Trump sparks beef with latest tariff announcement | indy100

Win McNamee/Getty Images

US president Donald Trump’s approach to tariffs has long sparked controversy, and now, the convicted felon is facing a backlash after announcing he would be importing foreign ground beef with “no out of quota tariff”.

Writing on his Truth Social platform on Friday, the 80-year-old said: “Today, I concluded a deal to substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families.

“As everyone knows, under President Biden, beef prices soared at their fastest rate and the American beef herd fell to its smallest size in modern history. As we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranches, for the next 90 days, the United States will allow 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariff.

“We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices. This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again.”

But the deal has since been met with criticism and scepticism over on X/Twitter.

“I wonder why 90 days. Couldn’t be because the midterms are in… 74 days, right? Right,” pondered Angry Staffer:

Political commentator Brian Krassenstein wrote: “So, in other words, in an effort to lower beef prices, Trump is going to flood the US market with possibly unsafe, foreign beef and drown out US cattle ranchers, causing even less American beef to be produced since they can’t make up their investment”:

Melanie D’Arrigo, of the Campaign for New York Health, said: “Trump temporarily eliminating tariffs on beef is a weird way of admitting that his tariffs increase prices on U.S. consumers”:

“All glory to Chairman Trump for seizing the means of ground beef pricing,” tweeted the press office of California governor Gavin Newsom, along with an emoji of the Chinese flag:

And Republican senator Tim Sheehy warned: “This action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people. And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation”:

But that’s not all, because when Trump was asked by a reporter which countries would be providing the beef, while at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday, the Republican said: “I don’t want to say which countries but they’re a few countries, but they’re going to be sending in the highest quality beef, and it’s something that we need.”

This only prompted further criticism over the deal:

California representative Ted Lieu wrote: “The American people have the right to know if we will be eating low-quality foreign beef”:

“Nobody should be buying ground beef for the next 90 days,” tweeted political commentator Jamie Bonkiewicz:

And Wu Tang is for the Children commented: “He wants Americans to buy cheap beef and won’t tell us where it’s from”:

How ‘udderly’ bizarre (sorry)…

Why not read…?

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.