Lake Preston Farmer Still Duped by Cheating Trump; China Buys More Soybeans

No matter how bad he is for the ag industry, King Don still manages to delude some farmers:

Lake Preston farmer Paul Casper said the price increase has pushed him “closer to break-even on beans,” while Trump’s tariffs have raised the price of farm inputs such as fertilizers.

Casper said Brazil has emerged as a rival to U.S. soybean farmers after years of infrastructure investment backed by China, which makes the future feel less certain. Yet Casper said he still has faith in Trump.

“I’m still thinking this dealmaker dude has got something up his sleeve,” Casper said [Joshua Haiar, “China Soybean Pledge Lifts Prices, But South Dakota Farmers Still Nervous,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2025.11.24].

The guy with something up his sleeve is cheating at cards. So maybe deep down, farmer Paul already gets Trump and just doesn’t fully realize it yet.

To keep farmers in line, Trump’s ag doll Brooke Rollins promises the next predictable card in Trump’s farmer-con—more farm-welfare checks:

The secretary also was asked about an aid package, which is expected to cost roughly $12 billion. Throughout the government shutdown, Rollins and others in the administration said the aid package was prepped and ready to go as soon as the shutdown was over.

“Yes, we are looking at the aid right now,” she said. “We have always said it is to solve for or mitigate anything under these new trade negotiations. Everyday that changes, and that’s what we’re working on. So, we’ll have an announcement probably in the next week or two on what that’s going to look like,” Rollins told CNBC [Chris Clayton, “Rollins Says Farmer Aid Package Imminent and Chinese Soybean Purchases Are Underway,” Progressive Farmer, 2025.11.24].

Far from duped, South Dakota Farmers Union boss Doug Sombke dings the con:

Doug Sombke, president of the South Dakota Farmers Union… said weeks ago after the trade pledge announcement that Trump is attempting to put out a fire he himself started, “and the building is already charred.”

“We went backward from where we started, and we didn’t need to do that,” Sombke said. “This isn’t a win. We’ve been played.”

Sombke said the numbers he has heard regarding the trade agreement fall short of what producers were counting on. He said smaller and beginning farmers are being squeezed the hardest.

“Well-established farmers are just going to eat through some of their equity,” he said. “But the younger farmer, the smaller guy, doesn’t have that” [Haiar, 2025.11.24].

China did order another 600K to 900K+ of U.S. soybeans yesterday:

China bought at least 10 cargoes of U.S. soybeans worth around $300 million in contracts signed since Tuesday, two traders with knowledge of the deals said, a day after the presidents of both countries spoke on the phone.

…One trader said China bought about 12 cargoes, while another estimated the volume at 10–15. Each cargo is about 60,000 to 65,000 metric tons.

All the cargoes are scheduled for January shipment from U.S. Gulf Coast terminals and Pacific Northwest ports, the sources said on Wednesday.

The purchases come despite U.S. soybeans being priced higher than Brazilian supplies [Ella Cao and Naveen Thuraki, “China Buys at Least 10 US Soybean Cargoes in New Deals After Trump-Xi Call, Sources Say,” Reuters, 2025.11.25].

But remember: China’s buys this month are money that farmers would have already had in the bank if King Don hadn’t roiled the markets with his reckless and feckless tariffs.