The president who loves to call other people communists enraged American cattle ranchers by announcing plans to ‘allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported’ tariff-free.
President Trump assembles advisors to tackle rising beef prices, inflation
President Donald Trump has gathered a team of economic and industry advisers to address soaring beef prices and broader inflation concerns. The group will focus on strategies to lower the cost of ground beef and provide relief to American families facing rising grocery bills.
Fox – 5 Atlanta
In the coming months, when you bite down on a government-subsidized burger made with meat of questionable origin, you’ll have Glorious Leader Donald J. Trump to thank.
On Aug. 21, the president who loves to call other people communists enraged American cattle ranchers by announcing plans to “allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariff. We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.”
Trump posted news of the deal on social media, but of course gave no specific details about who the deal is with, where the meat is coming from or why he’s suddenly admitting that waiving tariffs will, in fact, lower prices for consumers.
It’s a turducken of hypocrisy.
Trump importing beef won’t help America’s cattle ranchers
First, despite Trump’s claim in the post about wanting to “help our ranchers” and give “space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again,” foreign beef imports are the last thing cattle ranchers want.
Shortly after the announcement, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall released a statement saying: “NCBA is disappointed by the President’s statement. While America’s cattle producers share the goal of keeping groceries affordable for consumers, flooding the market with government-subsidized, below-market beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd. Cattle markets have already turned sharply lower this morning, to the detriment of farmers and ranchers.”
Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana posted on X: “I’ve advised President Trump against this course of action for a year because American ranchers have been struggling against the packer monopoly for decades, and this will further harm them – most of whom are MAGA Republicans.”
Sheehy added, “This action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people. And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”
GOP cries of socialism, communism seem more than a bit hypocritical
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky responded on social media: “What a slap in the face to American cattlemen & consumers. Worse than socialism! Dumping foreign beef in U.S. markets can temporarily lower prices but it won’t incentivize American farmers to raise more beef.”
Worse than socialism, you say? That brings us to the second layer of the Trumpian turducken.
Mamdani’s grocery store plan is bad, but Trump controlling beef prices is fine?
I’ve heard a lot lately about how socialism and communism are bad, at least when it’s a Democrat proposing ways to ease American consumers’ economic pain.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan for five municipal grocery stores where a “core basket of everyday groceries will be 30 percent cheaper” was pilloried by Republicans.
It got Fox News headlines like “Socialist Mamdani’s supermarket plan would be ‘bullet to the heart’ of blue-collar America” and “Mamdani’s government-run grocery stores and other policies are all ‘pure communist ideology’ says CUNY law professor.”
Republican New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said of Mamdani and his grocery plan: “Yes, he says he’s a socialist. But guess what, my friends, those are policies straight out of the communist playbook of Karl Marx.”
When Democratic presidential candidate and then-Vice President Kamala Harris said she would institute a “federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries,” Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Under her plan, Kamala will implement SOVIET Style Price Controls.”
OK. But now Trump is saying his new bought-from-wherever imported beef will be sold 25% below the market price. That sounds a lot like the government controlling food prices.
So much for Trump’s claim that tariffs don’t hurt consumers
The final piece of the hypocrisy turducken is that Trump’s mystery-meat plan wholly undercuts his incessant claims that tariffs don’t affect consumers. He’s now directly saying that to “reduce prices for Americans,” his tariff on imported beef has to be lifted.
So, in one fell swoop, President Cheeseburger angered the cattle ranchers who’ve long been loyal to him, wholly mistaking the root of the problem. (The primary reason America’s cattle herd is at a 75-year-low is drought, combined with the high cost of inputs like diesel, fertilizer and equipment, which are now more expensive thanks in part to Trump’s Iran war and his tariffs.)
He demonstrated the inanity of the GOP’s fearmongering about communism and socialism.
And he confirmed what everyone already knew about his reckless tariffs and the financial burden they’ve imposed on consumers.
Concerns about food inspections on foreign meat are legitimate
Beyond all that, we don’t know where this alleged “product for ground beef” is from, and this comes at a moment when Americans have been dealing with food recalls on beef and all manner of produce.
We also know the number of federal food inspectors is down sharply. As ProPublica reported in November: “American inspections of foreign food facilities – which produce everything from crawfish to cookies for the U.S. market – have plummeted to historic lows.”
Trump’s beef import announcement is, predictably, dumb. It’s a transparent ploy to cause a downtick in beef prices before the fall midterm elections, but it’s unlikely to move the needle on grocery bills and quite likely to hurt us in the long run by slowing the growth of America’s cattle herd.
That said, enjoy your Trump-sponsored Commie Burger, folks. You won’t know where it came from or if it’s safe to eat. But at least it’s meat!
Maybe.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.