President Trump's latest move to tackle grocery costs is triggering a rare, public split with some of his own party's most loyal allies. The president has temporarily lifted tariffs on up to 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef, saying the imports will be sold at 25% below current market prices and give domestic herds "space" to recover as the US faces its smallest cattle inventory in decades, per the Guardian. Key Republicans from ranching states say the plan undercuts that very goal.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso argues Americans want domestic beef, not cheaper foreign cuts, while Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts warns that "flooding" the market with imports will hurt local producers (a sentiment echoed by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association) and doesn't amount to a real fix. Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy, describing most ranchers as "MAGA Republicans," says he's counseled Trump against the move for a year. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie calls it "a slap in the face to American cattlemen & consumers."
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defends the decision as a short-term way to get prices down but acknowledges she doesn't yet know which countries will supply the beef, saying that call falls to US trade officials. At USA Today, columnist Rex Huppke raises concerns about the source and safety of the "mystery meat," but primarily argues Trump is caught in a "hypocrisy turducken" in claiming that lifting beef tariffs will reduce prices for Americans. This "wholly undercuts his incessant claims that tariffs don't affect consumers," he writes.
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