President Donald Trump’s team hastily withdrew part of a key government report this week because its messaging didn’t align with the president’s promises.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) wanted the report to forecast success in the farm industry this summer, but it instead predicted the opposite.
The “Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade” report prophesied an increase in the nation’s trade deficit in farm goods, Politico reported Wednesday, so administration officials decided to do away with the written analysis that normally comes along with the report.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that his tariffs will reduce U.S. trade imbalances, not escalate them. But when the data said otherwise, the administration moved to divert the readers’ attention.
The report was released on Monday but dated May 29. Rather than including the usual summary, it is simply nine pages of numbers. There was no attempt made to translate the technical jargon or long lists of complicated figures.
The new analysis suggests that the deficit could reach a record $49.5 billion, far higher than the previous record of $31.8 billion in 2024.
A USDA spokesperson told Politico that the delay was due to an internal review.
“The report was hung up in internal clearance process and was not finalized in time for its typical deadline,” spokesperson Alec Varsamis said in a statement.
It is not clear when or if the analysis will be released.
Trump has expressed a deep hatred for the U.S. trade deficit and in April declared a national emergency over the country’s foreign trade and economic practices. He’s vowed that 10 percent baseline tariffs on U.S. trading partners will bring the deficit down.
“These tariffs will remain in effect until such a time as President Trump determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated,” a White House statement said in April.
But in some industries, the deficit is only increasing. And many of those who have long relied on the USDA report fear that the administration may be trying to cover up the harsh reality.
“Objectivity is really key here and the public depends on it,” Joe Glauber, a former USDA chief economist, told Politico. “To lose that trust would be terrible.”
It’s not the first time the Trump administration has stalled on a report. In May, The New York Times reported that a top Trump adviser made an analyst redo an assessment about alleged Venezuelan gang members after intelligence findings undercut Trump’s justification for deporting migrants.
Farmers are facing unprecedented uncertainty and a tougher economic outlook than during Trump’s first term, when he launched a similar trade war.
“We have an example of what happened in the past, and it’s a very similar situation, except the farm economy at that time was much stronger than it is now,” Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association and a Kentucky farmer, told Politico in April. “We don’t have any margin for error... We’re going to lose a generation of young farmers.”
Farmers, which have long made up a large portion of the MAGA fanbase, could be the hardest hit by the trade war.
