Trump announces support payment for farmers, hints at fertilizer tariffs

Dec 10, 2025

The Trump administration announced $12-billion dollars in a one-time payment to American farmers impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump's wide ranging tariff war.

The announcement was made during a one-hour roundtable Monday afternoon at the White House.

The majority, $11-billion, will come out first for soybean, corn, sorghum and rice producers. The remaining $1 billion is being held back to help growers of other crops.

Asked how his administration arrived at the $12 billion figure, President Trump said it was based on the extent farmers were "hurt" by the tariffs.

Trump says the $12-billion will come from the large amount of money collected by the U.S. government in tariffs imposed on a wide range of products from many countries.

Trump was also asked if this would be the last aid payment for American farmers and the president was non-committal. China has been buying some U.S. soybeans, but the amount to date is well below the anticipated amount.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the money will be distributed to eligible farmers by February 28, 2026. Rollins added farmers will know the exact amount they will be able to apply for "in the next couple of weeks."

In a climate of lower commodity prices, U.S. farmers are also dealing with higher input costs. A reporter asked about fertilizer in particular. Trump admitted a lot of fertilizer comes from Canada but wants to change that by implementing tariffs to encourage domestic production.

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.