Trump announces $12 billion in aid for struggling farmers

Trump announces $12 billion in aid for struggling farmers.

Supreme Court signals backing Trump’s control over independent agencies.

President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have announced a $12 billion aid package for American farmers who have been struggling due to Trump’s tariff and trade war policies. $11 billion will be disbursed to row crop farmers by the end of February to help farmers with inputs like seeds, gas, and fertilizer for next year’s growing season. The other $1 billion will be held back for growers of fruits and vegetables.

The aid package came after months of controversy and outrage from farmers, a key Republican demographic. Blowback from Trump’s tariff policies has hit American farmers hard, especially those who export their products abroad. Following Trump’s recent trade war with China, China switched from the US to Argentina to meet its soybean import needs.

Then in October, the Trump administration announced a $20 billion currency swap with Argentina to buoy the South American nation’s economy, which has struggled under their President Javier Milei, a Trump ally. American farmers and ranchers saw this as a betrayal, essentially a bailout for their foreign competition.

Supreme Court signals backing Trump’s control over independent agencies

During recent arguments, the Supreme Court’s conservatives indicated they were willing to grant President Trump more control to hire and fire leaders of independent government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission. The case stems from Trump’s firing of Democrat appointee Rebecca Slaughter from the FTC before her term was up. Slaughter’s attorney argued that Trump had exceeded his authority in firing her.

The Justice Department argued that tenures granted by Congress to office holders unlawfully infringed on the president’s constitutional power. The DOJ’s D. John Sauer based his arguments in unitary executive theory, a controversial reading of the Constitution which would grant the president nearly unchecked power over the executive branch. Although it contradicts decades of judicial precedent (including its own rulings during the Biden administration), the Supreme Court has been sympathetic to this theory of presidential power during Trump’s second term.

Allowing presidents to enforce politics in this way over regulatory bodies like the FTC would upend Congress’ intent to provide continuity from one administration to the next. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan warned that a ruling favoring Trump would hand the president “massive, unchecked, uncontrolled power”. Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Sauer, “You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government“.