WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’s going to “make it up” to farmers who would be impacted by China’s proposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.

Trump says: “It’s not nice when they hit the farmers specifically because they think that hits me.”

Trump is promising during a Cabinet meeting that American farmers “will be better off than they ever were” over the last eight years, despite China’s threat to place duties on pork and soybean imports from the U.S.

China is threatening the tariffs in response to Trump moving to enact protectionist measures as punishment for Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property. The U.S. bought more than $500 billion in goods from China last year and now is planning or considering penalties on some $150 billion of those imports.