Trump says China’s refusal to buy U.S. soybeans will top agenda in meeting with President Xi

President Trump said Wednesday he plans to take a “small portion” of tariff revenue and give it to farmers who are struggling because of foreign trade barriers, low crop prices and high costs of equipment and fertilizer.

Mr. Trump, writing on Truth Social, said China’s refusal to buy soybeans, in particular, would be a major topic of discussion when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in several weeks.

“The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ’negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” Mr. Trump wrote. “We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers. I WILL NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN!”

For weeks, the Trump administration has been assessing whether it needs to send financial aid to farmers. They are drowning in a sea of high costs that began with Biden-era inflation in 2022 and got worse from tariff-induced increases.

Farmers say they’d prefer to gain access to new markets instead of getting a handout from Washington.

Soybean farmers, in particular, are panicking over the lack of Chinese buyers.

Previously, the U.S. was the provider of choice for China. Yet its buyers are turning to sellers in Brazil because of trade tension and reciprocal tariffs.

Making matters worse, China recently purchased multiple cargoes of soybeans from Argentina, even as the U.S. moved to bail out the South American country and its conservative leader, Javier Milei, a key Trump ally who is leading free-market reforms.

An Associated Press photographer snapped a photo last week at the U.N. General Assembly of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reading a text from “BR,” which many interpreted as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, raising concerns about the lack of soybean purchases alongside the Argentine bailout.

Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the Biden administration, said on X that Mr. Bessent should “Immediately hit pause on this inappropriate bailout of Argentina that is further harming American farmers” and “affix a privacy screen to his iPhone, available online and in stores for roughly $10.”

It’s not just soybeans. On Wednesday, the new president of a key corn growers’ lobby urged the Trump administration to find new markets for their products.

Jed Bower, a fifth-generation corn and soybean farmer from Ohio, also called on Congress to approve year-round sales of fuel with 15% corn ethanol.

“We need new markets to help alleviate the economic crisis that is threatening the survival of countless family farms across the country,” Mr. Bower said in his first statement as president of the National Corn Growers Association. “That’s why we will continue to encourage Congress to act immediately to pass legislation that expands consumer access to higher blends of ethanol year-round and urge the Trump administration to move quickly to develop new foreign markets.”

Corn growers want Congress to pass a bill that permanently authorizes E15, shorthand for a fuel blend made of gasoline and 15% corn ethanol instead of 10%.

Corn farmers say a higher ethanol blend is cheaper and better for the environment, so Congress should remove outdated regulations that prevent drivers from accessing higher-ethanol fuel in the summer months.

Farmers have been complaining about rising costs since the middle of the Biden administration, when inflation took hold. However, tariff-related costs are making it harder to buy fertilizer and tractors or other heavy equipment, and trade tensions with China this year led to a market barrier on soybeans.

Mr. Trump on Wednesday blamed the Biden administration for farmers’ woes.

“Sleepy Joe Biden didn’t enforce our Agreement with China, where they were going to purchase Billions of Dollars of our Farm Product, but Soybeans, in particular. It’s all going to work out very well,” he wrote.

The administration says Mr. Trump is gradually securing trade pacts that will open markets such as Britain and Japan while it considers a possible aid package for farmers.

“Supporting America’s farmers and doing what’s best for them is at the top of this president’s priority list,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. “We want to help our farmers and we’re exploring the best ways to do that, and I would anticipate there would be more to say on that very soon.”