‘A slap in the face’: some US farmers unhappy with Trump’s $12 billion bailout

US President Donald Trump has announced a long-anticipated US$12 billion farm aid package to assist farmers caught in US-China trade tensions, crediting his tariff strategy for making the bailout possible and asserting that his negotiations with China had led to the resumption of massive soybean sales.

But the announcement has not pleased all farmers, particularly those still struggling with low prices and lost markets. Some said it was too little, too late, and that a bailout wouldn’t be necessary if there were no tariffs.

John Bartman, a soybean farmer from Illinois, said the aid was a “drop in the bucket” and “roughly the same amount of money that China would have purchased in a normal year anyway”.

“It’s just the stupidity of the whole situation that we’re in this mess. And why is China not upholding their end of the bargain? Why do we have to have this payment in the first place?” he added.

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the government will issue US$11 billion in direct “bridge payments” to crop farmers by the end of February 2026, while holding back US$1 billion to assess needs among speciality crop producers.

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While blaming his predecessor Joe Biden for the “total mess” and “highest inflation”, Trump said that the aid would not be “possible without tariffs” and called $12 billion “a lot of money”.

South China Morning Post