Washington — The Trump administration is considering a significant financial aid package for farmers, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions. The package could include more than $10 billion in relief.
The White House is focusing on soybean farmers, since they’ve been hard hit by the Chinese boycott on American soybeans. Discussions about the package are still in early stages, one of the sources said.
The Treasury Department and Agriculture Department are involved in the talks. Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on CNBC Monday that “we’ve had numerous meetings over the last week or two” about “what we’re going to do” about the hit farmers have taken. He promised the administration would take “big measures” and “those big measures are gonna be public really, really soon.”
Hassett acknowledged, “Right now, the silos are full, and there are soybeans sitting on the ground with tarps over them. That’s unacceptable to the president.” He also said the administration is “calling up all our soybean customers around the world as part of our trade negotiations.”
In 2024, China purchased $12.6 billion worth of soybeans from the U.S., federal data from the Agriculture Department shows.
As harvest season gets underway this year, China has made no U.S. soybean purchases.
Last month, President Trump suggested some financial aid for farmers could come from tariff revenue. The Treasury Department says the federal government has collected roughly $215 billion in tariffs in the 2025 fiscal year, which began in October 2024 and ended Sept. 30.
“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 into their benefit,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Sept. 25. “So, we’re going to make sure that our farmers are in great shape, because we’re taking in a lot of money.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kathryn Watson
contributed to this report.
