If there’s one thing MAGA males believe deep in their bones, it’s that “real” men eat a lot of beef. Multiple members of Donald Trump’s Cabinet, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are obsessed with men’s testosterone levels and are highly attuned to right-wing social media chatter that conflates eating red meat with being “high-T,” despite the fact that science doesn’t support this theory. Kennedy in particular has been invested in defending the honor of red meat, repeatedly arguing, against standard medical recommendations, that diets high in animal fat are good for you. But long before the popularity of this pseudoscientific nonsense, a rare steak or hamburger was treated as the icon of manhood, especially in conservative circles. Republicans would routinely spread false claims that Democrats wanted to take away beef and even floated conspiracy theories that vegetarian foods are a plot to emasculate American men.
The pattern of rising food prices under Trump is concerning and annoying, and the cost of beef is soaring. Despite the administration’s efforts to blame Joe Biden, who left the White House more than a year and a half ago, blame for this inflation lies with Trump. His pointless tariffs, poor economic management and war with Iran, which raised gas prices, all have had an impact. The beef industry has also been hurt by a screwworm infestation, and it’s not helping that the Trump administration drastically cut the federal agencies tasked with fighting such plagues.
