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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images President Donald Trump speaks in support of farmers and ranchers at the White House on May 23, 2019.
President Donald Trump on Friday said he’d give more aid to U.S. farmers if they need it, as they wait for recently completed trade deals to take effect.
Trump, in a tweet, said the aid would be paid by “the massive tariff money coming into the USA!”
His election-year pledge came as a U.S. watchdog was opening a review of the administration’s $28 billion bailout for farmers harmed by the trade war, amid allegations the money was mismanaged, as the New York Times reported.
In response to Trump’s tweet, Scott Hodge, head of the tax-policy research organization the Tax Foundation, said it is the tariffs that are hurting U.S. farmers in the first place. A Tax Foundation analysis found that the administration has imposed almost $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans by levying tariffs on thousands of products.
Now read: Prices for corn, other farm commodities have taken a dip. It’s a chance to buy.
