'Time is running out': Farmers desperately await 'bailout' Trump promised

Rural voters, including farmers, favored Donald Trump in big numbers in 2024. After Trump narrowly won the presidential election and returned to the White House, he aggressively promoted steep new tariffs — which, many economists warned, would hit the agricultural industry hard. But Trump assured farmers that if his tariffs increased the cost of doing business, he would have a bailout for them.

In an article published on October 16, however, Politico reporters Myah Ward and Grace Yarrow emphasize that U.S. farmers aren't getting the financial relief they were hoping for.

"President Donald Trump promised a bailout for farmers reeling from the effects of his tariffs and the high costs for fertilizer and other equipment," Ward and Yarrow explain. "But the money hasn't come, and time is running out before farmers have to make crucial decisions about next year's planting season. The White House blames Democrats and the government shutdown for the delay of its multi-billion-dollar bailout, but that's just one of many problems the administration faces."

The reporters add, "Even if there were a quick end to the shutdown, it would likely take months to get money to the farmers who need it most, according to industry insiders and farm-state senators."

According to Ward and Yarrow, financial help for farmers is "complicated by an escalating trade war with China, from which the administration is loath to back down."

Conservative Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) told Politico, "Farmers are hurting financially. They're very troubled, there's some expectation for help. Emotionally, it would be great for something to happen soon. But financially, they need to be able to go to their bankers and say that help is on the way."

Also making business more complicated for farmers, Ward and Yarrow report, is Trump's "deportation agenda," which has "spurred backlash from farmers reliant on undocumented labor."

"Republican lawmakers have urged the White House to act quickly to slow the compounding concerns they warn could lead to a farm economic crisis similar to the one in the 1980s that triggered mass bankruptcies and rural flight," the Politico reporters observe. "Producers of crops like corn, soy and other grains experienced a major harvest yield this fall and are struggling to find places to store it while they hope for good news on new trade deals that Trump promised them."

Read the full Politico article at this link.