Donald Trump has apparently realized he's going to have to bail out American farmers who have been hit hard by his tariffs and other economic policies. And, true to form, he's going to try to do it without getting Congress to approve the funding, according to an article in Politico today:

The Trump administration is planning to roll out the first tranche of bailout payments for farmers in the coming weeks, likely using billions of dollars in funding from an internal USDA account, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.

But it won't be enough: USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation fund -- which President Donald Trump previously tapped to provide $28 billion in farm aid during his first-term trade war with China -- has just $4 billion left in the account. Trump officials, including those at the Treasury Department, are looking at how to tap tariff receipts or other funding to supplement the payments without triggering a messy fight in Congress.

However, this won't be happening immediately, since all the people who will be necessary to roll out such bailout payments to farmers are currently not at work, due to being furloughed by the government shutdown:

The government shutdown is already hurting a key GOP constituency: farmers.

Thousands of USDA's Farm Service Agency offices that help producers across the country access loans and other services are completely shuttered and only available for "emergency scenarios." Even top Republican lawmakers acknowledge the pain hitting their own constituents, despite assurances from President Donald Trump that Democrats will bear the brunt of the shutdown.

This is always a problem for Republicans cheering on a government shutdown -- the fact that the government actually does good things for people who vote for you. But the larger problem is that Trump's policies have hit farmers especially hard, and one bailout isn't going to solve everything.

The farmers that are being hit the hardest right now are those who grow soybeans. After spending decades building up a trading relationship with China, it has now been completely disrupted due to Trump's trade war. Earlier this year, China and the United States went through a period with sky-high tariffs on each other (instigated by Trump), but then both backed off to a certain degree. However, no trade deal has been cut, which has left the tariffs still incredibly high. As a result of all this, China completely stopped buying American soybeans.

China buys over 60 percent of the world's soybeans, it bears mentioning. The loss of this marketplace has been absolutely devastating for American soybean farmers. Silos are full of soybeans that nobody wants to buy. And many farmers who grow them could be on the brink of financial ruin if the problem isn't solved. This is the main reason why Trump is now considering a huge taxpayer-funded bailout for farmers.

However, this isn't the only bailout Trump is in the midst of arranging. Because he is buddies with Javier Milei, the rightwing leader of Argentina, Trump is going to bail out Argentina's financial mess to the tune of $20 billion. This might seem to be an unrelated problem, but in reality it was another huge slap in the face to American soybean farmers:

"I don't think there's too much doubt that President Trump himself personally has instructed Secretary Bessent and the Treasury Department to come to Argentina's aid and support President [Javier] Milei because President Trump wants to support President Milei," said Douglas Rediker, chairman of International Capital Strategies, which advises institutional investors.

By trying to solve his ally's problem, Trump is creating fresh headaches for himself. American farmers, among the president's most loyal supporters, were outraged this past week when Argentina suspended its 26 percent export tax to encourage China to place a massive order for soybeans even as Washington was preparing to help Milei.

Amid Trump's ongoing tariff war with Beijing, American farmers have seen their once-plentiful Chinese orders drop to zero. Argentina's success in supplanting them in the Chinese market while receiving U.S. financial help has raised questions about the Trump administration's priorities.

"We are uncompetitive in that China market due to government policy. On the other hand, our government gives that financial bailout to a foreign country who in turn makes their prices more competitive and sells into a market that we're unable to access," said Caleb Ragland, who grows soybean, wheat and corn on about 4,500 acres of land in Larue County, Kentucky.

Farmers have been struggling for months with low crop prices and high costs of operating. Trump's promise to use some tariff revenue to ease their trade war pain -- as he did during his first term -- did little to calm tempers.

"A government payment is not the answer to long-term success in our industry," said Ragland, the volunteer president of the American Soybean Association. "China consumes 61 percent of all soy consumed in the world. It's not a market where we can just say, 'Oh well, we'll just sell to somebody else.'"

A senior Senate Republican, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, also complained about the administration's handling of the Argentine situation, posting on X: "Farmers VERY upset abt Argentina selling soybeans to China right after USA bail out... farmers need markets 2 boost farm economy."

But Trump's agenda isn't just causing problems for soybean farmers. This harvest season may be a tough one for all kinds of different farmers, because Trump's crackdown on immigration is creating a real shortage of farmworkers. If there are not enough workers to harvest the crops, then the crops rot in the fields.

All of these problems -- markets disappearing, produce being stockpiled because nobody will buy it, bailing out foreign countries who sell farm produce to China, and a growing shortage of farmworkers -- are the direct result of the policies of Donald Trump. These aren't vague "market forces" or bad weather or a bad harvest or a natural disaster. They are all problems for farmers that did not exist before Trump took office. And even if Trump does create a bailout fund for farmers who face bankruptcy due to Trump's policies, the farmers won't be able to access it until the government shutdown ends.

Farming is a tough business to be in even in the best of times. But it's getting a lot tougher now because Donald Trump is actively making things worse for farmers on multiple fronts. Bailing farmers out might avoid a massive farm bankruptcy crisis, but unless the underlying problems are fixed, the farmers will require such bailouts every year. And farmers don't really want bailouts -- they'd much rather have a stable marketplace where they can sell their produce and make a profit.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant