Trump Just Waived Tariffs on 661 Million Pounds of Foreign Beef. Republican Senators From Cattle States Are Furious.

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation this week temporarily suspending higher tariffs on imported lean beef trimmings, opening the door to 300,000 metric tons — about 661 million pounds — of tariff-free product beginning Sept. 1. The pause runs 90 days and is being delivered in three 30-day tranches.

The trimmings covered by the order are not steaks. They are the lean beef that American processors blend with domestic fat to make ground beef, and the proclamation encourages importers to sell the resulting product at roughly 25% below current market price. Trump framed the move as an attack on grocery prices and left himself an exit: if the action "does not result in a lower sale price of imported ground beef, I may end the action," the proclamation says.

Ground beef is running near $7 a pound, up roughly 63 cents over the last 12 months and about $2.93 a pound since 2021. But the people who raise the cattle say the fix lands on them. Kimberly Ratcliff, chief executive of Ratcliff Premium Meats, said the economics of holding animals have gotten brutal. "It's costing $1,100 a year just to keep a cow," she said. "They're willing to take the price."

Shawn Harris, a Georgia rancher, said the timing is the problem. "Right now, we got crazy input costs when it comes to tariffs and diesel, fertilizer, everything," she said. "And now farmers are about to sell cattle, and we're going to lose money." The American Farm Bureau Federation raised the same objection, noting that September through November is the heart of the selling season, when calves come off summer grass and go to market.

The political blowback came fastest from inside Trump's own party, and specifically from senators who represent cattle country. Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana warned the order "will further harm them — most of whom are MAGA Republicans." Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming was blunter: "Americans want US beef on the table – not foreign imports." Republicans are defending unexpectedly competitive races in Nebraska, Texas and Iowa this November, all states where the cattle vote is not a rounding error.

The administration has tried to hold both positions at once. On Truth Social, Trump wrote that "Ranchers and Farmers have always been a number one priority for me" while blaming "Big Processors" for what he called a "nasty Monopoly." White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the administration continues to back producers. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, asked which countries would supply the tariff-free trimmings, said she did not know: "I am actually not part of any of those conversations, so I am not sure what that looks like."

The underlying supply problem is not something a 90-day waiver touches. The U.S. cattle herd has been shrinking for years under drought, high interest rates and feed costs, and rebuilding it requires ranchers to hold back heifers instead of selling them — a decision that costs money up front and pays off years later. Producer groups argue that flooding the market with below-market foreign supply is precisely the signal that tells a rancher not to rebuild.