Trump Says US Will Distribute Aid to Farmers until Tariffs Kick in to Their Benefit

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September 26, 2025

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by Jeff Mason, Maiya Keidan and Leah Douglas (Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday (September 25, 2025) that the United States would give proceeds from tariff revenues to farmers. "We're going to take some of that tariff money and give it to our farmers," Trump said at the White House.

The U.S. farm economy is slumping this year due to low crop prices and trade disputes. Republican lawmakers have warned that farmers are facing significant losses and have urged the administration to issue aid by the end of the year.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said the administration is weighing an aid program, opens new tab modeled after the approach taken by the previous Trump administration, when farmers were given billions to offset losses from a trade war with China.

Farmers are "for a little while going to be hurt, until it kicks in, the tariffs kick in to their benefit," Trump said.

"Ultimately, the farmers are going to be making a fortune," he said. READ MORE

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Excerpt from Farm Progress: During a Thursday meeting with reporters in Washington, President Donald Trump said he would use revenue from tariffs to help farmers. According to him, the country is doing “unbelievable” and “making more money than we’ve ever made,” thanks to tariffs.

“We’re going to take some of that tariff money that we’ve made, and 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, adding that “the other day, ‘they’ found $31 billion.”

The unnamed person told Trump that the money’s source could not be determined. The president said he instructed that person to “check the tariff shelf.” The next day, according to Trump, that person confirmed that the unexplained money was indeed tariff revenue.

Trump said farmers may continue to receive tariff money until tariffs begin to benefit them. He did not specify how much money they could expect to receive, or when they should expect their tariff windfall.

“The farmers are going to be making a fortune, but it’s a process that has to kick in,” Trump said.

Rollins touts other efforts for farmers

Also Thursday during an agriculture conference in Kansas City, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins discussed the “crisis in American agriculture” being driven largely by higher input costs and lower commodity prices.

Higher tariffs on China and other nations have caused U.S. exports, particularly soybeans, to tank. According to Sept. 24 CFO Survey, conducted by Duke University and the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta, price growth would have been 30% lower this year without tariffs. Still, Rollins said blame for the current ag economy woes falls squarely on the Biden administration.

“The trade, energy, agriculture and foreign policy agenda by the last administration was so driven by a different focus, one that looked a lot at DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion], green new deals, and increased regulations and excessive spending,” she said. “That administration did virtually nothing to enforce the hard-fought deals that President Trump won — no new trade deals in four years, which is astonishing to me.”

To right the ag economy, Rollins said the Trump administration will adhere to a five-point plan that includes:

delivering more relief to farmers
reducing input costs
expanding markets
boosting biofuels
securing farmland

Regarding securing farmland, Rollins said threats loom over foreign adversaries buying U.S. farmland. She also vowed to end incentives for the development of green energy on farmland and the purchase of Chinese-made solar panels.

To reduce input costs, Rollins said USDA and the Department of Justice could potentially pursue antitrust legislation on seed and fertilizer costs. USDA and the DOJ have also signed a memorandum of understanding to protect farmers from the “burdens imposed by high and volatile input costs.”

As for delivering more aid to farmers, Rollins said an announcement regarding the remaining $2 billion in emergency funding Congress approved last year will be coming next week. She also said USDA would be working on a plan to increase the size of the U.S. cattle herd, though that plan will not include direct payments.

Rollins made no mention of distributing tariff revenue, saying that plans for a payment program are still being worked out.

How could farmers get tariff revenue?

How Trump can unilaterally turn tariff revenue farm aid remains an open question. Revenue from tariffs goes into the U.S. Treasury general fund. The treasury secretary does not have legal authority to release those funds. That authority falls to Congress, which could vote to authorize their use. However, House budget rules would require either spending or tax increases to offset the additional spending.

Multiple lawsuits questioning the legality of the Trump tariffs have been filed. If the courts conclude they were enacted illegally, the legality of distributing tariff funds could become a moot point.

Earlier in September, House Ag Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson briefly supported the idea. Not long after, after further researching it, he concluded that option may not be feasible.

In response to Trump’s remarks on Thursday, Thompson released a statement, arguing that “years of Biden’s broken promises,” including not enforcing trade deals, have devastated U.S. agriculture. He said Trump is right to step in and provide a bridge to the “enhanced farm safety net polices” in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that will kick in next year.

