Lawyer and journalist Katie Phang is questioning the timing of a private Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and a bribery-linked Brazilian billionaire.
On August 20, Joesley Batista met with Trump, and the following day, the president announced the U.S. would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of imported beef product over the next 90 days, sold at 25 percent below market price, Phang explained in a Wednesday podcast episode. She noted that Batista's company, JBS, processes meat and is the world's largest meatpacker.
"I'm calling him the Brazilian billionaire beef bro of Donald Trump," Phang said.
She characterized the Trump White House as a "pay-to-play kind of place" and noted that the two men reportedly discussed how additional supply from Brazil could help if Trump dropped a 26 percent import tax.
"It's like you can't even script it, right?" Phang said. "You can't even script it."
The arrangement, which Trump framed as relief for "working American families," drew immediate pushback from cattle ranchers who say the move undercuts them, Phang explained.
"The timing stinks, does it not?" she asked. "Be mad. Farmers, ranchers, those of you that supported Donald Trump, be outraged. Be outraged that your bottom line is being impacted by corruption and grift and graft."
Phang tied the deal to a broader pattern and pointed to Pilgrim's Pride — majority-controlled by JBS — as the single largest donor to Trump's inaugural committee at $5 million. The figure prompted a letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Phang noted.
"Its $5 million donation amounts to more than the contributions from Apple's CEO plus Amazon, Meta, and Google combined," Phang said.
JBS admitted in 2017 to paying bribes to Brazilian politicians. Joesley and his brother Wesley later served jail time, Phang said.
"You think that just because they got caught in Brazil bribing politicians to get favorable deals, you think that would stop in Brazil?" Phang asked. "What's to stop them from doing the same thing in America?"
The Justice Department is simultaneously running an antitrust probe into the major meatpackers, including Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS and National Beef, after Trump blamed foreign-owned processors for high prices.