TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Holds a Roundtable on American Farmers, 12.8.25
[Video]
President Trump: Well, thank you very much and thank you for being here as we take a very vital action to protect and defend American farmers and reduce prices for the American consumers. And we've done that in so many different fields and this is a little bit of a different field, but we're bringing prices way down. We inherited a total mess from the Biden administration, the highest inflation in the country's history and very, very high prices and prices are coming down and they are very, very far down on energy. Energy's come -- in fact, we hit a very important number, a sacred number. We had three states in the last two days reported by our energy group, a group of very strong energy people who said we hit $1.99 a gallon in three different states and that's an amazing accomplishment because the gasoline prices are coming down. When gasoline comes down, everything -- it's such a big category that when gasoline comes down, sort of everything sort of follows. But we inherited a mess. Affordability -- but you can call it affordability or anything you want. But the Democrats caused the affordability problem and we're the ones that are fixing it. So it's a very simple statement. They caused it. We're fixing it. And they have a tendency to just say, this election's based on affordability, and nobody questions them, John, you know, nobody says, oh, well, what do you mean by that? But they just say the word. They never said anything else because they caused the problem, but we're fixing the problem. And we're pleased to be joined today by many of the wonderful members of the farming community, as well as the Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. Brooke, thank you.
Secretary Brooke Rollins: Thank you, sir.
Trump: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Thank you very much, Scott. Senator John Bozeman. Thank you, John. Good job. John Hoeven. Thank you, John. And Deb Fisher. Thank you very much. As well as Representative Austin Scott, who's been with us right from the beginning? Thank you, Austin. Good job. I'm delighted to announce this afternoon that the United States will be taking a small portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars we receive in tariffs. We are making a lot of money from countries that took advantage of us. For years, they took advantage of us like nobody's ever seen. Our deficits are way down because of tariffs. I guess, because of the election, because without the election, you wouldn't have tariffs. You'd be sitting here losing your shirt, but we're taking in billions. We're really taking in trillions of dollars, if you think about it, Scott, because the real numbers. You know, when you think of all the -- the money being poured into the country for -- for new auto plants and all of the other things, AI. So what we're doing is we're taking a relatively small portion of that and we're going to be giving and providing it to the farmers in economic assistance. And we love our farmers. And as you know, the farmers like me, because you know, based on -- based on voting trends, you could call it voting trends or anything else, but they're great people. They're the backbone of our country. So we're going to use that money to provide $12 billion in economic assistance to American farmers. $12 billion is a lot of money [Inaudible] what do you think? Peanuts for you, though, right, peanuts? She's a farmer of rice. This release will -- this relief will provide much needed certainty to farmers as they get this year's harvest to market and look ahead to next year's crops. And it will help them continue their efforts to lower food prices for American families. And again, we inherited something that -- we inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country and we're taking care of it. Farmers are an indispensable national asset, part of the backbone of America. I've always felt it so strongly. They're so important. Unfortunately, under sleepy Joe Biden. He's a sleepy guy. Our farmers were crushed by the worst inflation in modern history and crippling restrictions on energy, water and countless other necessities for farmers. And what they did to the farmer in terms of putting the brakes on was just absolutely unacceptable. In my first term, we had an agricultural trade surplus by a lot. We had a big surplus, meaning we were exporting American agricultural products all over the world, making a net profit, and in many cases, a very substantial profit. He came in and ruined it. Biden turned that surplus into a gaping agricultural deficit that continues to this day, but we're knocking it down. It's starting to go very good. In fact, China, as you know, is buying a tremendous amount of soybeans. And the number -- I spoke with President Xi recently, very recently and I think he's going to do even more than he promised to do. So I think it's -- and the relationship is a very good one. I think he's going to do more than he promised to do and what he promised to do is a lot, so we're very happy with that. In the last year, Biden bankruptcies rose by 55 percent having to do with farms. So farm bankruptcies under Joe Biden went up 55 percent. That's not good. But now we're once again in a position where a president is able to put farmers first. But unfortunately, I'm the only president that does that. One day one, I terminated the Green New Scam. Energy prices are down. Gasoline prices are down. We've slashed record numbers of crippling regulations and we're working on huge trade deals, already securing $60 billion in agricultural purchase commitments. And you know, Biden made none. He didn't make any trade deals having to do with the farmers or any of it. It's crazy. China committed -- he was the worst president in the history of our country, by the way, in case anybody has any questions. China committed to over $40 billion of soybean purchases and that's a commitment. And I asked President Xi if he could even up it and I think he'll do that. I mean, he -- not a commitment. The $40 billion is a commitment, but the soybean farmers are quite happy. Since my successful meeting in South Korea with President Xi, purchases have been made and soybeans are being exported out of the United States to China as we speak. And I say that our soybeans, I told this to President Xi, our soybeans are more nutritious than competitors. Somebody said is that a Trump statement or is that real? In fact, you know who asked me that question, President Xi asked me that question. He said, really, I had never heard of it and he was a food purchaser for a long time, but that's what I hear. And Japan agreed to $8 billion in purchases of corn, soybeans, ethanol, fertilizer, aviation, biofuel and rice. You know, Japan never bought rice from anybody else. It's like, a very important thing to them and they agreed to buy rice. OK?
Unidentified: Absolutely.
Trump: So I also proudly signed into law the largest tax cuts in history in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, the monumental tax relief bill that is benefiting very, very strongly benefiting the American farmer. And I think also for farmers, we have, as you know, and we got this, the estate tax or the death tax as they call it on farmers, on small businesses. You don't have to pay it anymore. A lot of farms would, you love your children and your children are great and they want to be farmers and you leave the farm to your children and a lot of farms are -- you know, sort of cash poor, land rich, cash poor. And the kids would go to the local bank or to any bank and they'd borrow money to pay the estate tax and they'd end up losing the farm. They go bankrupt and a lot of death too. You know, literally because they love their farm and they love their business and they love that way of life, they end up committing suicide, a lot of suicides. We have no more estate tax. How about that? Do you have children?
Unidentified: I do.
Trump: Huh?
Unidentified: I do.
Trump: Well, let them know now, if you love your children then it's good. If you don't love your children, you don't have to leave them anything. It doesn't matter what I just said.
Unidentified: They're still young. I still have them.
