Donald Trump announced a proposed $12 billion farm aid package on December 8, marketing it as a lifeline for agricultural producers battered by trade disruptions, inflation, and volatile global markets.

But the central fact remains unavoidable: this crisis was manufactured by Trump himself, not Beijing.

His administration’s own tariff policies destabilized commodity prices, crippled access to the Chinese market, and forced farmers into the same government-dependent posture they often claim to reject – giving handouts to help others.

What the White House now frames as relief is more accurately a reimbursement for self-inflicted wounds, financed by taxpayers who had no role in creating the problem.

Farmers across the Midwest have long portrayed themselves as champions of free-market inde

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