Last week, President Donald Trump said he “loves” American farmers. However, those ranchers—most of whom supported him in the 2024 election—say they aren’t feeling that love right now. A White House official told CNN that the administration plans to increase Argentina’s beef quota to 80,000 tons, quadrupling the current low-tariff volume (20,000 tons) allowed into the United States.
In an interview with Fox Business, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins stated: “Americans currently consume 12 million tons of beef. Ten million are produced in this country. Two million are imported. Of those 12 million, (the Argentine quota) would be 20,000 each quarter. It’s not a massive influx of millions of tons of Argentine beef.”
However, Christian Lovell, a rancher from Illinois and senior program director at Farm Action, a nonpartisan agricultural organization, said: “If Trump goes ahead with what he’s proposed, I think it’s a betrayal of American cattle producers. It feels like he’s selling us out to a foreign competitor.”
Trump reacted to the criticism from ranchers. “Ranchers, whom I love, don’t understand that the only reason they’re doing so well—for the first time in decades—is because I imposed tariffs on beef coming into the United States, including a 50% tariff on Brazil,” Trump wrote on social media.
“It would be nice if they understood that, but they also need to lower their prices, because the consumer is a very important factor for me too,” he added.
In a statement, Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Association, a trade group representing beef producers, said that the organization and its members “cannot support the president while he undermines the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentine beef in an attempt to influence prices.”
Source: CNN
