Trump’s Mystery Meat: Nobody Knows Where It’s Coming From

Donald Trump is once again trying to solve a problem he helped create, and this time, American ranchers are the ones getting ground up in the process.

The president signed a proclamation Wednesday removing tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of imported lean beef trimmings for 90 days in an effort to bring down the price of ground beef. According to Politico, Trump says the imported beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.

There’s just one small problem: Nobody seems entirely sure where all this beef is coming from.

Trump’s proclamation does not identify the countries that will supply it. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins reportedly said she was not “privy” to those details. So the administration has essentially announced that America needs mystery meat, promised that it will be cheaper and apparently plans to figure out the rest as it goes.

What could possibly go wrong?

The move has enraged the very people Trump has spent years claiming to champion: American farmers and ranchers. Major agriculture groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, warned that the announcement has already sent cattle markets lower at a critical time for producers.

Republican lawmakers aren’t thrilled either. Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska pointed out that cattle inventory is at a 75-year low and argued that the government should be helping ranchers rebuild domestic herds, not undercutting them with cheaper foreign imports.

But this is the FAFO portion of the Trump presidency.

Farmers and ranchers overwhelmingly supported Trump, despite his history of tariffs, trade wars and economic policies that have repeatedly left American producers waiting for the government to clean up the mess. Now, with inflation and affordability threatening Republican prospects ahead of the midterms, the White House appears willing to sacrifice one of its most loyal constituencies in the name of cheaper hamburgers.

Trump says he can reverse the policy if foreign producers fail to lower prices. But by then, the damage to domestic cattle markets may already be done.

So congratulations, America. The president has a plan to lower beef prices by importing an unspecified amount of beef from unspecified countries under terms his own agriculture secretary apparently can’t explain.

At least the hamburgers might be cheaper.

Maybe.

See how social media is flaming him below.