The Trump administration on Monday rolled out a $12 billion relief package, funded by tariff revenue, aimed at farmers who have been hammered by depressed crop prices and a sharp drop in exports.
Roughly $11 billion of the funding will flow through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) new Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program, which will offer one-time bridge payments to growers of major row crops, including soybeans, corn, wheat, rice, and cotton. The remaining funds will be directed to producers of specialty crops that fall outside the FBA program.
“What we’re doing is we’re taking a relatively small portion of that [tariff revenue] and providing it to farmers,” President Donald Trump announced during a roundtable event featuring Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and agriculture industry representatives. “The relief will provide much-needed certainty to farmers as they get this year’s harvest to market and look ahead to next year’s crops, and it’ll help them continue their efforts to lower food prices for American families.”
“Under sleepy Joe Biden, our farmers were crushed by the worst inflation in modern history and crippling restrictions on energy, water and countless other necessities for farmers,” Trump said during the announcement.
A White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the funds are intended be a “financial bridge” as the effects of the administration’s trade deals, tax cuts and deregulation begin to be felt across the farm economy.
Soybean farmers in particular have endured steep losses after China halted most U.S. imports earlier this year in response to the administration’s Liberation Day tariffs. Soybean purchases began to rebound in late October, following a meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, where Xi agreed to boost imports in exchange for the U.S. lowering certain tariffs.
China logged its largest single-day purchase of American soybeans in two years in November. Since Oct. 30, total confirmed sales to China have reached roughly 2.8 million tons, still well short of the 12 million tons Beijing promised to buy by February, according to Bloomberg.
Trump on Monday expressed optimism that China would exceed its commitments.
The USDA previously announced $9.3 billion in March to pay row crop farmers under the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program, which Congress authorized in late 2024. The president also said in September that he would use tariff revenues to send cash aid to farmers.
President Trump and Secretary Rollins discussed the funding further at a White House roundtable on Monday afternoon.
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During his first term, Trump also authorized $28 billion in aid to offset farm losses from a trade standoff with China.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly cast Monday’s announcement as evidence that Trump is working to stabilize the agricultural sector after what she described as the ‘failures’ of the prior administration.
“Farmers suffered for years under Joe Biden, who increased the United States’ trade deficit to over $1.2 trillion, raised input costs, pushed woke DEI agricultural policies, and more,” Kelly said in a statement. “In contrast, President Trump is helping our agriculture industry by negotiating new trade deals to open new export markets for our farmers and boosting the farm safety net for the first time in a decade.”
The U.S. recorded an agricultural trade surplus of $24.75 billion between FY 2017 and FY 2020, compared to a deficit of $38.5 billion between 2021 and 2024, according to the USDA.
