Posted on 10/21/2025 8:33:31 PM PDT by Miami Rebel
Many GOP senators raised concerns directly with President Donald Trump on Tuesday about his idea to buy more beef from Argentina, according to four Republicans who attended a lunch hosted at the White House.
The Rose Garden lunch was initially scheduled to celebrate GOP unity on the shutdown and clearing Trump’s nominees, but farm-state Republicans have been on edge after the president announced Sunday that he was considering a deal with one of American ranchers’ biggest competitors in order to lower food prices.
Trump told lawmakers that he was worried about consumer beef prices in the U.S. but also worried about ranchers, according to the three people.
A handful of GOP senators spoke one-on-one Tuesday in different settings with Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to express reservations about the president exploring a deal with Argentina to import beef. However, those officials weren’t on the same page about what the U.S. plans to do.
Depending on which Trump official you talk to about it, “everyone says something different,” said one GOP senator, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Rollins is expected to clarify the possible agreement later today during a livestock roundtable Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) is hosting, according to two other people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Beef industry groups who have traditionally supported Trump’s trade agenda are also urging the president to reverse course on his Argentina proposal, worried it will undermine the economic viability of their operations.
But this beef business is waaaaayyy beyond "questionable." The Argentines are already undercutting us in soybeans to China, and now we prioritze their beef at the expense of our ranchers?
This is the opposite of America First.
With hamburger between 5 to 6 dollars a pound and rib eye steak 17 to 25 dollars a pound, Trump needs to bring prices down, which is America First.
How does that jibe with our tariff policy?
Well he did it with eggs so why not beef as beet is super sky high...
Why US beef prices skyrocketed is a bigger question. What whacked out regulations were imposed on the beef and feed industries to cause this?
EC
“With hamburger between 5 to 6 dollars a pound and rib eye steak 17 to 25 dollars a pound, Trump needs to bring prices down…”
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I don’t know where you live. But here in Woodstock, GA, our ground beef is 8 to $9 on sale to $10 to $14 regular price a pound, depending on grade. Steaks $14 to $20 on sale to $20 to $29 regular price.
“With hamburger between 5 to 6 dollars a pound”
93% lean hamburger at Walmart here (Knoxville area) is a few cents shy of $8/lb.
I haven’t been able to afford an American-raised rib eye steak in over ten years. I pretty much think about that every stinking day.
Before that we had good steaks at least twice a week.
I was able to get at least an occasional imported rib eye and T bone, or chuck for pot roast, until Aldis bought out the cheap grocery store I relied on. Now even stew meat is unaffordable, twice the price of burger, and the stores treat Chuck roast meat as if it is steak. Oxtails that used to be cheap are now running 12 bucks a pound.
Shanks, a normally cheap product that make a great substitute for ox tail and which I used to braise aren’t even available here at any price. The stores are always out.
Haven’t even seen sirloin in a year now.
Used to be when times were tough, there were local butcher shops where you could at least get something even if it wasn’t pretty. You could by heart or bones for soup so at least if you were poor you could still satisfy a craving for beef flavor.
I have been trying to get beef ribs now to make soup but they are sold out. The butchering is done somewhere far off and the choices when the meat gets here are extremely limited.
The drought and land prices and regs and bureaucratic clusterfoxtrots caused by the global warming crowd’s war on cattle and traditional energy sources, and the inheritance and death taxes over the years have rendered the dwindling number of US farmers unable to meet demand even at these elevated prices. Instead of family farms that used to grow a broad variety of animals and crops and which could weather difficult times by changing their focus, we got corporate farmers only interested in growing corn for ethanol.
If you couldn’t afford much meat, you could at least get vegetables reasonably, and stretch it. No more. Vegetables are expensive. Even beans are high. Garden seeds and starts are sky high. The only good thing is the kids are learning to forage for weeds like my grandparents did in the Depression.
The bad thing is the politicians have never had to. They live lives of complete ignorance and ease, spending what we don’t have and devaluing our currency making things worse.
You people are going to be sorry when he turns a herd of Black Angus loose on the White House lawn and turns the interstates into cow trails. LOL!
Don’t look now, but if my math right is right — that 40 billion currency swap is already down to about 36-37b, probably less as the Argentine peso is now worth roughly as much as a 400 year old dutch tulip or a harambi meme coin (pick your worthless asset).
So, in just a couple weeks? The US taxpayer is already down 3-4 *billion*.
I don’t personally - at least directly - invest in currency swaps/options, but I do make a point of watching them in 10-Q/10-K filings (in short, because growth in currency swap marings generally signals trouble for a healthy bottom line if the proportions get too large).
I’ve been reading a lot about this stupid idea in the Financial Times - and given this gift looks like it was mostly a bailout for Bessent’s buddy, Rick Citrone?
Stinks to high heaven.
Mark my words — we’re losing that entire 40b. It’s just a matter of when we lose it.
Some guy on TV claimed the solution is to label which country the beef comes from - he was positive that would cause consumers to buy more American beef, thus allowing ranchers to raise more US beef and lower prices.
US beef prices have zero to do with regulation. Ask a rancher.
Prices are up due to drought which has led to reduced head count.
Derrell Peel, agricultural economics professor at Oklahoma State:
There’s plenty of alternative protein sources in terms of pork and poultry, primarily in the U.S., that consumers could turn to that are in abundant supply and relatively cheaper. And yet beef demand has stayed remarkably robust.
Americans’ enduring appetite for beef has coincided with shrinking cattle herds. The number of beef cattle in 2025, 27.8 million, is the lowest it’s been since the 1960s despite the growing U.S. population, Agriculture Department data shows.
Over the last decade, in turn, the decline in cattle supplies has mainly been driven by drought conditions around the U,.S., which reduced the available feedstock and forced many cattle ranchers to sell off their beef cows. They simply had no choice because of the drought.
Most recently, a severe drought started in 2021 and continued through last year, sweeping through the western half of the country.
Somewhere during that period, just about every major beef cow-producing area was subject to drought and subject to this sort of forced liquidation.
Even without the challenge of insufficient rainfall, herds take a long time to grow due to the biology of cattle. Cows can only have one calf at a time, and it takes longer for them to reach the age for slaughter than other livestock.
That’s a joke. American consumers don’t care.
Three quarters of lamb consumed in the US is from Australia.
Pork is where it was a decade ago, as is chicken.
Hypocrite Free Traitor LOL!
If it applies to eggs and beef, then why not undershorts and furniture and coffee and televisions? All are going up in price, coffee dramatically so.
Was at the grocery store the other day. Prime NY strip was going for $32/lb. Got a thick cut pork chop for $5.25/lb. It was very tender and delicious!
Who are the free traitors? President Trump and Secretary Bessent for proposing boosting Argentine beef imports?
Bingo! And your dollars stayed within the US.
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