Beefing over beef: Trump says ranchers don't understand how tariffs benefited them

[Medium shot of cow looking over other cattle while standing in pen on farm]
Thomas Barwick/DigitalVision via Getty Images

President Donald Trump said U.S. cattle ranchers "don't understand" how tariffs have benefited them, and insisted that they need to lower their prices.

"The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don't understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil," Trump posted on Truth Social.

"If it weren't for me, they would be doing just as they've done for the past 20 years — Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!"

Over the weekend, Trump suggested [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4505800-argentina-us-bailout-currency-swap-banks-collateral-loan] importing more beef from Argentina to help bring down prices in the U.S. The proposal faced pushback from cattle ranchers and some Republican lawmakers [https://x.com/RepFedorchak/status/1981011866353893502].

"This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices," said Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

"Argentina has a deeply unbalanced trade relationship with the U.S.," he noted, as the country sold over $801M of beef into the U.S. market in the past five years compared to just over $7M worth of American beef sold to Argentina.

Woodall pointed to Argentina's history of foot-and-mouth disease, "which if brought to the U.S., could decimate our domestic livestock production."

According to the Nebraska Farm Bureau, high beef prices have been driven by factors such as multi-decade low cattle supply due to drought, and a lack of cattle coming from Mexico due to screwworm. Tariffs have raised the cost of imported beef.

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