Just as Senators Rounds and Klobuchar offer an idea to help domestic livestock producers by restoring more grazing land, Donald Trump kicks America’s cattlemen in the teeth by suspending tariffs on ground beef:
President Donald Trump announced Friday he was suspending tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef to help lower the cost of the meat, in a move cattle producers said would not help their efforts to restore herd sizes [Cami Koons, “Beef Producers ‘Disappointed’ by Trump Tariff Suspension,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.08.21].
…and imposing communist price controls on the cheap hamburger he’s importing:
The president made the announcement in a Truth Social post where he said the imported beef will be sold at 25% below the current market prices [Koons, 2026.08.21].
Neither cattlemen nor markets responded well to Trump’s intrusion:
Iowa Cattlemen’s Association President Craig Moss said the association was “extremely disappointed” by Trump’s announcement and said it has already “created unnecessary market volatility.”
Cattle market reports from Friday showed “crashing futures” because of the Trump announcement.
“The drop in the markets will directly impact their profitability and bottom line, and in turn impacts decisions our producers are making about expanding their cattle herds,” Moss said in a statement. “We believe the government should avoid intervention and let the market work” [Koons, 2026.08.21].
Moss stumbles in contradiction there: removing tariffs reduces government intervention in the high holy marketplace. But one can argue that these tariffs—which predate Trump’s reign—responded to anti-capitalist market manipulation by competing nation’s and leveled the trade playing field for American producers. Now Trump is not only giving in to whatever unfair practices foreign livestockers were doing but helping those meat manipulators by rigging prices in their favor.
Trump hasn’t said which countries he’s helping with his promise of crony-communist price controls, but nobody else in the GOP thinks he’s helping America:
Conservative lawmakers and pundits alike spoke out on the internet Friday after President Donald Trump announced a new deal that will temporarily lift certain tariffs on ground beef imports, with Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) warning “this will further harm” American ranchers, “most of whom are MAGA Republicans.”
…In addition to Sheehy, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) also chimed in Friday, writing, “I’m extremely disappointed by this decision from the White House. We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers” [Kathryn Wilkens, “Republicans Revolt over Trump’s Beef Tariff Relief: Will ‘Further Harm’ MAGA,” Mediaite, 2026.08.21]
Wilkens documents further dissent from Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Steve Daines (R-MT) and Reps. Mike Flood (R-NE), Adrian Smith (R-NE), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Kat Cammack (R-FL), Troy Downing (R-MT), and even our man in the House Dusty Johnson:
I have consistently opposed policies that increase foreign beef imports at the expense of American cattle producers. I have raised these concerns with the White House several times, and my position has not changed. American cattlemen have worked hard to rebuild the nation’s herd and meet consumer demand. They should not have to shoulder the burden of polices that put additional pressure on their markets [Rep. Dusty Johnson, Twitter, 2026.08.21].
Donald obviously hasn’t listened to Dusty, and South Dakota ag-industrialists are admitting that Donald doesn’t understand how meat markets work:
“Being the president of America First and loving family farmers and ranchers, I think he’s got it mixed up,” said Doug Sombke, president of the South Dakota Farmers Union. “What he just announced, first of all, is going to do nothing to lower prices for consumers right now. It’s going to continue to make things tougher for farmers and ranchers. Right now, they are paying huge input costs on everything.”
“I am disappointed. I don’t think our president really understands the beef markets. I think we’ve done lots of comparisons where we show that ground beef is still a value compared to a lot of other food products,” said Craig Bieber of the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association [Tom Hansen, “Trump’s Beef Import Plan Frustrates SD Cattle Producers,” KELO-TV, 2026.08.21].
Trump clearly doesn’t understand the market and government mechanisms that have led to American beef producers’ troubles amidst high beef prices. He keeps blaming Biden, but beef prices have jumped faster under this administration than the last:
In his Truth Social post, the president blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for the hike in prices, claiming beef prices “soared at their fastest rate” under the Democratic president. Consumer Price Index data shows ground chuck rose from $4.31 in January 2021 when Biden took office, to $5.58 in December 2024. Prices have risen to $6.85 in the year and a half Trump has been in the office [Koons, 2026.08.21].
Do math: the prices and time frames cited above represent a 6.7% annual increase in hamburger under Biden and a 14.7% annual increase so far under Trump 2.0.
This latest betrayal of ranchers and capitalism is nothing new. Trump’s been slapping his rural base around since he first entered the White House and ignoring Republican free-market principles to exercise vengeance-driven central control. Maybe this latest betrayal will slap ranchers and farmers awake and get them to elect Senators and Congresscritters who will reverse these ag-destructive and reality-denying policies before Trump puts them all out of business.
These boys are just like Kristi’s husband, BDSM all the way. They love getting kicked in the teeth, more, more, please more. Its sad isn’t it? They still love him dearly and will always vote for him. Their are terms for this too.
And Trump won’t say where the meat is coming from, but I’ll bet it’s Argentina, which we bailed out to the tune of $20 billion.
That Earth haters like Dusty, the Cattlemen’s Ass., Erin Tobin, Radke and R-Calf are pushing back should have Cook Political Report moving South Dakota’s US Senate race closer to a toss-up.
Trump clearly doesn’t understand the market … – CAH
He understands enough to short cattle futures before he acts rogue on beef tariffs.
Under any other president they would be angry, not “disappointed”.
I don’t want foreign beef. I hope it’s labeled.
Mandatory beef country of origin label has been disposed of.
Ground beef or Soylent Green? How does anyone know?
but, libs are the communists and socialists.
A president who promises to help struggling American producers who are hurt by his tariffs, who then does the supremely most destructive thing to destroy market demand and profits without lifting a finger to ease their input cost problems, well that president is a lying traitor. I don’t kno how you put it any other way. The GOP has let it all happen to us without lifting one fat finger.
“On March 19, 2026,Chinese customs rejected a 22-ton beef shipment from a Beef plant in Argentina finding it contained chloramphenicol, a dangerous chemical banned in livestock production since 1995.”
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!! Trump is probably not bringing in 300,000 tons of ground beef. An actual stalled shipment of Brazilian beef that the EU rejected due to chemicals and poor quality clocks in at just 100,000 tons.
The best guess is that we are supposed to fuss and fume for a few weeks about the effect of 1 million cows’ worth of beef hitting our ag system – THEN Trump will announce he’s capping it at 100,000 tons so we can celebrate him as a hero going into the October run-up to Election Day.
Even though it’s only a third as much, I don’t want it. I won’t buy it. My chemical-induced manboobs are already big enough. Multinational packers who have long been screwing independent US ranchers at market are sneaking the load of pink slime which nobody else will buy, INTO our fast food restaurants.
This is the grand generous Trump sharing his captive supply of marks and suckers with the other billionaires of the world.