Trump: I have a feeling you love your children. But the estate tax is a very big thing. So you don't have estate tax, you die, you leave your farm or whatever or small business to your children, you don't have to pay state tax. It seems to affect the farmer more than anybody else. Because you can have a farm that's very valuable, therefore, you have to pay a big tax, but it's not a big value in terms of cash. Maximizing domestic farm production is a big part of how we will make America affordable again and bring down grocery prices for American families. And again, these are prices that we inherited. When I left, we were doing incredible. In four years, what they've done to this country in so many -- and not even mentioning the border and the criminals allowed into our country and all of the other. So I just want to say, it's a -- it's a tremendous honor being with you. I'd now like to ask Secretary Rollins to provide some of the details, followed by Secretary Bessent; director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett; Senator Bozeman, Representative Scott, and then we go to a couple of the farmers' representatives, but we'll all get involved a little bit. You can speak. If anybody is shy to speak in front of the press, and I don't blame you if that's the case, but farmers are Cordt Holub and Meyrl Kennedy will say a few words also and then we'll have a little discussion. OK? Madam Secretary.
Rollins: Thank you to the greatest boss in the world for a long time now. It's just an honor to be here. I'm going to keep my comments very short because I really want to make sure that you and the world gets to hear from our farmers. So a couple of quick points. Number one, this country and our farm economy is facing a crisis that we inherited that most of these farmers have not seen in their lifetime. Profitability is down. It's just one -- one crisis after another. When we came into office, sir, when you did and you were sworn in on January the 20th as you mentioned, not one new trade deal had been struck in four years. The cost of inputs for our farmers, fertilizer up 36 percent, manual labor -- labor up 47 percent, Interest rates up 73 percent. When you combine the cost of inputs for our farmers married to no new trade deals and then you're facing an administration whose priorities were DEI, climate change, putting the farmer aside, I mean, it was an absolute war on agriculture and on our rural communities. That all changed on January 20th. So as, sir, we are working and you have been just so resolute. I mean, these are our people. Rural America is the fabric of our country. This is the way of life that preserves the American Dream for the next 250 years, as we celebrate the first 250 years. So we began to go to work immediately. What these elected officials sitting across from us did with the One, Big, Beautiful Bill with a lot of help and direction from you was the largest investment in rural America in any of our lifetimes. We will begin to see that effectuated next year in 2026. As we have fought to bring input costs down. You have -- you have talked about and even this weekend did an executive order, signed one on looking into the reason that so much of these costs have been driven up over and over equipment again fertilizer, seed, etcetera, etcetera.
Rollins: We have to make sure we understand why that is and then the continuing of the additional trade deals across the world and no longer will America be held and beholden to the regime of other countries' tariff infrastructure. Instead, we are moving our products out across the world. Having said that and we have been listening to the farmers for the last ten months, 11 months, sir that the bridge that is needed to get from the last administration and what basically happened under the last president in the last US Department of Agriculture to this new golden age for farmers where instead of farming for government checks, they can farm to feed Their family and sell their products and pass it on to the next generation that this bridge is absolutely necessary based on where we are right now. So as the president said, we are very pleased to announce that today we are going to be effectuating an $11 billion trade -- but not trade, but bridge payment to our farmers. The money will move by February 28th of 2026. But by the end of this month, so just in the next couple of weeks, every farmer that is able to apply for it will know exactly what that number looks like. So as you are going to your lender, as you are working to ensure and an understanding what you can plant for next year, you will have that number in hand. And we will continue to talk to our farmers, continue to understand exactly what this looks like and what is necessary. The final thing I'll say is --
Trump: -- It's $12 billion.
Rollins: Well, we're holding $1 billion back. So today we are announcing $11 billion, we are holding $1 billion back --
Trump: -- Merry Christmas.
Rollins: -- just to ensure that we are covering. So today's announcement covers all of our row crops.
Trump: Very tricky.
Rollins: All of our row crops, but some specialty crops and others that we are still working with to best understand where they are in the farm economy and ensure that we're making every -- every forward moving position that we need to. And then finally, um, as we move to this new golden age for agriculture and for rural America as we continue to fight for these farmers and ranchers, their way of life and those that are represented here represent hundreds of thousands of farmers across this country. Just know that this president, I have never been around anyone who every time we talk, he asks how are my farmers. Every single time. So we will never stop fighting. We will make sure that we're doing everything we can to ensure the next 250 years is just as bright, if not brighter than the last. So thank you.
Trump: Thank you, Brooke. Thank you. And this money would not be possible without tariffs. The tariffs are taking in, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars and we're giving some up to the farmers because they were mistreated by other countries for, I don't know, maybe right reasons, maybe wrong reasons. They weren't, uh, they were trying to show us something. And, uh, it really worked out really well. But because of the tariffs, uh, this is possible. The other thing I'd like to add before going to Scott, and I think it's very important, we're going to also give the tractor companies, John Deere and all of the companies that make the equipment. We're going to take off a lot of the environmental restrictions that they have on machinery. It's ridiculous. I know because I buy a lot of that machinery for different things. We have a lot of big clubs with, you know, hundreds, thousands of acres and I buy a lot of stuff and you buy it, it's got so much equipment on it for the environmental. It doesn't do anything except it makes the equipment much more expensive and much more complicated to work. And it's not as good as the old days and we're going to take a lot of that nonsense off of the equipment, which is going to reduce and we're going to do it. And we're going to say you're going to reduce the prices. We're not going to do it and they're not going to reduce -- they're going to have to reduce their prices because farming equipment has gotten too expensive. And a lot of the reason is because they put these environmental excesses on the equipment, which don't do a damn thing except make it complicated, make it impractical. And you really have to be -- in many cases, you need about 185 IQ to turn on a lawnmower now. [Laughter] So we're going to take that off that crap off that they put on Biden mostly. And, uh, we're going to take that off. So that's going to make a big -- that'll bring down the equipment prices a lot.
Rollins: A lot. That's right.
Trump: And we're going to do that immediately. You're going to work with Lee Zeldin, who's not here. He's doing a fantastic job. And Lee is going to work that out. And that would be most of it. It's uh, it's crazy. The machines, they're always under repair because they're so complicated that you can't fix them. the old days you used to fix it yourself. Now you can't do that, you have to be a PhD from, let's say, MIT, OK. So we're going to get that done. Uh, Scott, please go ahead.
