Trump Begins Tackling Cattle Shortage, Urges U.S. Ranchers To Lower Prices

U.S. cattle futures are no longer on track for their largest year-to-date gain since 1978. Instead, selling pressure has eroded gains to about 25%, yet it still marks the strongest annual increase since 2010. The pullback comes as President Trump and White House officials confront yet another challenge in the fight against sticky food inflation: a nationwide cattle shortage (years in the making) that has pushed cattle futures to record highs and sent supermarket beef prices to unaffordable levels for working-poor households. 

On Wednesday, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that “The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil.”

Trump continued, “If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years — Terrible!”

The president concluded his Truth Social post by saying that ranchers need “to get their prices down,” noting that “the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking as well.”

Last Friday, Trump told reporters, “We are working on beef, and I think we have a deal on beef that’s going to bring the price” down, adding, “That would be the one product that we would say is a little bit higher than we want it, maybe higher than we want it, and that’s going to be coming down pretty soon too. We did something, we worked our magic.”

At the time, we noted (read here) that a U.S.-Argentina beef deal was highly likely, given that early last week, President Trump hosted Argentinian President Javier Milei at the White House to discuss trade and funding aimed at bolstering the country’s sinking bond and currency market.

By Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins joined CNBC and announced that the Trump administration intends to make a big deal with the South American country for beef, in return, these fresh supplies will help arrest out-of-control prices.

Ranchers are not happy with the prospect of new supplies. “This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices,” Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association industry group, told Reuters.