Trump administration officials argue that the tariffs on Chinese goods, while not intended to help certain American industries, are necessary to prevent China from continuing to violate international trade rules. They say that less aggressive measures by past administrations failed, and that China has stolen American jobs and technology that are the key to future prosperity.

“It’s not possible to have true gain without the pain,” said Dan DiMicco, a trade adviser to Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign. “The battle is worth the victory, and we will win.”

But farm-state Republicans like Mr. Cramer believe that their constituents could be a casualty, and they are begging the Department of Agriculture to intervene.

Mr. Trump has directed the department to implement a plan to help farmers cope with the damage from tariffs. But few details have been forthcoming about how such a program would work or how much it might cost. And it is not clear how much the Agriculture Department could do to remedy the damage done to key trading relations in a global economy.

The secretary of agriculture has some authority to help farmers by creating new programs that could draw on funds from the Treasury. For instance, the secretary could direct the Commodity Credit Corporation, a government-owned entity, to purchase soybeans to buoy farmers’ revenues, said Kent Conrad, a former Democratic senator from North Dakota.

In the past, these powers have been used to provide relief from wildfires and other natural disasters, farm groups said. But such a program could be time-consuming and costly.

“All of that has serious consequences,” Mr. Conrad said. “It has costs to the government at a time when the deficits and debt have already soared, and we are going to have a trillion-dollar deficit.” The federal budget deficit, despite the strong economy, reached $598 billion for the first half of the current fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office said on Friday, $71 billion more than was recorded during the same period last year.