Scott Bessent: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you to the farmers to join us today. And I will tell all of you here that when either in person or when we are on a call with President Xi. The first thing the President asking for is more soybean purchases.
Rollins: That's right.
Bessent: We don't talk about geopolitics, we don't talk about trade. It's about soybean purchases.
Trump: We don't even say hello. We immediately start. [Laughter] We start with the soybean please place.
Bessent: Could you do a little -- it's always -- could you do a little more? So and I think I think President Xi is the -- uh, heard President Trump. Uh, this group represents an American way of life that is fed our nation and its spirit for hundreds of years. You are the caretakers of the most productive agricultural country on Earth. You drive hundreds of billions of dollars in exports, support millions of jobs and keep America's economy running strong and this administration is committed to keeping it that way. By putting farmers first, President Trump is ushering in a new golden age for agriculture. The president's $11 billion relief package for America's farmers comes at a critical time. These direct payments will give producers the breathing room they need to market this year's harvest and plan for next season. This serves as a liquidity bridge during a period of adjustment supporting the strongest agriculture sector in the world. And this the president's success in reining in Biden, era inflation, thanks to the administration's pro-growth policies, input costs like fuel and fertilizer are easing and credit conditions are improving, interest rates are coming down, helping farmers prepare for the next harvest. President Trump scored a massive victory for America's farmers when he secured an arrangement with President Xi in Busan to reopen China's markets to US agricultural exports, especially soybeans, sorghum and other commodities. Under this framework, China committed to purchase at least -- at least $12 million metric tons of US soybeans. This growing season followed by a minimum of 25 million tons annually for the next three years. And it's not just China. At the president's direction, Treasury USTR and the Department of Commerce have secured supplemental purchases of US agricultural goods in major trade agreements across the world to open new markets to America's farmers.
Trump: The One, Big, Beautiful Bill also delivered transformative benefits for America's small farmers. It locked in full expensing for farm equipment and 100 percent expensing for farm structures built during the president's term. I believe Representative Scott and a group in the House that we were originally just going to do factories and they called us and said you need to do farm structures too. And the president said, we're all in and it extended and enhanced much needed relief from the punishing death tax, giving family farms greater certainty as they plan for the next generation. Mr. President, thank you for putting America first by putting your farmers first. Through pro-growth, pro-farmer agenda, you're ushering in a new golden age of American agriculture and Treasury is proud to help in this. Thank you. Thank you, Scott. You know what we'll do. We're going to go a little faster because the last meeting we had was three hours. [Laughter] We're the most transparent group. So if we can go faster, it'll be great. And then we'll take some questions from the fake news. Is that OK? All right, Kevin. Go real fast, Kevin.
Kevin Hassett: Yeah, I could go really fast, sir. Sir, the -- the farm economy, you always ask me to just get a few numbers to put it in perspective. And as I've looked through the incredible performance of these people that work so hard and are such important people for keeping communities alive. The thing that struck me the most because you and I were here at the White House during COVID is that during those terrible COVID times, farm production didn't go down. Like these farmers, they went to work every day and they produced so much. But then Joe Biden came in. So we had COVID and production didn't go down. And then Joe Biden came in and he really wrecked the farm economy. And so, uh, during Biden's term, 150,000 farms closed, sir 150,000 farms closed. After we went through COVID and we didn't have a problem. Now why did we do it? Why were we able to do that? I'm going fast. The first is that you know the expenses for farms fell five percent while we were here because of all the things that we did, expensing and everything else? But under Joe Biden, they went up 13 percent because of all the -- you know, regulations, energy, everything else.
Hassett: But the thing that really jumped out at me the most is because you had high growth and low inflation. Interest expense for the farm economy fell $120 million per year while you were there in the White House, but under Joe Biden had increased by $8 billion per year. And so you wonder why it is that we need this $11 billion, maybe $12 billion to build a bridge loan to America's farmers. It's because we know how to fix it, but there really was a hole that was dug in the previous administration. Thank you. I hope it was fast enough.
Trump: That was quick. That's good. I appreciate it. Senator, please.
John Boozman: Yes, sir. No, thank you so much. Thank you for convening us this great announcement and all your hard work for farmers. I think I was reading the clips, I think yesterday you talked about -- Mr. Secretary, about farmers needing certainty and -- which is so true. This bridge note is one of those things that provides certainty. I also, as I was reading that thought to myself, the one thing that farmers can be certain of is the fact that you've got their back and you prove that through the years, in the last administration and now this. I was giving a presentation to -- to the Senate a while back and I was talking about us having the cheapest, safest food supply of any place in the world. It's not just about the farmers and rural America. And so Marco Rubio was sitting by me prior to coming over here and becoming the great Secretary of state. But he punched me and said, John, always remind them -- he was head of the, you know, Committee on Intelligence, said -- he punched me and said, always remind them food security is national security, so this is important for so many different reasons. And again, I appreciate you for recognizing that not only now, but when you were campaigning in your first election, how you treated the farm -- farmers in that -- in your first administration and now, now stepping up. So we look forward to helping you. If we need some additional help, looking to Congress or whatever, we'll be there for you.
Trump: So we're taking in so much money with the tariffs now that it's such a pleasure. Without it, we wouldn't be able to help you. We're making our country -- we're the richest country in the world now. And you know, we have a big decision. Hopefully, we're going to get the right decision. It's such a big thing in the Supreme Court right now. And we have a lot of bad people opposed to this, people that hate our country. Other countries are involved, some real sleazebags that I know, political sleazebags. And they're trying to take that away from us. And we have other methods, but they're not as powerful. They're not as quick. Some of the wars that I saw wouldn't have been solved using those methods. So it's a very important thing, the tariff. The decision of the Supreme Court is a very important thing. And Scott, we can do it other ways, but it's slow and it's cumbersome and it doesn't have the power. It doesn't have the national security power that what we have. So I hope we're going to be successful. That's all I can tell you. Austin, please. Thank you, John.
Austin Scott: First of all, President, thank you for the selection of Brooke Rollins as Secretary of Agriculture. That was a big first step.
Trump: You want to keep her?
Scott: Absolutely.
Boozman: Can I -- can I --
Scott: Absolutely.
