Economist Peter Schiff, on Monday, pushed back against President Donald Trump‘s decision to provide an $8 billion diesel relief package for farmers, saying that the package was at the expense of other taxpayers.
Trump Paying Farmers Over $55 Billion
In a post on the social media platform X, Schiff expressed his discontentment with the decision. “With Trump’s additional $8 billion diesel relief package the government is on pace to pay farmers $55.4 billion in 2026,” the Echelon Wealth Partners co-founder said.
He added that the latest package shatters the “record $45 billion farmers got during COVID in 2020.” Schiff then questioned the aid, saying that it was “not right for the government to take money from non-farmers and give it to farmers.”
Escalating diesel costs following the Iran war, as well as the Russia-Ukraine war, have emerged as a challenge for multiple sectors in the U.S., including agriculture, which uses heavy farming equipment and machinery fueled by diesel, as well as transportation, which is also dependent on diesel.
Energy costs, food prices and more have surged, leading to criticism of the Trump administration, with economist Steve Hanke saying that the farming and trucking voter base was turning against the President amid surging costs.
According to American Automobile Association (AAA) data, a gallon of diesel cost $6.3492 on Monday. For reference, diesel was at $3.6616/gallon a year ago, the data said.
Red-Dyed Diesel
Record-high diesel costs also led Trump to sign an executive order, temporarily allowing the sale of red-dyed diesel for highway use. The diesel type is generally reserved for off-road applications such as construction sites and farmlands.
Dyed diesel is normally exempt from the 24.4-cent-per-gallon federal diesel excise tax because it is intended for off-road use. Under Trump’s order, the federal tax on qualifying highway use of dyed diesel was temporarily deferred through the end of 2026.
Gov. Jay Robert ‘JB’ Pritzker (D-IL) also signed a similar order, allowing the sale of dyed diesel for highway use in the state.
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