Trump announces $12 billion aid package for U.S. farmers

President Trump on Monday announced a $12 billion aid package for American farmers, moving to support a sector that’s been hurt by tariffs and a U.S. trade war with China.

Mr. Trump unveiled the plan during a White House event attended by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, several lawmakers and members of the farming community.

Mr. Trump said the money to fund the aid package would come from government revenue raised through U.S. tariffs. 

“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 crops, and it’ll help them continue their efforts to lower food prices for American families,” he said in announcing the financial assistance. 

Rollins said farmers can apply for the funding in the coming weeks and that it will be disbursed by Feb. 28, 2026. 

Trade war hit

Roughly $11 billion of the government assistance is set aside for the Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Bridge Assistance program, which the White House has said will offer one-time payments to farmers for row crops. 

“You’ve got to start financing for planning next year when things will be very good,” Bessent told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan on Sunday.  

Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, commended the aid package.

“The critical assistance announced today will help farmers obtain financing for 2026 and serve as a bridge to the long-term improvements to the farm safety net, which were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill,” he said in a statement.

Farmers have lost billions of dollars in soybean sales this year due to a boycott by China, which stopped buying U.S. soybeans in May in retaliation for steep new tariffs by the Trump administration. China is the largest importer of U.S. soybeans, purchasing more than half of all American exports of the crop in the last five years, according to the Iowa Farm Bureau, a farmer advocacy organization.

Mr. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping struck a preliminary trade agreement in October, which the White House said involved the resumption of U.S. soybean sales to China. The White House said in November that China would purchase at least 12 million metric tons of soybeans in the last two months of 2025.

However, Chinese imports of U.S. soybeans could fall short of what the country normally purchases, CBS News correspondent Lana Zak reported in November.

The trade war with China dealt a double whammy to U.S farmers, who were already facing high input costs and weak profit margins. Farmers recently told 60 Minutes they are suffering major losses on corn, soybeans and cotton. Prices of the crops have fallen in the last two years, according to data from the American Farm Bureau Federation, an advocacy organization. 

Bessent said on Face the Nation on Sunday that domestic soybean prices have risen as much as 15% since the agreement with the Chinese.

The Trump administration started considering a financial aid package for farmers in October, with sources telling CBS News that it could include more than $10 billion in relief. However, that proposal was put on hold due to the 43-day U.S. government shutdown, which ended in mid-November.