Boozman: But in and second that. She's -- not only her, but her staff does a tremendous job.
Trump: I agree and remember eggs? Remember, we came in and --
Scott: Absolutely.
Trump: -- the people in the media -- people in the media were three days into office, Susie, right, they're saying egg prices are up like 90 percent, more than that. And I said I just got here, I didn't know about it. I just -- anyway, she -- she got those prices down to below what they were before. She -- she's doing a great job. Now beef is starting to come down and some other things are starting to come down again. We inherited these problems, but we're getting them down. Go ahead, please, Austin.
Scott: She's a fact-based decision-maker and the egg issue is where I learned about her. She said we're not going to use a vaccine that doesn't work. We're going to develop a vaccine that does. And that is 100 percent what it takes. And so we have to make decisions based on facts. And President Trump, the trade issues, I want to thank you for -- for exposing what other countries are doing to us.
Trump: Yep.
Scott: I want to mention one specifically for the benefit of Kevin and Scott. I know they're -- I hope they're paying attention to it, but this -- the European Union deforestation regulation, where they are imposing on our landowners, rules that were established for Brazil and now they're telling the American farmer what they can and can't do on their own land through this European Union deforestation regulation.
Trump: What does that tell -- explain that.
Scott: They are telling the American farmer that if their timber is cut and they are going to use that land for pasture land or for production agriculture that they will not take the timber or the byproducts from the sale of that timber. And uh, I have talked with James a little earlier about we need to make it clear to Europe, Mr. President --
Trump: If you would give me a two-paragraph statement on that, I will give that to them and they will do what they have to do.
Scott: Yes, sir.
Trump: We're always helping them and they do this kind of stuff and, you know, they pass little regulations that are -- that cost billions of dollars. It takes them two minutes to do it. They do it. Very tough. No good. You give me a couple of paragraphs. That's all. We don't have to do a lengthy study and I'll get that changed fast. OK?
Scott: Thank you very much, President. We love you.
Trump: It's incredible. It's incredible. Every day it's something else.
Scott: A country that can't feed itself doesn't know what freedom is. And so thank you for making sure that our farmers have the tools that they need so that we, as a country can feed ourselves.
Trump: Well, just what you said to me about, you know, the European Union. Now, that gets to the European Union, right? We have to be able to act quickly with tariffs. We can't just, you know, go to a committee, go to a study that takes seven months and talk. We got to be able to act quickly. So thank you very much.
Scott: Thank you.
Trump: John.
Unidentified: So thank you. I think that's a message from Farm Country, is thank you very much. You know, in the Working Family Tax Relief Act or as my young staffers call it, OB three, there is a tremendous amount for farmers and ranchers. You mentioned the credit as far as estate tax, which is so important. You analyzed it just right. But also in there, we enhanced ARC and PLC, which is a countercyclical safety net, thanks to the strong leadership of Senator Boozman and our colleagues in the House. But we also included the Farmer Act, which was my bill to make crop insurance more affordable. These tools will kick in next year, Mr. President, in a big, big way for our farmers, big time. And people aren't even really looking at it yet, but it's going to be a very big deal. So today is all about bridging to get there. And I want to thank Secretary Bassett and Jamison Greer. They're tremendous and they're negotiating hard out there for farmers and ranchers.
Trump: They are.
Unidentified: And I know it's because you're setting the tone. But this is that bridge and so we need to come back to Secretary Rollins. Thank you. Your leadership on this was vital. And Mr. President, this -- you're right, they love you in farm country out there. All you have to do is drive out and see the flags and --
Trump: No, the signs all over the --
Unidentified: On the hay bales, right?
Trump: Yeah, it's a Great honor. They're great people, the best people.
Unidentified: This is really important, really important for our farmers and ranchers. Thank you very much.
Trump: Thank you. You're doing a great job too, John. Thank you. And whatever we need, we get through the Senate, we get through the House, we'll get it -- we'll get it done. I think we'll start maybe with Cordt Holub and you come from a place that I'm very happy with.
Cordt Holub: I hail from the great state of Iowa.
Trump: That's right.
Holub: You know, I'm surrounded here by some of the -- the greatest farmers in the area and from across the country, anything from rice farmers. We've got all sorts of cotton farmers, everything. Everything is here represented so well. And first off, from me, I want to say thank you for this bridge payment. It's Christmas early for farmers and just to kind of have an icebreaker here for the story, I've got a two year old little boy at home, two year old little boy and a four month old little girl. And the other day I was reading my little boy a story at night, putting him to bed, and he said, daddy, I don't want Santa Claus to come to our house for Christmas, I want President Trump.
Trump: That could happen.
Holub: And I think -- Mr. Trump, I think you brought -- I think you brought Christmas to farmers. With this bridge payment, we'll be able to farm another year, help us get by. It's such an honor to be here with you. I lost my grandfather and our hired hand in 2002 in a farming accident. And he instilled in me at an early age to love the land, to take pride in what we do.
Trump: Is that a machine accident?
Holub: It was a machine accident. And it gets in your blood to farm. It's in our blood. Despite what happened, I want my two year old to farm. I want my four month old daughter to have an opportunity, and what you're doing here in DC is working. You have a backbone to stand up to other countries for trade. You're getting things done, tax provisions, I'll be able to potentially pass on a farm to my children because of you. Ethanol. You're working for ethanol, trying to get E15 year round. We're dealing with California, um, prop 12. Let's continue to work on that. I think we can have a lot of domestic product used here in the country and we can keep America first and you're good at that. That is -- that is who you are. And if we keep that E15 you could have the biggest --
Trump: -- So E15 is a big deal?
Holub: E15 is a great deal year round.
Trump: OK.
Holub: You could have the biggest stamp, I did that, Trump did that and we would thank you. Farmers would love you more than -- more than anything if we could continue that. Um, continue to use domestic product, use the byproducts and even be able to export to other countries. And so what you've done here and just having us here in the White House with you sitting beside the secretary and all these other great individuals here, um, what a true honor. And I will take pride in this meeting and I will take this home for many generations to come and because of what you're doing, hopefully them generations can stay on the Holub Lamb Farm.
Trump: Well, we're going to bring you into the Oval Office when we're finished, OK? The farmers, nobody else, just the farmers. [Laughter] And we'll take some -- we'll take some pictures, our representatives also, OK, because they're doing a great job. John and John and John and Austin, we appreciate it. You're doing a great job. Uh, Meryl, go ahead, please. Tell us about rice.
