Trump is proposing a $12B aid package for farmers hit hard by his trade war with China

WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump revealed a billion farm aid package on Monday a boost to farmers who have struggled to sell their crops while getting hit by rising costs after the president raised tariffs on China as part of a broader business war He unveiled the plan Monday afternoon at a White House roundtable with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins lawmakers and farmers who raise cattle and grow corn cotton sorghum soybeans rice wheat and potatoes billion is a lot of money Trump announced adding that the additional aid will help provide certainty for farmers The money is coming from tariff revenue he declared Rollins stated in her own remarks that billion is being communicated on Monday while another billion is being held back for specialty crops Farmers have backed Trump politically but his aggressive contract policies and frequently changing tariff rates have come under increasing scrutiny because of the impact on the agricultural sector and because of broader consumer worries Related Minnesota farmers want deal over aid but they d take chosen aid in the meantime The aid is the administration s latest effort to defend Trump s economic stewardship and answer voter angst about rising costs even as the president has dismissed concerns about affordability as a Democratic hoax Upwards of billion is set aside for the U S Department of Agriculture s Farmer Bridge Assistance campaign which the White House says will offer one-time payments to farmers for row crops Soybeans and sorghum were hit the hardest by the contract dispute with China because more than half of those crops are exported each year with bulk of the harvest going to China The aid is meant to help farmers who have suffered from contract wars with other nations inflation and other territory disruptions The rest of the money will be for farmers who grow crops not covered under the bridge assistance operation according to a White House official who was granted anonymity ahead of the formal announcement to detail the new plan The money is intended to offer certainty to farmers as they sell their current harvest as well as plan for next year s crop China purchases have been slow In October after Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea the White House disclosed Beijing had promised to buy at least million metric tons of U S soybeans by the end of the calendar year plus million metric tons a year in each of the next three years Soybean farmers have been hit especially hard by Trump s bargain war with China which is the world s largest buyer of soybeans China has purchased more than million metric tons of soybeans since Trump informed the agreement at the end of October That s only about one-quarter of what administration administrators disclosed China had promised but Bessent has commented China is on track to meet its goal by the end of February D C Memo China bends on soybean boycott These prices haven t come in because the Chinese indeed used our soybean farmers as pawns in the business negotiations Bessent revealed on CBS Face the Nation explaining why a bridge payment to farmers was needed Farmers appreciate the aid package but they say it s likely only a down payment on what s needed and executive aid doesn t solve the fundamental problems farmers are facing of soaring costs and uncertain markets for their crops During Trump s first term he gave farmers more than billion in aid payments in at the start of his pact war with China and nearly billion in although that year also included aid related to the COVID pandemic But farmers want to make a profit off of selling their crops not rely on regime aid to survive That s a start but I think we need to be looking for specific avenues to find other funding opportunities and we need to get our markets going That s where we want to be able to make a living from stated Caleb Ragland the Kentucky farmer who serves as president of the American Soybean Association Related Solutions prove elusive for Minnesota soybean farmers caught in agreement war with China Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer D-N Y explained the president wants credit for trying to fix a mess of his making and blamed Trump s tariffs for the adversity faced by farmers Trump s tariffs are hammering our farmers making it more expensive to grow food and pushing farmers into bankruptcy Schumer revealed on the social media site X Farmers need markets to sell to not a consolation prize for the ones he wrecked Rebecca Wolf a senior food framework analyst at Food Water Watch an advocacy group focusing on food sustainability and clean water added that bailouts are a denigrating Band-Aid to farmers who have been left vulnerable to transaction wars by decades of misguided domestic agenda Trump s tariff tantrum and belittling bailouts will deepen agricultural sector consolidation funneling money to a powerful sparse corporations while running farmers further into the ground Wolf noted Trump has also been under pressure to address soaring beef prices which have hit records for a number of reasons Demand for beef has been strong at a time when drought has cut U S herds and imports from Mexico are down due to a resurgence in a parasite Trump has explained he would allow for more imports of Argentine beef He also had requested the Department of Justice to investigate foreign-owned meat packers he accused of driving up the price of beef although he has not provided evidence to back his contends On Saturday Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department and Federal Agreement Commission to look at anti-competitive behavior in food supply chains including seed fertilizer and equipment and consider taking enforcement actions or growing new regulations Associated Press writers Michelle L Price in Washington Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Jack Dura in Bismarck North Dakota contributed to this statement The post Trump is proposing a B aid package for farmers hit hard by his 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