Trump proposes $12 billion in aid to farmers after ‘exceptionally difficult year’

Amna Nawaz:

President Trump announced a $12 billion relief plan for American farmers today. It's aimed at supporting an industry hit by lower sales, higher expenses, and the president's tariff policy.

This past year, in retaliation for U.S. tariffs, China initially dialed back its purchase of American soybeans. That, coupled with persistently low crop prices, have taken a serious toll on farmers' bottom lines.

William Brangham has more on the president's plan and how it might play out.

William Brangham:

That's right, Amna.

This aid package includes $11 billion in direct one-time payments to crop farmers through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The remaining billion could be used by farmers whose crops fall outside that USDA program.

The aid comes at a difficult time for smaller family farms. Bankruptcies are rising and have been for the last three years. Today, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins assured farmers that relief is on the way.

Brooke Rollins, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture: The money will move by February 28 of 2026, but by the end of this month, so just in the next couple of weeks, every farmer that is able to apply for it will know exactly what that number looks like.

So, as you are going to your lender, as you are working to ensure and understanding what you can plant for next year, you will have that number in hand.

William Brangham:

To help us understand what this means for farmers, we are joined by Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal.

Patrick, thank you so much for being here.

Before we get to the aid package, I mentioned some of the stresses on farmers, but can you tell us a little bit more about the pressures that they are under right now?

Patrick Thomas, The Wall Street Journal:

Yes. And thanks so much for having me on. I appreciate it.

So farmers have had an exceptionally difficult year. And, really, it's been a difficult last couple of years. So there's a number of different factors. Number one is just costs. I mean, when we think of inflation that have hurt the American consumer, farmers have also dealt with just normal uptick in costs.

You're talking about utilities. You're talking about their general living expenses. But, on the farm, fertilizer has gone up an exponential amount, not just because of tariffs. It's been on the rise for some time. Seed costs, so the crop seeds for the corn, soybeans and other things that they plant on their farm, seed costs have gone up as well.

You talk about equipment, repairs, just general machinery. A lot of the costs have just been rising. And then you think about that coupled with the fact that their revenue is either flat or declining. Crop prices for corn and soybean and other crops, even to like wheat, have been down or have been flat while their costs have been going up.

And that's for a number of reasons. I mean, we have had a glut of corn and soybeans in this country for over a year. And that's due to a couple of years at bumper crops, and farmers are very good at what they do. So they have done a good job of producing a lot of corn, a lot of soybeans. We had the biggest corn crop on record, as estimated by the USDA this year.

So that's in kind of a weird twist of fate. That doesn't help the farmer when they have too much corn. And then you have on top of everything that I have just outlined, you have the tariffs that have come into play. And earlier this year, you saw China stopped buying us soybeans. China is by far and away the biggest buyer of U.S. beans.

So if you're a farmer selling your soybeans at $8, $9 in bushel, you definitely lost a lot of money. You did not break even. So that — these are just some of the challenges that farmers have dealt with.

William Brangham:

So there's this $12 billion in aid. How is that going to roll out? Will this be direct cash going to the farmers? What's the timing on this?

Patrick Thomas:

Yes, that is the plan, as indicated by Trump administration officials today, saying that they will allow farmers to begin applying over the next couple of weeks if they will be eligible. And then, by February, the USDA secretary said that they will start sending one-time cash payments to farmers as kind of a Band-Aid fix, if you will, for over this last year of troubles and, again, what has been a challenging year.

William Brangham:

So, Band-Aid, implying that this may not be — this may be enough to get them through the short term, but, long term, some of these challenges may still remain?

Patrick Thomas:

Yes, that's correct.

And you will hear the administration use a term calling it a bridge quite often. What they're alluding to is trying to get the farmer from this year to next year, because farmers have to pay down their debts. They have to take out loans and finance for next year's crop, so they have to take out some debt.

If they didn't make any money, they're going to take out debt and buy the fertilizer and the crop seeds and start planning for how they're going to do next year — how they're going to plan next year. So they need financing for that. They have to show the bank that they will have money coming in.

And so what this does, it allows a farmer to go to the bank and say, I'm going to get this aid from the government, I need to operate for another year and be able to get that loan, if they can.

So it doesn't long-term fix some of the market issues. You have this deal with China that has — some farmers are still skeptical about China holding up its end of the bargain, if we're going to have long-term problems with their buying. There's just a lot of uncertainty about what the market is for trade and demand long term for the amount of crops that we produce in this country.

William Brangham:

The deal you're mentioning here, this is the deal that Trump and President Xi of China struck last fall about China saying, well, we will now start to buy soybeans again from the U.S.

There is some skepticism, whether that's going to really pan out?

Patrick Thomas:

Yes, that's correct just among farmers in general.

Farmers are always a bit of a skeptical bunch, but that's that. And they would agree with that. But the skepticism I hear from various farmers is really about, will China actually buy all that they promised Trump and Scott Bessent that they have said they would?

So, if you recall, there was an agreement between Trump and Xi for 12 billion metric tons of soybeans this year. Originally, the White House said that would be in 2025. They're now saying it will be this harvest season. So there's some uncertainty from farmers about if China will follow through with this.

China's only purchased about 20 percent of that 12 billion million metric tons. So that has caused some consternation among farmers. Will China follow through with this? It's only been 20 percent this calendar year so far. So that's where some of the hesitation is.

William Brangham:

All right, that is Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal.

Thank you so much for sharing your reporting with us.

Patrick Thomas:

Absolutely. Thank you.