Meryl Kennedy: Rice. Well, thank you, first of all, for inviting me here and my friend, the secretary, you have an incredible lady right here. She really is. Um, along with being a mother of three and a wife, I run my family's agribusiness, Kennedy Rice Mill, in a little town called Mirage, Louisiana about a thousand people in the northern part of the state. Um, we employ around 150 people, taking rice from the field to a finished product, um, supplying some of the largest food companies that many of you would know here domestically, but also -- but also abroad. And my sisters and I -- because there is four of us, right, I'm the youngest of four daughters. Um, started our own rice brand a few years ago to just tell the story of American agriculture that hadn't really been told before. Um, but I wish I was here under better terms. I'll tell you, I think the rice industry, thanks you sincerely for what you have done for the California rice market into Japan. Um, it has been monumental for our industry, but us in the South are really struggling. I mean, this is not just a crisis, I would say. It's almost a market dynamics that really are true. Anti -- anti-competitive nature, right? So it follows what you -- what you sent out this weekend and we do believe that countries are dumping rice into this country today. We've never seen imports this great.
Trump: Which -- which countries?
Kennedy: Um, India, Thailand, um, even China into Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico used to be one of the largest markets for US rice. We haven't shipped rice into Puerto Rico in years. Um, so this has been happening for years. It didn't start during your administration, um, but unfortunately we're seeing it in a much bigger way now.
Trump: The tariffs are working, um, but we need to double down because --
Kennedy: I mean, well they're -- they're cheating, right? They're not -- they're just subsidizing. And then -- and then --
Trump: Scott, tell me about India? Why is India not allowed to do that? They have to pay tariffs. Do they have an exemption on rice?
Bessent: Uh, no, sir. We're still working on their trade deal, so --
Trump: -- Yeah, but they should be dumping. I mean, I heard that I heard that from others, so you can't do that.
Kennedy: There's a WTO case against India right now.
Trump: Give me the -- give me the countries if you could. Go ahead. India. Who else?
Kennedy: So India.
Trump: Mark it down. Will you, Scott?
Bessent: Yes, sir.
Kennedy: India, Thailand, um, China into Puerto Rico, not into the -- to, you know, continental US, but into Puerto Rico. Um, those are the main culprits.
Trump: So Puerto Rico used to do a lot of business and now?
Kennedy: 100 percent Puerto Rico was US based.
Trump: All right.
Kennedy: And now it's --
Trump: -- So easy to settle, OK.
Kennedy: But there's others too and I can get you a full list as well.
Trump: Give me a full list, yeah.
Kennedy: Of course I can. So.
Trump: All right. Go ahead.
Kennedy: Um, so truly this is a national security issue. I think you put it just perfectly, um, and so I want to, for all of us in the room to know that rice is more than just a commodity. It's a currency in many of these countries.
Trump: And you love rice, right?
Kennedy: I love rice. Yes, I'm going to get you to love rice too. You know, the next time you're not going to have a button for a Coke, you're going to have a button for a rice. [Laughter] But --
Trump: -- Farmers love what they do.
Unidentified: It's true.
Kennedy: Yeah, that's true. Well, our farmers can feed this nation and many nations abroad, but we need fair trade, not free trade. And so we appreciate what you've done today. We appreciate what you did in the Big, Beautiful Bill. I mean my word you, you really changed reference prices. Um, and, you know, we're hopeful that we can even move that further. I know that rice prices right now are the lowest they've been in over 40 years. So we're going to struggle. We're going to max out on our payments probably. So that's something that I know those in Congress can potentially help us with to change. Um, but again, we appreciate everything you're doing and --
Trump: -- This all solved so quickly with tariffs to these countries that are illegally shipping. It's solved. Your problem is solved in one day. That's why we have to win the Supreme Court case. In one day that problem solved. It's so unfair, they go out of business, they put everyone out of business. That's what they did to our car -- we lost more than 50 percent of our car industry because of that we lost our chip industry went to Taiwan because of that. If you had a president that said, no, you can't do that. It's 100 percent, a 200 percent tariff on chips if you make them outside of the United, we would -- we would have never lost our chip industry, but we're going to have 40 or 50 percent of it back very shortly because they're all coming in now from Taiwan. They're building chip companies, but it's the same thing with rice. Thank you, darling, very much.
Kennedy: Thank you.
Trump: It'll be good.
Kennedy: Thank you.
Trump: We'll get it solved very quickly. We just need the countries. We just -- just give us the names of the countries.
Kennedy: Yeah.
Trump: Tariffs, again it solves --
Kennedy: -- They own the largest brands.
Trump: -- It solves the problem in two minutes.
Kennedy: Yeah, they've bought the largest brands at retail too, right? So they're -- they have an incentive to subsidize their products so that they can keep it on the shelf.
Trump: Yeah, who did that?
Kennedy: Um, the Indians owned the two largest brands.
Trump: All right, and we'll take care of it. That's great. It's so easy. So, uh, do you have any questions?
Question: Yes. President Trump, how are you?
Trump: How about keeping it in farming?
Question: Ah, your team answered all of my questions --
Trump: -- As opposed to boats.
Question: -- about farming, but I do have --
Trump: -- Do you have a farm question?
Question: In the interest of affordability with this aid package, um, I assume that that's something you want consumers to see before midterms next year. How quickly will that affect prices at the grocery store?
Trump: Well, I think the prices are going to be going down already. I mean, the prices are way down. We brought prices way down from what it was. We inherited high prices, we inherited the biggest inflation in the history of our country. That means prices going up and we brought it down very substantially now. Inflation is essentially gone. We have it normalized and it will go down even a little bit further. You don't want it to be deflation either. You have to be careful, but we brought it way down. We had inflation that was the highest in the history of our country. They say 48 years, but I say the history, 48 years is pretty bad too, right? And so we're -- we're solving those problems, we're -- we're bringing them way down.
Question: President Trump?
Trump: Yeah?
Question: Would you consider MAHA incentives for farmers that go by MAHA guidelines?
Trump: Uh, well, a lot of the farmers like those Omaha guidelines, yeah. So I mean, they do -- we like MAHA. How do you feel about it?
