Farmers Are Hit Hard By Donald Trump’s Tariffs

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🗓️ 4 November 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Farmers are being hit hard by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The cost of fertilizer and machinery is up, while the market for certain crops is nearly gone.

But last week’s trade deal with China could provide relief. And the administration says it’s readying a $12 billion farm aid package to pay out post-shutdown.

What kind of impact have Trump’s economic policies had on the American farmer?

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:26.9	The U.S. economy has lots of big moving parts.
0:33.9	Services. You got consumer goods, manufacturing. All of it adds up to more than $30 trillion per month. But as Donald Trump's trade war slapped tariffs on goods from around the world,
0:38.7	the sector hardest hit agriculture. Import duties on things like fertilizer and steel for machinery
0:44.6	drove costs of production up, while retaliatory tariffs from foreign nations drove exports down.
0:52.6	An economist projected growers could see roughly $44 billion in net cash
0:57.6	income losses over the next year. Now, this is especially true for the people who farm soybeans,
1:04.2	the nation's second biggest crop, but a new trade deal with China could ease some of the economic
1:09.2	pain they've been feeling because of Trump's
1:12.0	trade war. We heard from some of you. Farmers have already sold their beans for practically nothing
1:18.3	at a loss to the Chicago Board of Trade members, the Cargills, the ADMs. And now they've got the
1:26.9	beans. Okay, now there's a trade deal.
1:28.9	Boy, they stand to really make a buck or a trillion, don't they?
1:34.1	Not the farmers.
1:36.0	Hopefully people will open their eyes to the fact that these wounds were inflicted upon them
1:41.5	by their own president, and if they think that the current treaty with
1:47.1	China will hold, think again. So how much will it help? We'll get into it after a break. I'm
1:54.4	Todd's Williken for Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast where we get to the heart of the
1:58.9	story. Stay with us. We've got a lot to get into.
2:06.6	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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