s own party over the economic pain farmers are experiencing and growing calls to address the issue ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Farming communities, which voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the 2024 election, have seen export markets for many crops dry up and federal safety net programs shrink in the president’s second term. Soybean farmers have faced particular strain as Chinese purchases completely stalled earlier this year.

Soybean purchases have since gradually ramped up after an agreement in late October between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. China last month made its biggest daily buy of American soybeans in two years, and the total volume sold to the Asian nation since Oct. 30 has so far amounted to 2.25 million tons, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

But current quantities are still short of what American farmers are hoping to ship abroad, and far behind the 12 million tons of US soybeans the US said China will buy by the end of February — a target Bessent last week said Beijing is on track to meet. Last year, the US made up one-fifth of China’s soybean imports, worth more than $12 billion.

The funds for the new program have been authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and will be administered by the Farm Service Agency, according to the official.

Trump had earlier floated a plan to use tariff revenue for the program, the announcement of which had been delayed by a government shutdown.

During his first term, Trump handed out $28 billion to farmers in 2018 and 2019 to make up for losses from a tariff spat with China. While the aid gave producers short-term financial relief, the trade war had lasting consequences, pushing China to gradually deepen its reliance on Brazil to meet its soybean demand over the past few years.

Even with a runup in soybean futures over the past month on China trade hopes, crop prices are still close to the lowest levels since 2020, eroding farmers’ income at a time when costs including fertilizers are climbing.

In March, the USDA announced a plan to pay farmers as much as $10 billion under the so-called Emergency Commodity Assistance Program, which was authorized by Congress in late 2024 to help mitigate the impact of increased input costs and falling commodity prices. More than $9 billion has been paid out as of Nov. 23, with corn and soybean farmers receiving the bulk of the funds, according to USDA data.

Trump has also criticized his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, of doing nothing to “enforce” a soybean purchase agreement that was included in a so-called Phase One trade deal with China. That deal was negotiated during Trump’s first term.