President Donald Trump acknowledged that his stand-off with China on trade was hurting American farmers, but promised that conditions would change eventually.

“I tell you, our farmers are great patriots,” he said. “They understand that they’re doing this for the country and we’ll make it up to them.”

China announced plans to raise tariffs up to 25 percent on American agricultural goods such as soybeans, cotton, corn, wheat, and beef in response to his tough actions on China trade including a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum.

Trump acknowledged that many farmers were already suffering economic challenges for their products in the last eight years, but tried to show solidarity.

“It’s not nice when they hit the farmers specifically because they think it hits me,” Trump said, referring to China.