Scott Bessent was ridiculed for suggesting skyrocketing beef prices have nothing to do with MAGA’s economic policies and everything to do with a supposed invasion of cows across the southern border.
The Treasury Secretary expounded his wild theory during a Sunday sit-down with Maria Bartiromo over on Fox News. The host described the crisis to Bessent, asking for his take on “ten dollar… meat, a pound!”
Arguing the beef industry is in “a perfect storm” that the White House “inherited” from the Joe Biden administration, the secretary shot back that rising costs are a direct result of migrants entering the U.S. from Latin America.
“Because of the mass immigration, a disease that we’d been rid of in North America made its way up through South America as these migrants brought some of their cattle with them,” he said. “We’re not gonna let that get into our supply chain.”
Earlier in May, the Department of Agriculture indeed announced it’d be suspending live cattle, horse and bison imports across the southern border due to an outbreak of New World Screwworm cases in Mexico.
There is little to no credible evidence that migrants traveling north into the U.S., otherwise a highly perilous journey ordinarily undertaken with only the barest essentials, have been seen routinely transporting or smuggling live cattle at a scale that would affect the domestic market.
Similarly, there have been zero confirmed animal detections of the disease in the U.S. since the outbreak was first recorded in Mexico last November. While there has been at least one documented human case, it was recorded in Maryland after a resident of that state, which is almost 2,000 miles from the border with Mexico, had made a trip to El Salvador.
Given this context, Bessent’s theory about migrants transporting livestock quickly became the subject of scorn online.
“Scott Bessent says the reason beef prices are so high is because immigrants from South America are bringing their cattle with them as they come here and they are infected with diseases,” one person wrote on X. “What a weird take!
Scott Bessent says the reason beef prices are so high is because immigrants from South America are bringing their cattle with them as they come here and they are infected with diseases.
What a weird take! pic.twitter.com/yLrfilagV7— Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) November 16, 2025
“This guy is just so weird,” another person commented. “‘Migrants brought their cattle with them?’”
“First person to post a photo of all the cows climbing over Trump’s Wall gets a sticker,” one X user wrote. In some rebuttals, very few words were used at all—doctored images of cows taking flights were enough to diminish Bessent’s assertions.
Sure🙃 pic.twitter.com/4jeXgl1PJX
— Adam Makuła (@adam_makula) November 16, 2025
Economists suggest the spike in beef prices can be attributed to a far more complex and far less dramatic combination of factors, including long-term challenges like U.S. cattle shortages, drought and pasture degradation.
President Donald Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs, overseen by Bessent in his capacity as Treasury Secretary, are also thought likely to have contributed to rising feed and production costs for domestic beef. Combined with higher levies on beef products from abroad, these costs are now being passed on to the consumer.
The post Bessent Gives Bonkers Explanation for Rising Beef Costs appeared first on The Daily Beast.
