Donald Trump promised he would help embattled small farmers caught in the crossfire of his trade war with China. But big farms so far have been the main beneficiaries of the billions of dollars being distributed in aid payments.
Half of the Trump administration's latest trade-war bailout for farmers went to just a 10th of recipients in the program, according to an analysis of payments by an environmental organization. The study asserted that payouts have been skewed toward larger operations and wealthier producers.
The top 1 percent of beneficiaries from the trade aid received 13 percent of the money distributed in the first round of payments under this year's Market Facilitation Program, with an average payment of more than $177,000. But the bottom 80 percent of recipients received an average payment of $5,136, according to the Environmental Working Group, which analyzed records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.