Republicans are warning President Donald Trump that his decision to flood supermarkets with foreign ground beef is hurting a key group in his base as the midterm elections near their climax.
Voters in beef-industry-heavy states, like South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, supported Trump in his bid for a second term. Now, lawmakers from those states say his decision to lift tariffs on hundreds of thousands of tons of foreign beef is putting the very people who elected him in a bind.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who is running for re-election, said his voters in South Dakota “love the president,” and view him like a member of the family, but the beef import order feels like the administration “pulled the rug right out from underneath” them.
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“They’re hurt. I mean, they feel like they’ve been let down,” Rounds said.
“Like, how could, you know, our friend, this guy that’s as close to us as they’ve ever been to a president, how could he do this to them? I mean, that’s the way they feel,” he continued. “And that’s the expression they’re giving me is, ‘Why would he do this to us? Doesn’t he understand ag?’”
Republicans are searching for an economic message to bring to voters as grocery bills, gas prices and other day-to-day necessities grow more expensive. Some argue that kneecapping ranchers and farmers, some of Trump’s most loyal supporters, in the name of affordability runs counter to that.
“I think people want an explanation,” a House Republican granted anonymity to speak freely told Fox News Digital. “We want to be able to go to the ranchers, who are big Trump supporters, right, to be able to go to them and say, this administration is fighting for you.”
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Trump signed the order last week with the intent of flooding the market with 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef, lowering costs for consumers thanks to a commitment that the product would be sold at 25% below current market prices over a 90-day span.
He also contended that it would allow ranchers to regrow the nation’s herds, which, thanks to a combination of drought and the invasive New World screwworm, has dwindled to historic lows not seen since the 1950s, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“I’m sympathetic to what he’s trying to get done,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Keloland. “He’s trying to lower beef prices, which I think we’re all supportive of. I just don’t think this is the way to do it. And so, we have a lot of beef producers here in South Dakota; they produce the highest-quality beef in the world, and we’re trying to build our herds back up.”
As the blowback mounts, the administration has acknowledged that ranchers are bearing the brunt of the blow. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer huddled privately with House Republicans on Wednesday afternoon, when several lawmakers pressed him on the subject of Trump’s beef imports.
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Sources inside the room told Fox News Digital that Greer acknowledged ranchers were frustrated but maintained the import strategy was temporary. He argued it was the administration’s way of easing high prices on the market in the short term, the sources said.
But multiple House GOP lawmakers still said they were concerned as they exited the meeting.
“This is not just a one-year issue on the affordability of beef. We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got a Made-in-America-first beef program. That means standing with our cattlemen on that,” Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital. “We’ve said the same thing to [Greer] in there.”
Nunn, who is a top target for Democrats in November, said he planned to raise the issue again during dinner with Trump at the White House on Wednesday evening.
Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., pointed out that it was a relatively small amount of beef for just a 90-day period but said he was worried about the timing as it overlaps with the time of year farmers bring their cattle to market.
“If a rancher is expecting to get a price at market that suddenly drops out from underneath them, they’re faced with two things — they don’t have a stable market, so do I invest in heifers for next year? Or do I have to sell more calves to make up for that deficit for my operating costs? Which, neither one is helping rebuild the herd,” Downing told Fox News Digital.
House Main Street Caucus Chairman Mike Flood, R-Neb., said he was opposed to a “tariff regime that undercuts American ranchers,” but said Trump’s policies were helping in the “big picture.”
Compounding people’s anxiety in the meeting was Trump’s trade war with Canada, which that House Republican said made northern-border-state GOP lawmakers “nervous.”
Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital there would likely be “quite a few” follow-up meetings.
“It was absolutely outstanding, we had a tremendous amount of participation and people that were really excited to ask good questions,” he said of the meeting in general.
And Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at an event in Iowa on Tuesday that the administration understood that “ranchers felt like that was a gut punch.”
The White House argued that Trump “has done more for American agriculture than anyone” with trade deals, foreign market access expansion, lowering input costs, bolstering the farm safety net, doubling the death tax exemption, ending taxes on rural property loan interest, and creating rural opportunity zones.”
“At the same time, he is delivering on his promise to consumers by reducing beef prices while allowing our American beef herd to grow,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital. “The President will continue taking actions to support our great farmers while driving economic prosperity for all Americans.”
Republican critics of the move are urging the administration to look at other methods to expand the nation’s cattle herds.
Several Republicans, led by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., wrote to Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to lift Biden-era rules and ease federal guardrails to allow for more access to grazing land for cattle.
“The Federal government must remain laser-focused on partnering with the industry and state efforts for ranchers, expand grazing on public and private lands, and improve protein processing capacity,” they wrote in a letter to the top Trump officials on Tuesday.
