‘Mayhem’: Farmer warns of catastrophic consequences from Trump’s federal workforce cuts

Since January, the Trump administration has reduced the federal workforce by roughly 10 percent – some 249,000 jobs – and one New York farmer is warning of what he said could be catastrophic consequences.

“We’re just going to see a huge amount of farms going out of business this year because of the mayhem,” said Wes Hillingham, a veteran organic farmer and environmental advocate from New York, speaking with the New York Times in its report Tuesday.

With a significant share of the federal workforce cuts impacting the Agriculture Department – which lost close to one-fifth of its entire staff, or around 20,000 employees – Hillingham told the Times that many farmers are struggling to get updates from the Trump administration on grants and other federal programs they had already accounted for in their planning.

Gillingham noted that even getting someone from the Agriculture Department on the phone was often a challenge.

The Trump administration appeared to downplay Hillingham’s concerns, however, with Agriculture Department spokesperson Alex Varsamis telling the Times that the Trump administration was “being transparent” about what he called its efforts to “return the department to a customer service focused, farmer-first agency.”

“President Trump is utilizing all the tools available to ensure farmers have what they need to continue their farming operations,” Varsamis said, speaking to the Times.

But for American farmers, particularly soybean farmers, 2025 has been a challenging year. Earlier this year, China, the single-largest importer of American-grown soybeans, instituted a full boycott of the crop, a move that left farmers outraged, and Trump, reportedly panicked, who quickly floated a $10 billion bailout for farmers. That bailout later grew to $12 billion, and is now expected to be delivered in February.