President Donald Trump flew into Kansas on Sunday night and told a crowd that included the state's beleaguered cattle producers that the fix for record-low beef prices was simple — they need to pick up the pace.
"We could use a little more beef if you don't mind," Trump said at a midterm rally for Sen. Roger Marshall. "Could you speed it up a bit?"
The clip, flagged by journalist Aaron Rupar, landed in a state where ranchers have spent months publicly accusing the administration of undercutting them. Trump spoke at Hangar 509 at the Salina Regional Airport, his second visit to Kansas in two weeks and what he billed as the final stop of a 30-rally midterm tour.
The suggestion that ranchers simply produce faster collides with the economics the industry has been shouting about all year. The U.S. beef cow herd sits at its lowest level since 1951, and ground beef hit a record $6.89 a pound earlier this year, with USDA projecting prices will climb another 10% through the end of 2026.
Trump's own answer to those prices has infuriated the people he was addressing. In August, he suspended tariffs on up to 300,000 metric tons of imported beef — much of it from Argentina — to flood the market with cheaper product. Kansas Farm Bureau president Glenn Brunkow called the plan "bad for consumers, destructive for ranchers and anti-American in principle."
Cattle prices that had been averaging around $3,000 per animal slipped more than $100 right after Trump floated the Argentina deal, according to the Associated Press. One industry analysis estimated U.S. ranchers lost $300 to $400 per head between June and August.
Rupar, posting the clip to X, wrote that Trump "imports the cheap beef that tanks your cattle check, tariffs the stuff that raises your feed and fertilizer... then stands in Kansas and tells the people he just hit to produce faster."
Kansas Reflector noted that Kansas voters this cycle have been "anxious about the surging cost of living and angry about trade disruptions created by Trump that undercut farmers and ranchers."