President Donald Trump advanced efforts Friday to roll back regulations for meat processors amid the growing outrage from American cattle ranchers in response to the president’s mysterious plan to import 300,000 metric tons of ground beef.
Trump announced last week that he’d secured an arrangement to import 300,000 metric tons of ground beef over a 90-day period that will be sold at 25% below market price in an effort to combat soaring beef prices. Trump refused to reveal the origin of the beef imports, which ranchers have argued will undercut their industry.
On Wednesday, Trump suggested he was considering rolling back regulations on beef processing plants, and on Friday, appeared to make good on those comments.
“Ranchers and Farmers have always been a number one priority for me. They work very hard, are smart, efficient, and immaculately CLEAN, but for years I have heard that they have had a tremendous problem with the Big Processors, who many say are a nasty Monopoly,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
“There are, essentially, 4 of them, a very non competitive number, and they make life miserable for our wonderful Farmers and Ranchers, and I can’t let that happen, can I? So, in order to break this powerful monopoly, with much of its ownership based outside of the U.S., I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow Farmers and Ranchers to be given the right to PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD. This should move quickly.”