'Tidal wave of problems': With harvest here, Trump's trade war pushes some US farmers to the brink [View all]

Source: CNN Politics

PUBLISHED Sep 20, 2025, 6:30 AM ET


Farmers across the country are issuing increasingly urgent warnings that they’ll face grim consequences if they don’t get help selling this year’s bumper crop that many have begun harvesting. Trade deals many had hoped would quickly emerge after President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on some of the United States’ biggest agricultural customers haven’t come. A farm bailout is no sure thing on Capitol Hill. And farmers — many of whom voted for Trump — say time is running out.

“It just seems like things have stalled all summer long,” said Brian Warpup, who grows corn and soybeans on his 3,900-acre farm in northeastern Indiana. “We’re always hopeful that those negotiations are moving forward, but yet with harvest here, patience may be running thin.” Across the US, farmers describe increasingly dire circumstances stemming from a confluence of factors — trade wars, Trump’s immigration crackdown, inflation and high interest rates.

Though the challenges vary in different parts of the country, farmers in some cases, particularly on the West Coast, are struggling to find labor to pick their harvest. Others, especially in the Midwest, said they can’t sell what they’ve produced. And many are scrambling to find storage.

It’s led to pressures reminiscent of the trade wars from Trump’s first administration, when the federal government spent billions on bailouts to farmers. The world’s biggest soybean buyer, China, is so far this year refusing to purchase American soybeans — a critical export that the US Department of Agriculture said was worth nearly $25 billion last year — turning instead to Brazil as part of Beijing’s response to the tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese goods in February.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/20/politics/us-farmers-trump-tariffs-dire-consequences