Trump Expected To Roll Out $12 Billion Farm Aid Program Today
The Trump administration on Monday is planning to roll out a $12 billion farm aid package to help producers hurt by the trade war, which 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. The rest of the aid will go to crops not covered by the FBA, Bloomberg reports, citing an anonymous White House official.
The aid comes as farmers express rising frustration over the slow pace of Chinese purchases, which Beijing instituted earlier this year in retaliation for Trump's tariffs.
The package is expected to be announced around 2pm in Washington during an event featuring farmers who produce cotton, sorghum, soybean, rice, cattle, wheat and potato. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins will also be in attendance, the official said.
Funds for the new program have been authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act, and will be distributed by the Farm Service Agency, according to the report.
The farm aid is similar to what Trump offered during his first term, when the US and China were in a similar trade war, and answers concerns voiced by Republican lawmakers ahead of next year's midterm elections.
Farmers have been dying on the vine as export markets for several crops have dried up - particularly soybeans - which saw purchases from China evaporate until a late October agreement between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, soybean producers have seen purchases gradually ramp up. Last month China made its biggest daily purchase of American soybeans in two years, with the total volume sold to the Asian nation amounting to 2.25 million tons - far less than what American farmers need to sell out of the 12 million tons of US soybeans that the Trump admin said China would purchase by the end of February which Bessent said last week that China is still on track to meet.
On Saturday, US Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer said that China has been complying with the terms of the trade agreement, and that Beijing is about "a third" of the way through its soybean purchase commitments for this growing season.
In 2018 and 2019 Trump distributed $28 billion to farmers to make up for lost business over the tariff dispute at the time, however China began to shift purchases of soybeans to Brazil - which has had lasting consequences until now, when Beijing recently banned Brazilian soybean shipments. Trump touted the move as proof that they had won Beijing back over.
Meanwhile, despite a runup in soybean futures over the past month over a resolution with China, crop prices are still close to 2020 lows, reducing what farmers take in while the cost of fertilizers is still climbing.
The Trump admin first announced farm aid in March, when the USDA announced a plan to pay as much as $10 billion under the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program authorized by Congress in late 2024, designed to help mitigate the impact of increased costs and falling commodity prices.
So far over $9 billion has been paid out as of Nov. 23. The bulk of the funds have gone to corn and soybean farmers.