The latest tranche of money from the Trump administration to bribe farmers to stick with Trump despite his trade policies that are ruining them is starting to roll out now. Another $14.5 billion, on top of the $10 billion already paid out, will start getting to farmers by the end of August.
The chief economist at the Department of Agriculture explains that the payouts are necessary because the "trade situation," as CNN puts it, has "persisted longer than we expected." As if it happened all by itself and wasn’t a direct result of Trump's bullying. China has maintained retaliatory tariffs, drying up its lucrative market for soybeans, corn, and wheat. Trump's ramping up the trade war by adding another $200 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods has made it worse.
So farmers can start applying for aid next week, based on how many acres of land they have planted in crops that will either rot in the fields or in storage because they can't sell them. The minimum payment will be $15 an acre and will be paid out in three rounds through this winter, unless somehow the trade war is magically resolved. Farmers earning more than $900,000 a year are ineligible, and payments cap out at $500,000.
As a bribe, it maybe isn't going to cut it. "No matter what the payments are here, they are not going to make up for the generational damage that's being done," says Brian Duncan, vice president of the Illinois Farm Bureau. "Once trade routes get changed, they don't change back—that's the real rub here." American Farm Bureau Federation president Zippy Duvall adds, "While we are grateful for the continuing support for American agriculture from President Trump and Secretary Perdue, America's farmers ultimately want trade more than aid. It is critically important to restore agricultural markets and mutually beneficial relationships with our trading partners around the world."
The money comes from an existing $30 billion federal fund, the Commodity Credit Corporation, overseen by the Department of Agriculture. It's the last payment, says Perdue.