US cattle ranchers have accused Donald Trump of betrayal after the president said he would temporarily ease tariffs on beef imports in an attempt to cut high food prices before November’s midterm elections.
The president provoked a furious backlash on Friday with a plan to curb levies on up to 300,000 tonnes of ground beef imports for the next 90 days as part of a “deal” that would entail foreign producers slashing prices by a quarter.
“Today, I concluded a deal to substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families,” Trump wrote on a social media post. He did not say which countries or companies had agreed to the terms.
A White House official said the arrangement would involve the administration temporarily removing out-of-quota tariffs on imports of beef trimmings for ground beef production in exchange for foreign exporters providing a 25 per cent discount on exports to be passed along to American consumers.
The official said the president would formalise the agreement by signing an executive order within the next two weeks.
But his deal prompted a swift rebuke from US ranchers.
“It’s a really crazy, knee-jerk reaction of this administration,” Del Ficke, who has a herd of 70 cows in Pleasant Dale, Nebraska, told the FT. “Can I say it surprises me from this administration? No. But it certainly angers me.”
Ficke, co-founder of agricultural consultancy network Graze Master Group, said the administration could have sat down with farming organisations to come up with a solution to bring down prices “without tanking the cattle market”.
Colin Woodall, chief executive of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, on Friday said he was “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-subsidised, below-market beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd,” he said.
The move comes in response to mounting voter frustrations over the cost of living, which have been exacerbated in recent months by Trump’s war with Iran.
US beef prices have risen about a quarter since he returned to office in January 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from $5.50 to $6.85 per pound. With three months until the midterm elections, a recent FT poll found most voters felt they had become worse off under the president.
It also marks another attempt by the administration to intervene in global markets, days after Treasury secretary Scott Bessent increased bond purchases in an attempt to contain a surge in borrowing costs.
Responding to the criticism, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said Trump had “repeatedly affirmed his support for America’s ranchers and farmers”.
“While the administration will be easing tariffs on beef imports to address a short-term supply crunch, the administration is simultaneously working closely with ranchers to grow America’s cattle-herd size,” he said.
Trump has previously taken steps to dial back beef tariffs to lower prices for consumers, fuelling tensions among ranchers in America’s agricultural heartlands. But the backlash on Friday was particularly visceral.
Meriwether Farms, a Wyoming ranching outfit, reposted the president’s post with a single word: “Betrayal.”
Republican politicians from agricultural states also lashed out. “We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers,” said Nebraska senator Deb Fischer.
Montana senator Tim Sheehy said he had advised the president against the decision, which he said would “further harm” American ranchers “most of whom are Maga Republicans”.
Friday’s announcement initially pushed down cattle futures to $2.13 per pound, but they settled on Friday flat at $2.18.
Live cattle futures for October delivery fell 1.9 per cent to $2.14 per pound in Chicago trading. While cattle futures have fallen recently, they are up from less than $2 at the beginning of Trump’s second term in 2025.
Darin Newsom, a Nebraska-based agricultural analyst, said the president had “upped his war on the US beef industry” even as he expressed scepticism over the lack of details provided.
“This is clearly a political play, with the 90 days running up to the US midterm election in early November,” Newsom added.
The US agriculture department said the announcement showed the president’s “commitment to lowering the cost of everyday goods for the American people” without providing specifics on the arrangement.
Trump said he would allow 300,000 tonnes of ground beef — equivalent to just over half of monthly import volumes — to enter the US without being subject to the “out of quota” tariff usually payable once an import threshold is reached.
Imports entering the country outside quota levels are generally subject to a 26.4 per cent tariff, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, while those within quota are subject to a 4.4 cents charge per kilogramme.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Republican Congress member who broke with Trump over rising living costs, also hit out at the president on Friday, saying the move would add to the burden facing American farmers who are being squeezed by higher fuel and fertiliser prices stemming from the Iran war.
“The Trump admins attempt to lower the cost of beef is American beef LAST and foreign beef FIRST,” she wrote on X.
