“Farmers have gotten ‘astronomical’ $43 billion in subsidies directly from Trump administration”, 25 October 2026 (Photo via Washington Examiner — the original report)
As it ran on the front
On September 3, Elon Musk's political money returned to Washington as the GOP's declared financial advantage for the midterms. On September 22, an insider's account of the government-efficiency project the administration had commissioned him to run described the waste he found inside it. On September 29, the White House had the tech industry's CEOs sign what it called a morally binding accord on artificial intelligence; the document named no enforcement body and set no penalty for breaking it. That was last month's accounting.
This month opened on October 7, when an ABC News analysis found that companies financed by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, largely through the venture firm 1789 Capital, had collected more than six billion dollars in Pentagon contracts — no bill filed, no program named, only the department's signature on the invoice.…
…(cont) Then farmers needed money. Over that weekend, October 17 and 18, Sergey Brin — who has spent more than $100 million fighting California's proposed wealth tax — had dinner with the president at Mar-a-Lago, seated at his left, at a fundraiser for the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. Two days later, Monday, at a rally in Kansas, the administration announced the Agriculture Department's Harvest Fuel Relief Program: eight billion dollars, one-time payments, to offset diesel prices running at record highs on top of tariffs and a war with Iran. By October 22, John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association, had a name for it: a dime too late and a dollar too short. By October 25, the eight billion had become forty-three billion, authorized directly by the administration on top of whatever Congress had already enacted — the Washington Examiner called the sum "astronomical."
Price the difference the editor asked for. Forty-three billion dollars took a press release, a campaign rally, a named program and an administration announcement to arrive, and the farmer receiving it still calls it short. Six billion dollars, flowing to companies financed by the president's own sons, required none of that — no rally, no program name, no press conference, only a signature on a Pentagon contract. The gap between the two columns was never the size of the number. It is the number of steps it took to get there.
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“Forty-three billion needs a rally, a hashtag, and a farmer standing in a Kansas field so it looks like relief. Six billion just needs a venture fund with the kid's name on the paperwork — no cameras, no county fair, just a wire. That's the whole trick: money you're meant to see is a photo op, money you're not meant to see is the paycheck.”
“Look, the farm aid is direct relief for hardworking Americans hurt by unfair trade practices, that's not a bailout, that's — okay, it's technically a bailout, but a deserved one. And the defense contracts, those are normal procurement, any company can compete for — any company with the right venture capital and the right last name, which, did I say that, that's not what I meant. The invoices speak for themselves.”
American farmers are struggling with high prices as the Iran war and the Trump administration's tariffs drive up costs. President Trump announced an $8 billion relief fund for farmers ahead of the midterm elections. Founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association John Boyd Jr.
The Trump administration has directly authorized some $43 billion in subsidies to farmers on top of what Congress has enacted, a large chunk of money that critics argue the administration would not have had to consider if not for the imposition of tariffs and the war with Iran. This month, Trump announced the Agriculture Department’s […]
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.
