President Donald Trump on Monday announced a $12 billion aid package for American farmers.
Trump said the money would be coming from the hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff revenue that the U.S. has collected this year.
“This relief will provide much needed certainty to farmers as they get this year’s harvest to market and look ahead to next year’s crop,” Trump said.
The relief for farmers comes as the trade war between China and the United States shows signs of easing. After months of acrimonious relations, China in recent weeks has started to buy large amounts of soybeans from U.S. farmers.
The relief announcement, unveiled during an afternoon event at the White House hosted by Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, preceded a roundtable discussion with farmers from across the country.
Rollins said that the money would be paid by Feb. 28, but farmers would find out by the end of the month how much will be in their checks.
The president also said the relief could help lower food prices for American families. Trump and his fellow Republicans are scrambling to address Americans’ cost-of-living concerns as inflation persists and tariffs add to costs.
The aid package will include up to $11 billion in one-time payments under a new program administered by the Agriculture Department.
Trump also promised a loosening of regulations for machinery companies. “We’re going to take off a lot of the environmental restrictions that they have on machinery,” he said.
“It’s ridiculous,” Trump said before adding that the regulations “don’t do a damn thing except make it complicated.” The president said he would be demanding that machinery companies lower their prices as a result.
Bloomberg News first reported details of the announcement Sunday.
In late November, China purchased its largest tranche of U.S. soybeans in two years, Reuters reported.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images file
While Beijing remains far short of its commitment to buy 12 million tons of soybeans as part of a recent agreement, Bessent said the country’s purchases are coming along in a “perfect cadence.”
“China is on track to keep every part of the deal,” he said at a conference last week hosted by The New York Times.
On Monday, Trump said he thinks Chinese President Xi Jinping is going to buy “even more than he promised to do.”
The recent uptick in agricultural purchases from China also comes after the world’s second-largest economy turned, at least temporarily, to Argentina for its supply of soybeans in lieu of U.S. exports.
In October, the Treasury Department announced a $20 billion currency swap agreement with Argentina, whose far-right president, Javier Milei, is a high-profile Trump ally.
Some perceived the foreign aid announcement as a bailout, which angered American farmers who said they were already being pushed to the breaking point by the loss of the Chinese soybean sales. Now, they claimed, Washington was effectively bailing out the competition.
Bessent said the Treasury Department ended up making a profit on the swaps line. But this was of little comfort to farmers who have been eagerly awaiting promised government aid for months.
Caroline Kenny contributed.
