Political peril spurs Trump to act on beef prices even as ranchers rage [View all]

Source: Politico

10/27/2025 05:00 AM EDT


The Trump administration is acutely aware of a looming political vulnerability: beef. In just the last month, President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with the high prices U.S. consumers are seeing in grocery stores, promising “a deal” to “bring the price down.” The near-term solution to boost supply — plans to purchase 80,000 metric tons of beef from Argentina, quadruple the typical quota — has spurred intense backlash from farm-state Republicans and agriculture industry groups who have felt burned by several Trump administration policies in recent months.

But Trump’s election was fueled, in part, by Americans’ concerns over high costs, an issue the president often hammered on the campaign trail as he promised food prices would fall if he returned to the White House. Ten months in, Trump and his top aides are scrambling to keep the campaign pledge, calculating that in the short-term it’s worth antagonizing ranchers, a loyal GOP constituency that benefits from elevated beef prices, if they can bring down costs for consumers.

“It’s kind of like eggs, part two,” said one person close to the Trump administration, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. “This all kind of started with just concern over consumer prices.”

The average price for a pound of ground beef is $6.32, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That’s up about 14 percent since Trump took office, and meat remains one of the key drivers of overall inflation in grocery stores, according to the latest federal data on food prices released Friday.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/27/like-eggs-part-two-trump-administration-scrambles-to-bring-down-beef-prices-00622680