Trump unleashes $12B farm rescue as China trade reset hits US growers

President Donald Trump rolled out a $12 billion farm aid package to support farmers, according to the White House. 

The aid package will provide up to $11 billion toward the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) new Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, which is designed to provide single payments to row crop farmers, while the remaining $1 billion will go to farmers whose crops do not qualify for the program. 

Further details will be hashed out as the USDA continues to evaluate market conditions, according to the White House. 

The president unveiled the new aid package at a Monday roundtable at the White House. Those who appeared at the event included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, as well as corn, soybean, rice and other types of farmers. 

The announcement comes as the U.S. and China have gone head-to-head on trade negotiations in 2025, and after China reined in its soybean purchases from the U.S. amid ongoing tariff negotiations between Beijing and Washington, D.C. 

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However, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in South Korea in October, where the two hashed out a series of agreements concerning trade. Specifically, Trump said he agreed to cut tariffs on Chinese imports by 10% — reducing the rate from 57% to 47% — because China said it would cooperate with the U.S. on addressing the U.S. fentanyl crisis.

Since those talks, China has started to boost its purchases of soybeans again. China purchased at least 840,000 metric tons of soybeans for delivery in December and January, Reuters reported in November. That purchase marked the largest shipment since at least January, Reuters reported. 

Meanwhile, Bessent said that China so far is upholding its end of the bargain on the trade deal, including provisions to buy 12 million tons of soybeans by the end of February 2026.

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"China is on track to ‍keep every ⁠part of the deal," Bessent said at The New ‍York Times Dealbook Summit Wednesday. 

Trump also voiced optimism about China's soybean purchases, and signaled Beijing may purchase more than the original 12 million tons by February 2026. 

"I spoke with President Xi recently, very recently," Trump said Monday. "And I think he's going to do even more than he promised to do. So I think the relationship is a very good one. I think he's going to do more than he promised to do. And what he promised to do is a lot. So we're very happy with that."

China is the primary foreign purchaser of U.S. soybeans, and bought approximately half of U.S. soybean exports in 2024, totaling approximately $12.6 billion out of $25.8 billion in total U.S. exports, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and USDA. China also imported nearly 27 metric tons of soybeans that year. 

Trump is helping the agriculture industry by "negotiating new trade deals to open new export markets for our farmers and boosting the farm safety net for the first time in a decade," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a Monday statement to Fox News Digital.

Trump has previously issued an aid package to farmers. When Trump’s first administration rolled out tariffs, China issued their own retaliatory tariffs that cost the federal government billions of dollars in government aid to farmers.

Bloomberg News first reported the aid package Sunday. 

Fox News' Olivianna Calmes contributed to this report.