Trump's latest £9.7 billion ($12 billion) tariff-funded bailout for US farmers lays bare a deepening crisis in agricultural markets, with industry leaders and farmers warning that the so-called Farmer Bridge Assistance programme does little more than patch the wounds inflicted by Trump's own trade policies.
The one-off payment scheme, unveiled by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), aims to offset 'temporary trade market disruptions and increased production costs' by providing financial relief to crop producers. But critics from farm states to agricultural economists say the package amounts to a short-term salve that fails to grapple with the scale of losses linked to retaliatory tariffs and shrinking export markets.
