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Donald Trump is set to announce a $12bn aid package for US farmers, who have been among the hardest hit by the administration’s trade policies, the White House announced on Monday.

The bailout plan comes as the American agricultural sector has been battered by a combination of retaliatory tariffs on its exports and higher input costs driven by new US levies on foreign goods used in farming.

The president and top administration officials have for weeks been under pressure from farmers, including from staunchly Republican areas of the country, to provide some relief to the sector or face a damaging erosion of support in a key part of their political base.

“Today’s announcement reflects the president’s commitment to helping our farmers, who will have the support they need to bridge the gap between [Joe] Biden’s failures and the president’s successful policies taking effect,” a White House spokesperson said.

“Agriculture is all about the future,” Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, told CBS on Sunday. “You’ve got to start financing for planning next year, when things will be very good,” he added.

The relief package echoes a similar multibillion-dollar rescue of the farming sector that Trump was forced to put in place during his first term in office — which was also to blunt the impact of his trade wars.

Over 2018 and 2019, the Trump administration authorised bailouts totalling approximately $28bn to farmers, including direct payments to producers of soyabeans, almonds and pork.

Trump officials have previously floated using the US’s boosted tariff revenue to fund a bailout programme for farmers as they head into harvest.

Soyabean farmers have been particularly hit by China curbing purchases of the crop and by the increased costs of machinery and other goods and inputs due to Trump’s tariffs.

Trump administration officials have said the outlook for the US soyabean sector was set to improve after China last month agreed to boost its purchases of the commodity, but purchases have only slowly increased.

China pledged to buy 12mn tonnes of US soyabeans during the final two months of 2025, along with 25 tonnes annually for the next three years, following a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in October.

On Sunday, US trade representative Jamieson Greer said that while China was on track to fulfil its recent purchasing commitments for the crop, it was so far about “a third” of the way through its expected imports for the season.

The farm aid package comes as Trump is launching a new effort to boost his dismal ratings on his handling of the economy, as Americans have grown sceptical of his ability to bring down inflation as he had promised during the 2024 campaign.

On Tuesday, Trump is expected to travel to Mount Pocono, in northeastern Pennsylvania, a swing state in recent presidential elections.

Speaking to CNBC on Monday, Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council and the frontrunner to be Trump’s pick for chair of the Federal Reserve, said the purchasing power of households had been rising but the US needed to “lock in” gains in “real wages” from “positive supply shocks” resulting from the AI boom without triggering additional inflation.

“The one thing we know is that inflation hurts everybody, everybody in the economy,” Hassett said.