Rancher Duke Phillips III prepares to rope a calf during final branding at Chico Basin Ranch on June 29, 2024 in Hanover, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson | Media News Group | The Denver Post | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he “doesn’t understand” how U.S. livestock farmers are benefiting from tariffs, adding: “We need to bring prices down.”
The warning comes after some ranchers publicly criticized President Trump’s proposal to import beef from Argentina to lower prices for U.S. consumers.
President Trump claimed that ranchers “don’t understand that for the first time in decades, the only reason they’re doing so well is because I’m putting tariffs on the cattle that we import into the United States.”
He highlighted the 50% tariff imposed in early August on imports from Brazil, one of the biggest buyers of beef to the United States.
“If it wasn’t for me, they would be doing the same thing they’ve been doing for the last 20 years. That’s terrible!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“I hope they understand that, but we also have to lower prices because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking,” he added.
beef price Overall consumption in the United States has increased since last year, with some products, such as boneless sirloin steak, soaring by double-digit percentages, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
President Trump told reporters on Sunday that his administration was “considering entering into” an agreement with Argentina to “purchase beef” from the South American nation.
“That will bring down the price of beef,” he said.
Average cost per pound of ground beef in the United States
Provided by: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The comment drew immediate condemnation from U.S. ranchers.
“This plan will only disrupt a critical time of the year for American cattle producers and do nothing to lower prices in grocery stores,” Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattle and Beef Association, said in a statement Monday.
In response to President Trump’s Truth Social post on Wednesday, Woodall said, “We cannot support a president who undermines the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentine beef in an attempt to influence prices.”
“It is imperative that President Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins make the cattle market work,” Woodall said.
At least one Republican senator, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, has publicly opposed Trump’s proposal.
“Government intervention in the beef market will harm our nation’s ranchers,” she wrote in Tuesday’s X-Post.
Democratic Sen. Kevin Cramer said Tuesday that “many” Republican senators have told President Trump they don’t want Argentine beef imported into the United States.
Financial relations between the United States and Argentina have come under intense scrutiny after the Trump administration agreed to a $20 billion currency swap agreement to stabilize Argentina’s volatile economy. President Trump is a close ally of Argentina’s President Javier Milei, whose aggressive deregulation efforts have been praised by conservatives in the United States.
U.S. soybean farmers and their advocates are blaming Buenos Aires’ financial lifeline after China, the staple crop’s biggest buyer, moved operations from the U.S. to Argentina amid President Trump’s trade war.
Argentina suspended export taxes last month, a move consistent with President Trump’s pledge to support Milley.
“Why would the United States help bail out Argentina when it occupies the largest market for American soybean producers??” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote about X at the time.
Asked Wednesday morning about President Trump’s plan to purchase Argentine beef, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said there had been some progress “in the last 24 hours.”
“The White House doesn’t want any unintended consequences,” Johnson said.
—CNBC’s Mary Catherine Wellons and Emily Wilkins contributed to this report.
