President Donald Trump has been given a scathing reality check on his error-strewn claims about meat prices.
The cost of beef has been an obsession of his since he returned to office last year, and it was on the menu again on Tuesday during his State of the Union address.
During the rambling 108-minute speech, the 79-year-old claimed that beef prices are “starting to come down significantly.” He’s wrong, they aren’t.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the U.S. city average price for 100 percent ground beef was $5.55 per pound in January 2025. By January this year, 12 months on, that had risen to $6.75 per pound. It is the highest price on record and the highest annual inflation since Trump’s first term.
According to CNBC, there are some indications that prices are declining in certain instances, but by and large, prices remain near record highs.
The outlet reports that uncooked steaks have also increased 13 percent over the past year to $12.30 per pound in January. That particular format hit a record high in December, while uncooked beef roasts hit their peak in November, and still remain 14 percent higher than this time a year ago.
Still, the White House remains steadfast. “President Trump is right: inflation has cooled, and prices of many everyday essentials have fallen or are on the right trajectory,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to CNBC. “The entire Administration remains laser-focused on delivering economic relief for the American people.”
The outlet reports that the price hikes are at least in part due to broader factors, namely increased demand and limited cattle supplies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said there were 27.6 million beef cows in the country last month, the lowest tally since 1951.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson said, “President Trump and his cabinet are working every day to lower prices for consumers. While prices for other proteins such as eggs, pork and chicken have declined in recent months, beef prices remain elevated. This is due to the perfect storm of sustained increase in consumer demand for beef coupled with a prolonged decrease in the supply of live cattle.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
On Wednesday, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough ripped into Trump for his comments about the price of meat.
“Speaking of lies,” Scarborough said on MS Now, “Everybody knows in the audience, they understand Donald Trump is lying when he’s saying that the price of meat is going down, the price of groceries are going down. They know he’s lying when he says that he inherited inflation at 9 percent. No.
“He inherited inflation at about the same rate that it’s at right now when Joe Biden left office. It’s about the same as where it was.”
Trump previously turned his ire on U.S. cattle ranchers when they expressed concerns about providing financial aid to Argentina, a major beef exporter.
In a Truth Social post in October, he said, “The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States.
“If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years—Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!”
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