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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis should go well: Trump now attacking cattle ranchers
...lot's of FAFO all around.

Trumps Plan For Buying Argentinian Beef Prompts Backlash From Ranchers
Trump told reporters Sunday the U.S. could buy some beef from Argentina, predicting the move will bring our beef prices down, adding it would help Argentina, which we consider a very good country, a very good ally.
Trump made the comments after the U.S. announced a $40 billion economic assistance package for Argentina, including a $20 billion currency swap with Argentinas central bank that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said was finalized Tuesday, plus another $20 billion in financing from private sector and sovereign wealth funds.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2025/10/21/trumps-plan-for-buying-argentinian-beef-prompts-backlash-from-ranchers/
The National Cattlemens Beef Association along with the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America and other farming groups who are normally some of the presidents biggest supporters all criticized Trumps idea because of what it could do to American ranchers and feedlot operators. And agricultural economists say Argentine beef accounts for such a small slice of beef imports only about 2% that even doubling that wouldnt change prices much.
South Dakota rancher Brett Kenzy said he wants American consumers to determine whether beef is too expensive, not the government. And so far there is little sign that consumers are substituting chicken or other proteins for beef on their shopping lists even though the average price of a pound of ground beef hit its highest point ever at $6.32 in the latest report before the government shutdown began.
I love Make America Great Again rhetoric. I love America First rhetoric, he said. But to me this feels a lot like the failed policies of the past the free trade sourcing cheap global goods.
Bryant Kagay, part owner of Kagay Farms in Amity, Missouri, said he thinks the plan would hurt ranchers. Cattle prices that had been averaging around $3,000 for a 1,250-pound animal slipped more than $100 immediately after Trump mentioned the idea of intervening in beef prices last week, though they have recovered a bit since then.
https://fortune.com/2025/10/22/cattle-ranchers-unhappy-with-trump-argentina-beef-america-first-trade/
Link to tweet
NCDem47
(3,166 posts)Trump and his henchmen that is.
Aristus
(71,172 posts)They always repeat the by-now obligatory "I love MAGA! I love America First!" This makes whatever their complaints are seem the pro-forma performances that they are. They don't have the intelligence or the insight to ever see how wrong they were to support the Queens con-man.
Cattle Ranchers For Trump. That's all of them. And they will never change...
bigtree
(93,087 posts)...
walkingman
(10,004 posts)this idea that the American farmer or rancher is poor is just not reality. I have a neighbor who owns over 2000 acres and is on Medicaid. It is a scam that has been going own since the great depression.
Oh, and btw, Trump speaks their language - they will support him or someone like him forever.
bigtree
(93,087 posts)...but no one can argue that their production has kept up with demand, for whatever reason.
The producers' reasoning is that as domestic beef consumption increased over the past four decades, imports outpaced domestic production in meeting that increased consumption.
It should be obvious that, as domestic demand grew, investors and others imported more at a pace that our domestic suppliers couldn't keep up with.
Then we come to today....
BlueKota
(4,729 posts)On one hand he's right. They just don't understand they have been conned by tsf over and over again.
On the other hand they are right that this move would hurt U.S. cattle ranchers. They only have themselves to blame for voting for him.
It's just too bad those who didn't vote for him get hurt too. None of us deserve it. At least I am not a big consumer of beef. Only have it on occasion.
Beringia
(5,229 posts)bigtree
(93,087 posts)...
democratsruletheday
(1,666 posts)Cattle Ranchers and their ilk. I prefer chicken and pork anyway in my middle age. We stopped buying steak a year ago or more. Burger? Still buy it but not like we used to. Eff them.