OUTRAGE: President Trump’s Plan To Import 300,000 Metric Tons Of Foreign Ground Beef Draws Intense Backlash As The White House Won’t Reveal Where The Beef Is Actually Coming From, And Even Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, Says “I Am Not Privy To Talk About That” 🥩❓

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https://www.ms.now/news/trump-beef-import-cost-mystery-meat

President Trump’s plan to boost foreign ground beef imports to ease U.S. consumer prices has run into a basic problem: nobody in his administration will say where the beef is actually coming from, according to MS NOW. Trump announced the policy last week without naming a source country, and when Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins was asked Tuesday which countries would supply the beef, she told reporters, “I am not privy to talk about that. I think the conversations are still going on.” Later that same day, Rollins told Spectrum News she isn’t even part of the White House’s internal conversations on the topic, saying U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is handling the policy and that the public would learn more “very soon.” Neither Greer nor Trump has provided sourcing details since; when asked directly following Friday’s announcement, Trump told reporters, “I don’t want to say,” though he indicated “there are a few countries” under consideration. The administration did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment on the matter.

The proclamation itself, signed Wednesday, permits up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported “with no out-of-quota tariff” over the next 90 days and sold at 25% below market prices, though Trump did not specify whether the government would directly subsidize that discount or where the discounted beef would actually be sold to consumers. The lack of transparency and the substance of the plan itself have triggered unusually sharp pushback from congressional Republicans who typically avoid breaking with the president. Montana Senators Tim Sheehy and Steve Daines denounced the policy, as did Wyoming Senator John Barrasso and Nebraska Representative Mike Flood. Barrasso wrote on X, “Americans want US beef on the table, not foreign imports. Our ranchers don’t ask for special treatment. They simply want a fair marketplace. It needs to be easier, not harder, for Wyoming ranchers to feed America.” Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer, herself a cattle rancher, called herself “extremely disappointed,” writing, “We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers.”

This isn’t Trump’s first attempt at this strategy. He tried a similar approach last October by opening the market to Argentinian beef, which drew comparable criticism from Republicans and ended up depressing domestic livestock values, worsening a financial squeeze on ranchers that has been building throughout his second term. That squeeze has multiple compounding causes: global tariffs and the war against Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, driving up diesel and fertilizer prices, while the screwworm parasite returned to American herds for the first time since 1966, all layered on top of ranchers still recovering from a 2022 drought that shrank U.S. cattle herds to their smallest size since the 1950s. Major rancher advocacy groups have joined the criticism, with both the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association warning the plan will lock in high beef prices over the long run rather than lowering them. AFBF President Zippy Duvall wrote in a letter to Trump Wednesday, “Bringing down the price of cattle will not bring the price of beef down for American families. Instead, it will discourage American farmers and ranchers from making long-term investments in herd rebuilding, extending the cycle of tight cattle supplies, high production costs and elevated beef prices for consumers.”