Ranchers, Lawmakers Slam Trump’s Beef Tariff ‘Betrayal’

Republican lawmakers and cattle industry groups criticized a decision by President Donald Trump on Friday to temporarily ease tariffs on beef imports.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said it was “disappointed” by the move, warning it would undercut America’s beef industry. Meriwether Farms, an American beef company, offered a one-word reaction on X: “Betrayal.” (Catharine O’Neill Gillihan, the firm’s CEO, is a member of the board of the American Ideas Institute, which publishes The American Conservative.)

Trump announced the policy change on Truth Social, arguing it would lower food prices amid a shortage in America’s beef herd. “As we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranchers, for the next 90 days, the United States will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariff,” Trump wrote.

Beef imports above quota levels are generally subject to a 26.4 percent tariff. Americans are paying about 25 percent more for beef since Trump returned to the White House, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Trump’s move provoked a backlash from GOP lawmakers, including Nebraska’s federal delegation. “Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry and undermines the long-term solution: growing the U.S. cattle herd to meet demand,” wrote Senator Deb Fischer on X. Nebraska is known as “the beef state” because of the industry’s importance to the state economy.