What were the total payments by USDA per commodity under Trump-era tariff relief programs?
Executive summary
Two distinct rounds of Trump-era tariff relief are in the public record: the first-round Market Facilitation-style payments in 2018–2019 that the USDA later quantified as roughly $25.7 billion in direct support tied to retaliatory tariffs, and a separate December 2025 “Farmer Bridge Assistance” (FBA) program that allocated $12 billion total — about $11 billion for row crops and $1 billion reserved for specialty crops and sugar — but for which commodity-by-commodity final totals are not fully reported in the material provided [1] [2] [3].
1. Market Facilitation and the 2018–2019 relief: a headline total, limited public commodity breakdown
The USDA’s response to retaliatory tariffs during the first Trump Administration encompassed multiple programs and is summarized in Congressional reporting as roughly $25.7 billion in direct income support and related purchases aimed at agricultural producers and commodity markets [1]. The Congressional Research Service and USDA documentation referenced in the sources break out payment methodology and say USDA produced tables showing payments by commodity, but those commodity-specific tables are not reproduced in the reporting excerpts provided here, so precise, source-citable per-commodity totals for the 2018–19 programs cannot be asserted from these sources alone [4] [1].
2. What is publicly reported about individual commodities from that era
One commonly cited figure from that earlier relief era is that soybean producers received the largest single-commodity share under 2018–19 aid, with a widely reported $7.3 billion going to soybean producers in the first wave of trade-aid payments; that figure appears in the assembled reporting (Wikipedia summary) and aligns with contemporaneous public accounts of how trade damage concentrated on soy exports [5]. Beyond that headline, the sources note USDA used commodity-specific damage estimates and production baselines to calculate per-unit payments — meaning detailed per-commodity tables exist in USDA/CRS appendices — but those tables and exact line-item totals are not present in the provided source snippets to permit full itemized reporting here [4] [1].
3. The 2025 Farmer Bridge Assistance program: allocation by program, not final commodity totals
In December 2025, the administration announced a new $12 billion bridge package financed from tariff revenue and the Commodity Credit Corporation, structured so up to $11 billion would fund one-time Farmer Bridge Assistance payments to eligible row-crop producers while $1 billion would be reserved for specialty crops and sugar [6] [7] [2] [3]. USDA released commodity payment rates and listed eligible row crops — barley, chickpeas, corn, cotton, lentils, oats, peanuts, peas, rice, sorghum, soybeans, wheat and several oilseed and minor crops — but the provided materials give per-acre payment rates only for a few crops (for example, corn ~$44.36/acre; rice ~$132.89/acre; soybeans ~$30.88/acre in one report) rather than aggregate dollar totals by commodity across all recipients [8] [2] [3].
4. Why exact per-commodity totals are still opaque in the supplied reporting
The USDA and White House materials emphasize program-level dollar caps, program design and per-unit/payment-rate methodology and promise of forthcoming commodity-specific payments, but the sources supplied do not include the complete, post‑distribution accounting that would translate per-acre rates into total dollars paid per commodity across the payer universe [2] [3] [8]. Congressional and USDA archives from the 2018–19 period reportedly contain tables that break down MFP and related outlays by commodity and state, but those detailed tables are referenced rather than reproduced in the excerpts provided, so this analysis cannot credibly invent the complete per-commodity totals absent those underlying tables [4] [1].
5. Bottom line and recommended next steps for definitive per-commodity totals
From the assembled sources: the broad sums are clear — roughly $25.7 billion in tariff‑related supports in 2018–19 (USDA/CRS summary) and a $12 billion bridge package in 2025 with up to $11 billion destined for row crops [1] [2] [3] — and a specific widely cited legacy figure is $7.3 billion to soybean producers in the earlier round [5]. However, precise USDA-distributed totals by individual commodity for all Trump-era tariff relief programs are not fully presented in the provided reporting; obtaining the USDA/FSA or Congressional appendix tables referenced in the CRS and USDA reports would be the next step to compile an authoritative commodity-by-commodity ledger [4] [1].