Murdoch Paper Skewers Trump for Imitating Biden

Meat packers’ profits have actually fallen, not increased, as the cattle supply has shrunk, the Journal wrote. Thanks in part to Trump’s 50 percent tariff on imports from Brazil and the administration’s quotas on Argentinian beef imports, live cattle prices have soared by 24 percent.

Those higher prices have in turn squeezed meat packers’ margins.

“The real beneficiaries of higher beef prices have been U.S. ranchers, not meat packers,” the editorial board wrote. “Ranchers have been pressing the Administration to continue its ban on Mexican cattle imports and to use his national-security authority under Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act to restrict beef imports, as if Argentinian steaks endanger the homeland.”

The president ran on a promise to “immediately” lower food costs but has failed to rein in prices. During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump claimed that “we are doing phenomenally well—this is the greatest economy we’ve ever had.”

He also claimed that high costs were just a Democratic talking point and that only beef prices were high. Ingraham immediately cut in to say coffee was also up, and Trump said he would lower some tariffs on coffee.

The Journal’s editorial board suggested that Trump also remove all beef tariffs and quotas, saying Biden had “learned the hard way” that “attacking business won’t reduce the price of a hamburger.”

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