{ "archive_path": "archive/1788097509.451588", "base_url": "www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/08/trump-beef-tariffs-prices/688466", "basename": "", "bookmarked_date": "2026-08-30 13:45", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/08/trump-beef-tariffs-prices/688466", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.theatlantic.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/08/trump-beef-tariffs-prices/688466/index.html" }, "domain": "www.theatlantic.com", "extension": "", "hash": "1SR2JSWTQN19HTVWXP4H", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.theatlantic.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-08-30T19:40:31.076579+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1788097509.451588", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-08-30T19:40:30.641485+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/08/trump-beef-tariffs-prices/688466/" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-08-30T19:40:31.468669+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1788097509.451588", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-08-30T19:40:31.082743+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/08/trump-beef-tariffs-prices/688466/" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-08-30T19:40:49.531158+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1788097509.451588", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-08-30T19:40:45.807513+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpz87hcpkk", "https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/08/trump-beef-tariffs-prices/688466/" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-08-30T19:40:45.788349+00:00", "index_texts": [ "This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Three hundred thousand metric tons of ground beef are on their way to the United States. There\u2019s no easy way to visualize 300,000 metric tons of anything (for context, that\u2019s about 12 times the weight of the Statue of Liberty). All of that beef could fill an important gap in the American market\u2014but not everyone\u2019s happy about it.President Trump announced last Friday that he\u2019ll be temporarily lifting some tariffs on beef and that, as part of an ambiguous deal, the imports will be sold at \u201c25 percent below current market prices.\u201d He was likely hoping for a political win here: Affordability has been a losing issue for Trump and his party ahead of the midterms, and increasing the beef supply in an attempt to lower prices could be one way of giving shoppers a reprieve. But industry leaders immediately condemned the move, warning that it will do little to address the underlying dynamics that have driven up prices in recent years\u2014and their allies in Congress joined them in the revolt. Now Trump\u2019s on-again, off-again relationship with ranchers is becoming the whole country\u2019s problem.There\u2019s no great mystery as to why American beef is so expensive. The steaks we get from the supermarket represent the end product of a long, multiyear chain involving ranchers, auctioneers, feedlots, meatpackers, and grocery stores. But beef starts with cattle, and after years of drought, the number of cows now grazing on U.S. soil is the lowest it\u2019s been in 75 years. The return of a certain flesh-eating parasite hasn\u2019t helped things, either. This, combined with the fact that Americans are still hungry for beef, has created a basic supply-and-demand problem.Economists told NPR this week that the president\u2019s move, which was made official on Wednesday, may shave only a small amount off what shoppers are currently paying for ground beef at the grocery store. It\u2019s too soon to tell whether this will actually happen\u2014the government won\u2019t release its August data for another few weeks\u2014but Trump\u2019s announcement did depress cattle prices somewhat, which suggests that traders at least think that beef could become less valuable, as the president intended. This is a problem for ranchers, who applauded last year\u2019s restrictive Liberation Day tariffs. Most of the beef that Americans consume is produced in the United States, and the duties had been helping prevent foreign imports from undercutting domestic producers; without these protections, meat-processing companies are free to buy the cheapest option, wherever it may come from. In a joint letter to the president, the heads of four livestock-industry groups expressed \u201cdeep concern\u201d that the plan would undermine beef producers by devaluing cattle and would prevent the rebuilding of the dwindling herd.Ominously, the White House has declined to say where all of this beef will be coming from. When asked which countries will be supplying the beef, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters on Tuesday that she was \u201cnot part of any of those conversations\u201d and is \u201cnot privy to talk about that.\u201d Trump mentioned that \u201ca few\u201d different countries will be involved but hasn\u2019t said which. (Thirty thousand pounds of Argentine beef were recalled earlier this month over concerns that it hadn\u2019t been properly inspected; the White House declined to respond to my question about where the beef will be coming from but claimed, without elaborating, that the plan would reduce beef prices while allowing the U.S. cattle herd to grow.)Despite being a core MAGA constituency, beef producers and ranchers have been periodically annoyed at Trump\u2019s tariff changes over the past year. What\u2019s more unusual is that high-profile Republicans have also been breaking with the president on this issue. At least 13 GOP senators have publicly criticized the tariff adjustment to varying degrees over the past week. \u201cBeef prices are too high for a simple reason: Our cattle herd is too small,\u201d Senator Tom Cotton wrote on X. \u201cI have advised the President against this ill-advised action in the past and I now urge him to reconsider.\u201d Others suggested that what Trump is doing is unfair, a way of rigging the market against American producers, who \u201csimply want a fair marketplace,\u201d per Senator John Barrasso. (Rollins seems to be supporting the current plan, though she reportedly opposed a similar tariff rollback in May.)This isn\u2019t the first time in recent months that the Trump administration\u2014whose war with Iran has driven up consumer prices\u2014has turned its attention to short-term solutions. As I\u2019ve written, both Trump and Rollins have publicly praised business owners who have lowered their prices on certain goods, such as fuel and groceries. But these kinds of temporary cuts don\u2019t amount to a lasting policy solution, and companies can\u2019t be expected to shoulder this burden forever. The private-sector \u201ccommitment\u201d to selling this imported beef below market price has a similarly short-term focus. The bigger issues remain unaddressed, and voters don\u2019t believe that the administration has the economy under control.The president attempted to make peace with ranchers this morning, writing on Truth Social that he\u2019d give them the \u201cright to PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD\u201d\u2014a nod to long-standing complaints about what farmers say is a monopoly among the Big Four meatpackers. But this olive branch is effectively just a promise to disrupt a different part of the industry. In trying to please everyone, Trump may end up creating even more beef.Related:Here are three new stories from The Atlantic:Today\u2019s NewsIn his speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, today, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said that inflation is \u201cconcerning\u201d but gave no clear indication of where interest rates are headed. At least 579 people have been killed and nearly 2,000 are still missing in Nepal and Tibet after catastrophic flash floods triggered by a Himalayan glacier\u2019s collapse, according to Nepali authorities. Rescue operations have resumed in Nepal and China, and the State Department says that about 90 Americans remain unaccounted for in the two countries. The far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was arrested by ICE at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport yesterday and is being held, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The British national had overstayed his visa and failed to appear for an immigration hearing last month, after which a judge had issued a final order for his removal from the United States, DHS said.DispatchesExplore all of our newsletters here.Evening ReadAlex Wroblewski / AFP / GettyThe Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln Deserve BetterBy Andrea N. GoldsteinWhen I was deployed at sea as a junior officer, I used milestones to track the passage of time. Each day counted toward something: a port call, when you get a break on land from the monotony at sea; the \u201ccrossing the line ceremony\u201d when a ship crosses the equator (unfortunately, canceled at the last minute for my ship); and, eventually, the date I knew that, no matter what, I would be going home. Even on my worst days, that end point helped me stay focused on the mission and gave me something to be hopeful for. The USS Abraham Lincoln left its home port of San Diego in November and was scheduled to return home in May. That did not happen.Read the full article.More From The AtlanticCulture BreakJason Schmidt / Trunk ArchiveReminisce. Sebastian Smee explores the limits of Yayoi Kusama\u2019s infinity.Watch (or skip). KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 inclusion in a high-class cinema catalog may signal a changing tide, Sophia Nguyen writes.Play our daily crossword.Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. 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