Rollins: Yeah, let me -- let me answer that. So this is another reason I didn't mention it, but this is another reason I think that what we're moving into is a golden age for agriculture. As Secretary -- Secretary Kennedy and I and across our cabinet with the president's leadership focusing on making America healthy again. The undergirding foundational effort in that is our agriculture industry. It is our farmers and ranchers. So as the new dietary guidelines come out in early January where USDA alone spends $400 million a day on nutrition programs, that's a whole other SNAP fraud, etc. But when you think about what a market mover that is as we begin to move the market toward more locally produced, American-made healthier products closer to the schools, the -- the hospitals, etc., you again begin to open up so much of the market for the great products produced by these farmers instead of ultra-processed foods out of a box. So there's a lot that's going to be coming on that as well. I'm really excited.
Question: It's not related to farm, but if you'll entertain. I'm Cara from Lindell TV, Cara Castronuova and I'm not fake news just so you know. [Laughter] And, um, everybody's talking about the pipe bomber over the weekend. The suspect that was taken into custody. I reported on Biden's kangaroo court for four years and I -- this is an important question to me. Everyone knows that J6 was a federal action to set you and your supporters up. So my question is what's your gut instinct about the new pipe bomb or suspect taken into custody? Does your instinct tell you that he acted alone? And also, Mr. President, how do you feel about the lead prosecutor on the pipe bomber case Jocelyn Valentine is the same prosecutor that allegedly asked the J6er to lie to frame you for J6 when you did nothing wrong? What are your thoughts?
Trump: Well, thank you. I really appreciate that question. It's sort of a statement, and I appreciate it very much. Jocelyn is being looked at. They all have to be looked at what they're doing is so bad. This was a whole Democrat hoax. The whole thing was a Democrat hoax and it's all being looked at. I appreciate that.
Question: Mr. President, or is more expected? Is this the final aid package?
Trump: It depends on where we go. China is buying a lot. Other countries are buying a lot. And you know, the interesting thing about the farm, they don't want aid, they want to just have a level playing field. I've seen that more with farmers than anybody else. Any other industry. Right, Deb?
Deb Fischer: Right.
Trump: We've seen it more with farmers where -- I've had meetings like this and primarily in the first term and we did a great job. We turned it around. This is going to be the golden age. But the farmers don't want aid, they want to have a level playing field. Because if they have a level playing field. They'll do better than anybody else. They're better than anybody else. Our product is incredible. Our machinery is incredible, right? I mean, we do have the best machines. It's a very big statement I made, though, the environmental excess that we have put onto our tractors and all of our machinery. Do you all agree with that, by the way?
Holub: Oh, yes. Yes. It's got to go.
Trump: It doesn't do anything except make the machines break all the time. And I must say, I like to buy old machinery. I said, by old because it's better. The new stuff is terrible. It never works, never works. Here we go. Listen to this.
Question: Mr. President, you said you would have no problem with releasing the full video of that strike on September 2nd off the coast of Venezuela. Secretary Hegseth now says --
Trump: I didn't say that. You said that. I didn't say that. This is ABC fake news.
Question: You said that you would have no problem releasing the full -- OK. Well, Secretary Hegseth --
Trump: No, I said, whatever Hegseth wants to do is OK with me.
Question: He now says it's under review. Are you ordering the secretary to release that full video --
Trump: Whatever he decides is OK with me. So every boat we knock out of the water, every boat, we save 25,000 American lives. That was a boat loaded up with drugs. I saw the video. They were trying to turn the boat back to where it could float. And we didn't want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs just like everything else. But every boat we shoot down -- and I don't know if you know we're 92 or 94 percent down in drugs coming in by the sea. And we're trying to find who are the six percent, because I don't know. People aren't liking to drive boats right now, loaded up with drugs. But every single -- think of that, every single boat we shoot out on average, we save 25,000 American lives. Do you feel OK about that, Cordt?
Holub: Keep us safe.
Trump: OK. I knew -- I knew -- I know my man. What about you, Meryl, are you OK with that?
Kennedy: I'm totally fine with that.
Question: Are you committing to releasing the full video?
Trump: Didn't I just tell you that?
Question: You said that it was up to Secretary Hegseth.
Trump: You're the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place. Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious -- a terrible -- actually, a terrible reporter and it's always the same thing with you. I told you, whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is OK with me.
Question: And I just have a quick question. There's at least 20 House Republicans who have either said they're going to retire or not run again. Do you have any concerns about --
Trump: And Democrats -- and Democrats also.
Question: Do you have any --
Trump: Why don't you mention them? How many Democrats are going to retire? How many Democrats?
Question: Well, that's what I was going to ask --
Trump: No, no, but why don't you tell me the number of Democrats too? You tell me about --
Question: Well, are you concerned about the narrow margins? And --
Trump: No, I think we're going to do well.
Question: -- Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is among them and --
Trump: And we will have the greatest economy.
Question: -- [Inaudible] know as well, is considering --
Trump: We're going to have the greatest economy in history. How many Democrats are retiring? How come you only know the Republicans, but not the Democrats?
Question: Because I came prepared to ask you a question about --
Trump: No, no, you're unprepared because you should know the Democrats. You're totally unprepared. Go ahead.
Question: Well, can I ask a quick follow up about --
Trump: Who are you with? Who are you with?
Question: I'm with New York Newsday and I also have a quick follow up. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is among those who is running for New York governor --
Trump: She's great. She's great.
Question: Bruce Blakeman, who you also know --
Trump: He's also great.
Question: Are you planning on making any endorsements or --
Trump: He's great and she's great. They're both great people. We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party. Go ahead.
Question: Can I get back to farming?
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Thank you.
Question: So you talked about the profitability issue, the machinery playing a role in that fertilizer plays another role in that. A lot of that, the way I understand it, it comes in from Canada, different countries like that. What are we doing to bolster domestic fertilizer production to help make that more affordable? And then I think that will transition down the pipeline....
Trump: Well, a lot of it does come in from Canada and so we'll end up putting very severe tariffs on that if we have to, because that's the way you want to bolster here and we can do it here. We can all do that here. But I would say what you do, you put very severe tariffs on from coming into other countries. You'll be making your own fertilizer very soon.