“I’m committed to working with the Trump administration to support farmers and rural America, curing critical economic times,” Thompson said.

Excerpt from Politico:

Trump officials expect that Congress will need to authorize the use of tariff revenue for the farm aid package and are hoping lawmakers will include it in their omnibus package due by Nov. 21, according to three people familiar with the talks. That means the rollout of cash will likely start in early 2026.

The Trump administration has been exploring several ways to fund a farm aid package this fall for weeks as producers of top exports like corn and soy stare down a potential economic crisis that’s been exacerbated by the president’s aggressive tariff rollout.

The president, as he conveyed publicly Thursday, likes the messaging of using direct tariff revenue for the farm aid package, rather than tapping other funds, according to two of the people familiar.

Republicans from House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have also floated using tariff revenue to pay farmers, though the plan could run into roadblocks if the Supreme Court decides Trump’s tariffs are not legal.

Still, some Hill Republicans are privately alarmed by the proposal to distribute tariff revenue, according to one person with direct knowledge of the concerns. They’re worried such a plan would spark major demands from Democrats to insert more of their priorities into the November funding package. And they’d rather USDA tap internal funds, like it did during Trump’s first term trade war with China.

“I think we need to be eyes wide open about how big the Democratic counter-offer to this would be,” said the person, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Powerful agriculture lobbying groups and lawmakers representing farmers have been privately pushing the administration to step in with cash bailouts as they wait for the new market opportunities Trump has promised he can secure with major trading partners like China.

“The pitch being made to the administration is, ‘Look, if you don’t have some kind of ace up your sleeve here, like an imminent deal with China and/or a string of other trade deals that are about to be announced that also happen to lighten the load on soybeans, then there’s going to have to be a bailout,’” one agriculture industry representative, who was granted anonymity to discuss the private talks, previously told POLITICO. READ MORE

Excerpt from AgWeb: From the September (2025) monthly monitor, 62% of economists say direct government payments would provide meaningful relief, though many believe challenges are too severe for short-term fixes.

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“When you look at the ARC and PLC programs, the One Big Beautiful Bill upped some of the payments. But payments won’t come until October 2026. Farmers need the payments now. There’s an urgency. Net income in 2024, 2025 and 2026 is ugly. This isn’t like 2014 to 2019, when only one year was bad — 2015. This is just as bad, but we’ve got three years in a row,” Langemeier (Michael Langmeier at Purdue University) says.

Brown (Ben Brown from the University of Missouri) and Gardner (Grant Gardner, University of Kentucky ag economist) agree there’s a lot at stake with the current conditions and farmers could go out of business.

“My sense is there are farms that will go out of business regardless of if there are payments or not,” Brown says.

Gardner says the current financial support being discussed for farmers won’t equal profitability for farmers, but rather just survivability.

“If you look at where the payments were recently, it may cover some loss, and it may cover enough loss to keep a farmer producing into the next calendar year, but it won’t make them whole. There’s still going to be a loss,” Gardner says. READ MORE

Excerpt from Brownfield Ag News: “U.S. farm production inputs all cost so much more today than they did under the last Trump administration,” she says. “Seed costs up 18 percent. Fuel and oil up 32 percent. Electricity costs up 36 percent. Labor costs up 47 percent. The cost of vehicles and machinery, up 45 percent. Interest expenses up by 73 percent and fertilizer costs increased 37 percent.”

The USDA and the U.S. Department of Justice signed a memorandum of understanding this week to “protect America’s farmer and ranchers from the burdens imposed from high and volatile input costs and ensuring there are competitive markets.”

Rollins continues “the antitrust division of the DOJ will work hand-in-hand with the USDA, effective immediately, to take a hard look and scrutinize competitive conditions in the agricultural market place, including antitrust enforcement that promotes free market competition.”

She says high interest rates make the situation worse and while last week’s cut from the Federal Reserve was positive…”The Fed needs to keep lowering rates so farmers and rural communities can finally see relief.”

Rollins made the comments at the Ag Outlook Forum in Kansas City, an event presented by the Kansas City Agribusiness Council and Agri-Pulse Communications. READ MORE