President Trump asks Republicans to help with farm machinery

Republican lawmakers are pleading with President Donald Trump for more farm relief and aid to farm equipment manufacturers amid the tariff offensive, even as the president has provided $12 billion in relief to farmers hurt by his trade policies.

Farmers say President Trump’s tariff policies are hurting their profits because they rely on exports to international trade competitors, including China, to survive.

The blow comes on top of years of low commodity prices and high costs of key inputs such as fertilizers, which are already forcing farmers to tighten their belts.

Declining demand for new equipment from cash-strapped farmers led to layoffs at several major manufacturers earlier this year. Dear.

“As we’ve seen a contraction in market cycles, the U.S. market is under the most pressure based on what’s happening with trade flows, what’s happening with tariffs, what’s happening with domestic cost structures,” Corey Reed, president of Deere’s agriculture and turf division, told the Financial Times this week.

“We remain concerned that continued high tariffs, especially on critical parts and components that cannot be sourced domestically, will inadvertently harm farmers and ranchers and drive up costs for all Americans,” said Kip Eideberg, director of government and industry relations for the Equipment Manufacturers Association.

The move alarmed lawmakers, some of whom urged Trump to intervene to try to save farmers, his loyal voting bloc, from the economic fallout of his trade policies.

A spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a Trump ally, said the senator had complained to the administration.

“Senator Grassley last week raised constituent concerns with the White House, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Agriculture, shared that targeted tariff relief is available to equipment manufacturers, and asked the administration to eliminate tariffs on certain agricultural machinery parts,” the spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.

Other Republican senators are also speaking out.

Sen. John Hoeven (D) said in an interview that the equipment issue came up during Monday’s roundtable at the White House, where President Trump announced a relief plan for farmers harmed by trade policies. He said the President would respond to pleas for equipment assistance to farmers.

“We talked specifically with the president about this, and he specifically said he wanted to look at how we can contribute to making farm equipment more affordable,” Hoeven said.

Hoeven said President Trump has proposed “relieving some of the regulatory burden on farm equipment manufacturers” to keep costs down.

At the roundtable, President Trump publicly suggested cutting environmental regulations for farm equipment manufacturers, but only if the companies lower their prices.

President Trump said these regulations “do nothing except make the equipment more expensive, the work much more complicated, and not as good as it used to be.”

“We’re going to do it, and we’re going to say, ‘We’re going to lower the price.'”

But Republican lawmakers say the solution lies in increasing incomes for farmers so they can buy new equipment.

That may be a tall order given already tight farm operating margins and the impact of President Trump’s tariffs.

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), former chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and a farmer himself, said the weak manufacturer market is indicative of a weak agricultural economy.

“When the equipment dealers start screaming, when the fertilizer and seed dealers start screaming, when the banks start screaming, we have a problem,” Lucas said.

“I think the $12 billion aid package that the administration is talking about is a step in that direction. And I agree, all we need to do is get some trade negotiations done and get our products back into the world market.”

The Trump administration is proceeding with trade negotiations with various countries, and in some cases tariffs may be lowered as a result.

President Trump’s $12 billion trade relief package, called the Farmer Bridge Payment Program, will provide $11 billion to row crop farmers who grow large quantities of crops such as corn and soybeans. Farmers have already received about $30 billion in additional aid from the federal government this year.

Additional federal funding is expected to flow in next October, when provisions of the Republican settlement known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” go into effect.

But U.S. Farm Bureau Secretary Zippy Duvall warned that farmers will need more than that to survive.

“Bridge support is a down payment, and members of Congress have already expressed a desire to fill the gap,” Duvall said on the group’s website.

Some lawmakers agree, suggesting more federal money could be coming to agriculture in the future.

Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman (R-Ark.) said for the third year in a row farmers are “losing money if you’re growing something in the ground.”

“I stand ready to take further action in Congress if necessary,” he said.