Rollins: In fact, Secretary Burgum this cabinet is so remarkable instead of just seeing each other every month. We're literally talking every day, multiples of times a day. But our Secretary of the interior, I and Secretary Bessent and others, we have a whole plan in place, including the reshoring of fertilizer and the opportunity to do it in America. Having said that, we've also heard the president's guidance issued a directive, these fertilizer companies, the seed companies, the equipment companies, all of the above as our farmers have struggled year over year, the meat packing companies, continue to make, you know, a lot of money hand over fist, a lot of foreign owned companies. So that's why the president has been very unequivocal in saying we got to figure out why all these input costs are skyrocketing and all of our farmers are struggling, which we're going to do. That is a great question and --
Trump: So when they take fertilizer out of the country, all of a sudden we don't do it anymore and then they start charging and sending it, you know, very high prices from other countries, whether it's Canada or somebody else, and we're not going to let that happen. OK?
Question: Mr. President, on the quality -- on the quality of foreign produce, you spoke about soybeans and how the quality here in the United States, obviously, is a lot better.
Trump: That's what I've heard.
Question: Yeah. Is the default of this administration -- because that's an issue I understand with root vegetables, citrus as well.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Is the default of this administration that even if it's more a little bit more expensive home grown, you will choose home grown over cheaper produce abroad?
Trump: I like home grown. You know, some things we can't grow because we don't have the heat. There are some things, you know, little delicacies or maybe not such delicacies, but they grow better in warmer climates, very warm climates, actually. But for the most part, I like home grown.
Question: Mr. President, thank you. One on this announcement and then one on foreign policy if I may.
Trump: OK.
Question: Are you open to tapping into tariff revenue again should farmers find they need additional relief to get to that level playing field?
Trump: We're going to make the farmers so strong and I'm not even talking about financially because they just want to be able to produce what they can produce. And we're going to make them so strong that it will be indeed a golden age for farmers.
Question: And then on Russia and Ukraine --
Trump: You know, we had it going in the first administration and then Biden came in and ruined everything. They had no idea what they were -- they did. I mean, I think they wanted -- they hated the farmer. I love the farmer. That's why I got 94 percent of the vote from the farmers, but they hated the farmers. I love the farmers. Go ahead.
Question: And then on Russia and Ukraine, obviously, your administration has been having talks with each side. Given that there is no peace deal at this point, will your administration stay engaged in those talks to effort a peace deal?
Trump: Well, I just want to see people stop from being killed. You know, we don't -- as you know, Joe Biden gave them $350 billion. You know what I gave them, nothing. I gave them -- well, I did give them javelins at the beginning and knocked out a hell of a lot of tanks, but -- and Obama gave sheets. Remember, Obama gave sheets and I gave javelins. But no, we have uh, we have a great situation going over there, except for one problem. You got a lot of people dying and I want to see that stopped. So you have Ukrainian, mostly Ukrainian soldiers and Russian soldiers. Last month, 27,000 soldiers died, mostly soldiers, a few people from there, the dropping of a missile in the middle of Kyiv or wherever, which is a terrible thing, but mostly soldiers. 27,000 soldiers died last month. That's what I want to see stopped. We, as you know, we now sell equipment to NATO at full price and NATO takes that equipment and probably gives it to Ukraine. I guess they could give it to others too. But for the most part, give it to Ukraine and they're working with Ukraine in terms of distribution of equipment, missiles, etc. But we aren't spending money. What we are doing is spending time on a humane basis. We want to see if we can stop the killing of 27 -- it would have never happened. This war would have never happened if the election were rigged. If I were president, this war would have never happened.
Question: President Trump --
Trump: [Inaudible]
Question: If you could pick anything -- The soybean purchases --
Trump: Say it.
Question: You've talked a lot, obviously, about China's soybean purchases.
Trump: Yeah.
Question: Some lawmakers from North and South Carolina have raised concern that US tobacco farmers were told that China would not purchase flue cured tobacco this year. Has that come up in your conversations at all?
Trump: No, I haven't hear that, but we're doing well. The tobacco people, because of the deals I made, they're doing very well. But that could be if it -- if it's the case, I can get it solved very quickly.
Question: [Inaudible] let us know how you settled on this $12 billion or $11 billion plus one more billion dollar figure?
Trump: Yeah. We looked at how they were hurt to what extent they were hurt. We did a very, you know, steady progression of charts and we figured out a very exact number and it was about $12 billion. OK?
Question: President Trump if you had one Christmas wish for America besides making American farmers great again, what would it be?
Trump: I would say very simply, you know, I go by -- I go by a statement when people ask that question. Remember that question was asked by -- to Ted Kennedy and they said, well, what are you going to do to make America great, and he couldn't answer the question. I have a very simple -- we're going to make America greater than ever before and we're going to do it through a series of tariffs, intelligent taxes and incentives. And our country has never been stronger. We've never had anything like coming in. We have $18 trillion coming into our country right now. There's never been anything like it and if you ask me that I'll say, I just want to keep doing what I'm doing because there's never been anything like this happen.
Question: Do you support the --
Trump: -- The most -- the biggest number ever in history was $2 trillion and we're at $18 trillion. This is money pouring into our country on building car plants or building AI plants. We just want to keep doing exactly what we're doing because nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the world, not just our country. There's never been -- Scott, would you say that's right? There's never been anything like the investments coming into America.
Bessent: Sir, this is a record year -- record year.
Question: Do you support the Paramount deal, sir? On health care, Mr. President. 22 million Americans are expected to see their health care insurance premiums start to rise by the beginning of next year.
Trump: Are you talking about because Obamacare is so bad?
Question: Yes, well, sir, because Obamacare subsidies are expiring. Are you going to do anything?
Trump: Because Obamacare is so bad.
Question: What is the Republican plan? Are you going to let that happen on your watch?
