US Will Use Tariff Revenue to Help Farmers: Trump

The first Trump administration provided a similar aid program to farmers after exports plummeted during the previous trade war with Beijing.

A farm sits outside of Omaha, Nebraska, on Oct. 2, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

President Donald Trump said on Sept. 25 that he would use tariff revenue to provide aid to American farmers until his import levies start to benefit them, which he said is only a matter of time.

“We’re going to take some of that tariff money that we made, we’re going to give it to our farmers who are, for a little while, going to be hurt until ... the tariffs kick in to their benefit,” Trump said from the White House on Sept. 25. “We’re going to make sure that our farmers are in great shape, because we’re taking in a lot of money.

“Ultimately, the farmers are going to be making a fortune. But it’s a process—it has to kick in.”

During a signing ceremony at the Oval Office on Sept. 25, Trump said there has been “a little bit of a shortfall with the farmers until the tariffs kick in,” referring to it as a “transition period.”

“I want to, in fact, just get the word out to the farmer, because they'll be struggling until the transition is complete. Then after that, they’re going to do, I think, better than they’ve ever done before,” he said.

When asked if the money will be given to farmers in the form of direct checks, Trump said his administration has not yet decided how the aid will be distributed but that he is conferring with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins about “how to get money to the farmers.”

The American farm economy is struggling this year from low crop prices and trade wars with Beijing, especially as China has stopped buying soybeans from the United States.

China—the world’s biggest purchaser of soybeans—is now buying the crop from South America while negotiations over tariffs with the United States continue.

Last week, Republican lawmakers warned that American farmers are in dire straits this year and urged the Trump administration to take a similar approach to what it did during the president’s first term, when the federal government issued a $23 billion bailout to farmers to blunt the impact from Trump’s previous trade war with China.

Trump’s retaliatory tariffs during his first term resulted in a $27 billion loss in U.S. agricultural exports from mid-2018 to the end of 2019, according to the Department of Agriculture. Soybeans accounted for nearly 71 percent of those losses, upward of $9.7 billion annually.

The CATO Institute noted that while some U.S. soybean exports to China recovered after both nations reached an agreement in 2020, “American farmers’ share of the Chinese market has not recovered to pre-trade war level” because of Beijing turning to Brazil and other nations for soybeans.

Rollins has said that the Trump administration is considering an aid program similar to the bailout given to farmers during Trump’s first term.

On Sept. 25, Trump touted his tariffs, saying, “We’re making more money than we ever have made.”

Earlier this year, some farmers said Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration—which impacted the agricultural and hospitality industries, among others—had led to major losses in workers, warning that more than half of their workforce was gone during a time when critical crops needed to be picked.

Trump indicated in late June that he was considering a “temporary pass” for farmers and hospitality business owners to potentially retain some illegal immigrant workers if they’re not involved in crime and pay taxes.

“The farmer knows he’s not going to hire a murderer. But you know, when you go into a farm and he’s had somebody working with him for nine years, doing this kind of work—which is hard work to do, and a lot of people aren’t going to do it—and you end up destroying a farmer because you took all the people away, it’s a problem,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo of Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Weeks later, White House border czar Tom Homan said officials from the departments of Agriculture, Labor, and Homeland Security were considering policy changes related to illegal immigrant workers in agriculture and hospitality.

“The president committed there will be no amnesty, but there are a lot of smart minds at the White House talking about: Is there something for farm workers? Is there something for hospitality?” Homan said.

That came after Homan had said in June that immigration authorities would continue targeting illegal immigrants working at farms, hotels, and restaurants while prioritizing those with alleged ties to criminal organizations.

“There’s a right way and wrong way to hire workers,” he said. “There are legal programs that bring farm workers in ... I’ve been saying for years that Congress needs to address this, but because Congress failed, it just doesn’t mean we ignore it. It’s illegal to knowingly hire an illegal alien.”

Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.