The price of ground beef hit an all-time high this year, with the cost per pound rising to above $6 as the Trump administration looks to make the dinner staple more affordable.
A pound of ground beef currently costs about $6.30, up from $5.60 this time last year – and a far cry from the $3.95 it cost in December 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are facing mounting pressure ahead of the midterm elections as many Americans struggle with affordability, something the president campaigned on. While Trump has touted the high stock market and low gas prices, many voters have been left feeling uncertain about the economy.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, which measures how optimistic or pessimistic consumers feel about the economy, was 53.3 in December – down from over 70 when Trump returned to office this past January.
Some of the skepticism may be related to the high cost of living – including steep price tags on popular food items, like ground beef. The record-high costs of both ground beef and steak have left everyone, from meatpackers and supermarkets, to restaurants and consumers, hurting, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Due to financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many ranchers downsized their cattle herds, leaving the U.S. with the lowest number of cattle since the 1950s, according to the report.
Despite the significantly sparser supply, beef remains popular amongst American consumers, causing its cost to skyrocket – much to the dismay of Trump, who ran this past election on delivering affordability to the American public.
Meanwhile, top advisers to the president have been meeting to try and figure out how to stymie the rising beef prices, sources told the Journal.
Attendees of the beef policy meetings include Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Peter Navarro, who serves as a trade adviser to the president.
During a November meeting, the group discussed reopening the southern border to imported Mexican cattle. A ban on cattle had been implemented to stop the migration of a flesh-eating parasite, according to the report.
Trump has also clued in Gov. Jim Pillen of Nebraska, one of the country’s top beef-producing states, and told him of plans to begin importing more beef from Argentina in an effort to lower prices.
The plan, floated by the president this fall, angered some Republicans from beef-producing states and cattle ranchers, who have been a loyal voting bloc to Trump.
The meatpacking industry has also been on edge over higher costs. On Saturday, Trump called for the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to create task forces to determine whether anticompetitive behavior exists among the largest meatpackers in the U.S.
Industry officials have defended the companies, which likely include Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef, claiming they are also hurting from the rising prices, according to the report.
However, experts say increasing lean ground-beef imports and readmitting cattle from Mexico would ease the supply burden.
The report comes as more than one-third of Trump’s supporters believe the cost of living in the U.S. is the worst they’ve ever seen, according to a new survey conducted for Politico.
The survey indicates that the president and the Republican Party have their work cut out for them in selling voters on their economic vision before next year’s midterm elections.
The poll, which sampled 2,098 U.S. adults on November 14 through 17, found that nearly half of respondents, about 46 percent, said the current cost of living is the worst they could remember.
That figure includes 37 percent of Trump 2024 voters, while 53 percent voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Respondents were also asked who they hold responsible for the current state of the economy.
About half, 46 percent, said Trump holds all or most responsibility, while 29 percent said the buck stops with former President Joe Biden — who presided over a soaring inflation rate.
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