Trump Tariffs Could Fund Bailout for US Farmers

The Trump administration is drawing up plans to use tariff revenue to fund a program to support U.S. farmers, the Financial Times reported Thursday, citing Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

"There may be circumstances under which we will be very seriously looking to and announcing a package soon," Rollins told the newspaper in an interview Wednesday.

Rollins said financing the bailout with "tariff income that is now coming into America" was "absolutely a potential."

The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The report follows pressure from farm groups after China stopped purchases of soybeans from the U.S. in their tit-for-tat trade dispute, and as tariffs have pushed up costs for fertilizer, machinery and other imported inputs.

Agriculture has emerged as a major point of contention between China and the U.S. as the superpowers are locked in a tariff war launched by President Donald Trump.