The White House said on Tuesday that the administration will offer farmers about $12 billion in emergency aid to offset the repercussions from the president’s tariffs against China, which recently announced a 25 percent import tax on $50 billion in U.S. goods, including soybeans.
Tariffs have not been an easy sell. Members of Trump’s own party have raised objections to the policy, and they weren’t all immediately mollified by news of aid. “This administration’s tariffs and bailouts aren’t going to make America great again, they’re just going to make it 1929 again,” Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska told The New York Times.
Like many of Trump’s plans, the details about the emergency aid are murky; it’s not clear if the money will end up in the pockets of soybean farmers or the agricultural conglomerates that dominate the industry. CNBC reports that shares of John Deere went up after the news. Trump may take that as evidence that his solution worked, but he’s merely patching holes that he himself punched.