Trump: What I'm going to do is if the Democrats go along with it, which they don't want to, because they want to make the insurance companies very rich, okay? Uh, I want the money to be paid to the people to go out and buy their own health care instead of paying to the -- you know, the insurance companies. Their stock has gone up, uh, 1,700 percent in a short period of time. Did you know that? 1,700. You wish your corn went up that. [Laughter] But the insurance companies stock has gone up by 1,700 percent, 1,800 percent. They're taking in trillions of dollars. I don't want to pay the insurance companies anything and I know a lot of them, but they're owned by the Democrats and the Democrats have -- Obamacare is a setup to make insurance companies rich. And I want to pay the people and I want the people to go out and buy their own health care and that's what we want to do. And that's what the Republicans want to do because Obamacare is a disaster. And I said it five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, it was always a disaster. It's bad health care that's too expensive for people. And now your premiums, and you said it better than I said it, you said the Obamacare premiums are going to go up, they're going way up. And what I want to do is have the money and you know who's getting that money? A lot of it is the insurance companies. I want the people to get the money and go out and buy their own health care. And everybody wants that. All right? Okay.
Question: But, Mr. President, but -- [Inaudible] on the floor, sir. Do you have any reaction on the fine that was imposed to X by the European --
Trump: -- For what?
Question: -- by the European Union? To X. To the platform X defined --
Trump: Wow, that was pretty amazing there. You're talking about, is that European Union or is it -- who did that European Union or UK?
Question: The European Commission.
Trump: Whoa, that's a nasty one. I don't know.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Trump: Elon has not called me to ask for help on that one, but no, it's a tough thing. I don't think it's right. No, I don't think it's right. I don't see, you know, how they can do that. I'm not -- I'm going to -- I'll speak about it later. I'm going to get a full report on it. Look, Europe has to be very careful. They're doing a lot of things. We want to keep Europe, Europe. Europe is going in some bad directions. It's very bad. Very bad for the people. We don't want Europe to change so much. They're going into very bad directions. That was a big -- that was a good thing.
Question: You directed a review of the childhood vaccine schedule possibly to match what is on par with peer nations in Europe. Would you support ending federal mandates and just making those recommendations for schools?
Trump: You're going to have to say it again.
Question: As far as the vaccine --
Trump: -- Louder, louder.
Question: As far as the vaccine schedule for children, would you support ending the federal mandates and making it optional for schools?
Trump: Well, we're looking at a lot of things having to do with vaccines. And with the -- you know, the different -- I think we take like 88 different shots all wrapped up in one, one big glass of stuff like that. And we're going to be reducing it very substantially.
Question: Do you support the Paramount --
Trump: -- It'll be safe, but we're going to be reducing it very substantially.
Question: Do you support the Paramount bid for Warner Brothers that came this morning?
Trump: I don't know enough about it.
Question: You -- you spoke about Netflix last night saying you have concerns about them.
Trump: Yeah, I know -- I know the companies very well. I know what they're doing, but I have to see -- I have to see what percentage of market they have. We have to see the Netflix percentage of market. Paramount, the percentage of market. I mean, none of them are particularly great friends of mine. You know, I just -- I want to -- I want to do what's right. So it's so very important to do what's right.
Question: If Paramount supported by Jared Kushner, Mr. President, would that impact your decision?
Trump: If Paramount is? I don't know. I haven't -- I've never spoken to him about it. He's really trying to, uh, work on Gaza. [Laughter] I think Gaza's -- his primary thing is Gaza.
Question: Now you're making house visits on Christmas Eve as he suggested. Does the beast need to be fitted with sleigh rails? [Laughter]
Trump: Do you want to answer that question?
Rollins: The -- absolutely. [Laughter] We should put sleigh rails on the beast. Yes, he is the same.
Trump: Go ahead.
Rollins: That Republican plan that you just talked about when it comes to health care, when do you expect Republicans to put that out?
Trump: Well, look at it very strongly and we're also going to the Democrats and asking them to do it. The Democrats want to make the insurance companies rich, they're all paid off by the insurance companies. They -- a tremendous amount of the insurance company funding goes to Democrats. Why don't you ask that question of the Democrats? Because I would love to do it. I'd like all of the money to go to the people. They go to the people. You know, I put that out two weeks ago. It became number one viral. People love it. I want the money to go for health care, to go to the people and let the people buy their own health care through an account. They can buy their own health care and everybody loves it except for the Democrats. And you know why they don't? Because they're paid off by the insurance companies. Okay, what else?
Question: Yeah, Alina Habba says she's stepping down as US attorney for the District of New Jersey after the courts disqualified her. Do you have any comment on that?
Trump: Well, she's not disqualified. You've got a blue slip thing that's horrible. It's a horrible thing. It makes it impossible to appoint a judge or a US attorney. And it's a shame and the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves that they allow this to go on because I can't appoint a US attorney, that's not a Democrat because they put a block on it. So if you appoint in Virginia or in New Jersey or in California, a US attorney or a judge, I mean, a judge situation is ridiculous. The only people that you can get by are Democrats because they will put a hold on it. If I put up George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to be US attorney in New Jersey or to be US attorney in Virginia where you have Democrat senators, they will not approve them. And this is a gentleman's agreement that's lasted for too long. And it doesn't make it, especially in light of what's going on today. It means you can't appoint a Republican US attorney and we don't play the same game with them. But they do. And I hope that somebody speaks to Senator Grassley about doing something about the blue slip, because I'm telling you, John, I put up great people, top people, highest education, the best lawyers to be like US attorney. And both senators, it only takes one, but if they're -- if they're Democrat Senators, they say we're not going to approve it. I had a couple of them say why don't you appoint Democrats .All because Senator Grassley with his blue slip stuff will not let anybody go by. By the way, the Democrats have violated the blue slip provision on numerous occasions. But we don't do it and what it means is I guess I just have to keep appointing people for three months and then just appoint another one, another one. And it's a very sad situation. We're losing tremendous -- we're losing a lot of great people. We have about seven US attorneys who are not going to be able to keep their jobs much longer because of the blue slip because unless -- I think I know why they did that to protect their ass. Okay, that's why they did that. But, uh, it should be done away with -- I want to be able to appoint great -- the most highly educated, the most respected people. They can't keep their jobs because of the blue slips. Terrible. Okay, thank you very much, everybody.
Aide: [Inaudible] Thank you. Thank you, guys.
Trump: The farmers, let's come in to the Oval Office. All right, Deb, come on. We're going to go into the Oval Office.
Note: [As reporters were leaving the room, Donald Trump was caught speaking about appointments and blue slips in Congress.]
Trump: Hey Jeff. Can you get me a blue slip? You know I cannot appoint anyone. Huh? I can't appoint anybody. Everybody I've appointed, their time is expired. And then they're in the [Inaudible] and then we lose them --