Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on USDA's $12 billion plan to assist American farmers affected by Chinese retaliatory tariffs.
Trump also touted the adminstration's economic success, calling it a "great economic revival," and told farmers to "stick with us" as he continues trying to sort out trade deals.
"Just stick with us," he said. "Don't believe what you hear on the fake news."
The plan, however, has already magnified objections among some Republicans that the tariffs amount to taxes on American consumers. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said lawmakers are making the case to Trump that tariffs are "not the way to go."
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said the plan would spend billions on "gold crutches."
"America's farmers don't want to be paid to lose — they want to win by feeding the world," he said. "This administration's tariffs and bailouts aren't going to make America great again, they're just going to make it 1929 again."
Speaking to reporters outside of a GOP lunch on Tuesday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., compared the trade assistance to something out of the former Soviet Union.
"This is becoming more and more like a Soviet-type of economy here" with "commissars" passing out benefits, Johnson said, according to The Hill.
The Trump administration has slapped tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing's high-tech industrial policies. China has retaliated with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign.
Trump has threatened to place penalty taxes on up to $500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globe's biggest economies.
The administration has also engaged in hardline trading negotiations with Canada and European nations, seeking to renegotiate agreements he says have undermined the nation's manufacturing base and led to a wave of job losses in recent decades.
The president on Wednesday will meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the White House as the EU hopes to convince him to hold off from raising tariffs on imported cars and avoid a trans-Atlantic trade war.
During his speech in Missouri, Trump appeared less than conciliatory in his approach to European allies. He called the EU "terrible" and said the U.S. was losing billions of dollars.