Great news for vegans: The cost of beef has skyrocketed, and President Donald Trump has made American cattle ranchers hoof-stomping mad with policies that appear decidedly America-last.
While U.S. consumers wrestle with record-high ground beef prices – $6.63 per pound in August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – and steak restaurants boost prices, Trump has proposed helping his far-right, Trump-like pal, Argentine President Javier Milei, by quadrupling the amount of Argentine beef coming into America.
That would likely do little to help consumers, while hurting cattle ranchers already struggling with a reduced domestic herd size brought on by everything from drought to inflated feeding costs.
Trump’s Argentine beef plan will hurt American ranchers. It won’t help you, either.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall called out Trump’s pro-Argentina plan in no uncertain terms: “This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices. … Argentina also has a history of foot-and-mouth disease, which, if brought to the United States, could decimate our domestic livestock production.”
I generally place anything involving foot-and-mouth disease in the “bad” category.
Kyle Hemmert, a 61-year-old cattle rancher in western Kansas, put it succinctly when he recently told The New York Times: “It’s really just a kick in the nuts. Come on President Trump, this is ‘America First’ policy? No.”
Cattle ranchers, like soybean farmers, are seeing Trump for who he is
He’s right. Trump has already enraged U.S. soybean farmers by bailing out Argentina to the tune of $20 billion, only to see Argentine farmers turn around and sell soybeans to China, normally one of the primary purchasers of American soybeans.
“The frustration is overwhelming,” American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland said in a statement. “U.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina while that country drops its soybean export taxes to sell 20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days.”
Great, now it’s bad news for vegans AND carnivores.
There are ways to help ranchers. A bailout of Argentina isn’t one of them.
Independent cattle ranchers have been squeezed in part because only four meat processing and packing companies handle more than 80% of the nation’s beef.
Beyond those monopolies, ranchers face myriad other issues. As Bloomberg reported recently:
“Cattlemen above all want to see a return to mandatory Country of Origin labeling to promote high-quality American beef. They want more regional processing plants, help restocking herds after years of drought (the national cattle herd is at a 75-year low) and easier interstate sales.”
Trump insults cattle ranchers with snide social media post
But Trump, as always, thinks he has all the answers. And as cattle rancher fury grew, the president responded with a dismissive social media post:
“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. 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!”
Talk about a kick in the nuts.
An ‘absolute betrayal to the American cattle rancher’
Just because Trump eats a lot of hamburgers, he thinks he knows better than the hardworking ranchers who keep Americans fed. As the U.S. Department of Agriculture noted on its website in May: “Cattle production is the most important U.S. agricultural industry, consistently accounting for the largest share of total cash receipts for agricultural commodities. In 2024, U.S. cattle production represented about 22 percent of the $515 billion in total cash receipts for agricultural commodities.”
Wyoming’s Meriwether Farms wrote about the situation on X in a post that quickly went viral, calling Trump’s plan to buy beef from Argentina an “absolute betrayal to the American cattle rancher.”
The post read in part: “On top of all this ‒ there is only chaos coming from the Department of Agriculture. There is no true guidance, mixed messaging, and a copious amount of photo ops.”
Sadly, American farmers – a huge pro-Trump voting bloc – are learning what people like me have been shouting for years: Donald Trump cares about no one but himself, and he will sell people out in a second.
Farmers and cattle ranchers, like many others, got conned by Trump
Trump sees himself in Argentina’s president. He wants to bolster other far-right leaders because it helps him and his authoritarian dreams. He doesn’t care a bit about what Americans are paying for beef or how his actions might impact the farmers who have loyally supported him. He cares about Trump.
If he wants to buy foreign beef that will hurt U.S. cattle ranchers and do nothing to help U.S. consumers, he’ll do it. Your complaints, your anger, your expressions of betrayal don’t mean a thing.
Farming is brutally hard work, and I respect and appreciate the people who make it their livelihood. I want to see them prosper, just like I want affordable meat for myself and other shoppers.
But I hope the farmers and the consumers who stood behind Trump all these years and are now suffering see they’ve been sold lies by a con man. An insipid, damaging Argentina-first policy is just another part of the bill coming due.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
