Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume on Monday said President Donald Trump might say he’s helping embattled American farmers with his proposed $12 billion aid package, but suggested they’re only in dire need because of his own disastrous policies.Trump praised his steep international tariffs on social media Monday as a boon to the U.S. and reportedly credited his trade war during a roundtable later that day for bringing in the money to fund the crop farmer bailout he triumphantly announced during the event.“No doubt the tariffs are a factor in this, Bret,” Hume told “Special Report” host Bret Baier.Baier had launched the discussion by summarizing the package, which will include $11 billion in one-time payments to crop farmers under the Agriculture Department’s new Farmer Bridge Assistance Program and $1 billion for other crops the program doesn’t cover.The conservative pundit noted that this relief is set to be paid out by February. He then acknowledged that crop prices have “taken a hit” under Trump, whose trade war led China — the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans — to entirely halt and then drastically curb purchases.“There’s no getting around that,” Hume said Monday about the impact of Trump’s tariffs. “And it’s put the president now in a position where he’s got to try to help the farmers. They’re calling it a ‘bridge,’ but it’s not a bridge loan; this is a subsidy.”He added that this $12 billion in aid will simply be paid out to the farmers, “who are hurting.”Hume continued, “I don’t dispute that for a second. But it is a president who is otherwise mostly conservative on economic policies engaging in a government program to try to bail out farmers who are hurt by his other program — that, of course, being the tariffs.”Trump announced a sweeping 10% baseline tariff in April on all imports to the U.S., with levies on China eventually set at 30%. He has repeatedly maintained that foreign countries, rather than American consumers themselves, will foot those increased costs.Trump has previously dismissed affordability as a non-issue. Baier noted Monday that he seems to be taking it more seriously now as the 2026 midterms approach, but said talking about costs “is something different” than actually doing something about them.Hume called it a “thorny issue,” arguing that Trump would only be further pilloried for ignoring the problem, one Hume himself had noted earlier was at least partially caused by Trump’s tariffs. “He has got to try to talk about it, and obviously there is a considerable hope that his program, as it kicks in next year, produces a new boom and that people’s fortunes will be up across the board and prices won’t worry people so much,” Hume said, before adding, “But that’s what he’s got to hope for, because getting them down is probably mission impossible.Close