One of President Donald Trump’s strongest support groups, cattle farmers, feel sheer betrayal from the White House as a result of a plan to lower beef prices. In Mississippi, a state Trump has won in three straight election cycles, the sentiment is no different.
Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation President Mike McCormick noted that local cattle farmers are hurt by the president’s Aug. 21 announcement that up to 300,000 metric tons of beef can be imported into the U.S. over the next 90 days without facing certain tariffs. The ire is not necessarily with the plan itself, but how the president’s announcement wrecked futures markets.
“The farmers are angry. They are very angry with what the president did. He could have done this without making a statement. It wouldn’t have rattled the markets,” McCormick said on MidDays with Gerard Gibert. “He could have just brought more beef in. He could have brought it in with tariffs. Don’t make me play on an unlevel playing field.”
The Republican president said his plan will result in imported beef being sold roughly 25% below current market prices, which would cripple local cattle farmers financially, as margins are already thin. While politicos speculate that the overarching goal is to lower grocery prices ahead of the November midterms, as affordability remains an issue for most Americans, McCormick is of the belief that local cattle farmers got the short end of the stick and that GOP candidates in heavily agrarian states run the risk of losing elections.
“I don’t think that anybody else beyond him can be blamed for this decision. I know that there are a lot of Republicans up for reelection in ag states and cattle states that are in trouble,” McCormick said. “Social media has blown up. The president miscalculated that the cattle people that had voted for him and put him in office would keep their mouths shut and say, ‘It’s okay.'”
McCormick added the following, and more strongly-worded, message for the president: “You tell us that you love us, but you’re not showing us that you love us. You intentionally harmed the cattle markets for everybody selling cattle in the markets.”
Farmers did not have a seat at the table
Trump campaigned in each of his presidential election bids, in large part, to protect American farmers — which garnered widespread enthusiasm from those same farmers. One study even found that the president averaged nearly 78% support from top farm-dependent counties in the 2024 election cycle. But his recent tariff policies paired with the beef announcement have quickly soured the taste those in ag sectors have for him as the nation’s leader.
McCormick, a cattle farmer who admittedly voted for Trump each time he ran for office, contended that the president’s message has lost its touch with farmers because he is not listening to them. Instead, McCormick asserted that Trump delivered a “punch to the face” of cattle farmers for no good reason, when a meaningful solution could have been outlined by bringing ag officials from across the country to the table.
“This is not the way to get our beef problem fixed. The way to get the beef problem fixed is to get the farmers in the United States to grow their herds,” McCormick said. “What he did on Friday tells me that the president thinks that I, as a cattle producer, should not make any money. I should grow these things without making any profit off of it. Somebody’s got to step up and say, ‘This wasn’t right.’ And I’ll be the one to do it.”
Meat packers accused of manipulating market through Trump
While McCormick is adamant that farmers did not have the president’s ear in this matter, he has a hunch that leaders within the meat packing industry did. Meat packers act as a middle man between farmers and grocers. They package meat and store the products in holding facilities before shipping them to grocery stores and restaurants.
McCormick explained that most cattle in the U.S. come from controlled herds and that the prime season for selling these cattle is in the fall, something he believes the president was not aware of. The meat packers, however, are privy to the market and how it works, per the Mississippi Farm Bureau head.
If the president’s plan plays out like he projects, McCormick is concerned that cattle farmers will be forced to sell their products at a much lower rate and that the meat packing companies, which he called the “meat cartels,” would reap the financial reward for what is sold at markets.
“What [Trump] said is, ‘We’re only going to do this for three months and then everything is going to go back the other way,”‘ McCormick said. “Everything is getting marketed over the next three months, so who is going to own that beef that’s $200 a head or more cheaper after three months? The meat cartels are going to own it. The packers are going to own it. They’re going to line their pockets with the profits off of what the president did last Friday.”
Imported beef could yield health risks
McCormick further sounded the alarm that bringing in foreign meat products en masse could yield harsh health risks. In the U.S., beef producers have to adhere to strict regulations to ensure that products are not tainted. The same does not apply to other countries, where regulations pale in comparison with the standards upheld by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.
Earlier this year, China had to reject a 22-metric-ton shipment of beef from Argentina, a country expected to play a role in the United States’ mass importation of meat, after tests found traces of chloramphenicol in the product. Chloramphenicol is a banned antibiotic that can cause severe health and blood disorders in humans.
McCormick said the U.S. has even had to reject loads of beef from Argentina in the past for similar reasons. Not only is tainted beef bad for the consumer, it also damages the reputation of local producers and lowers demand, which jeopardizes Mississippi cattle farmers.
“We’ve had loads of that beef rejected. It had to be sent back to Argentina,” McCormick said. “We know that whenever you have bumps in the road, it kills demand whenever somebody hears that there is salmonella or something bad like this Mexican lettuce that had the parasites in it. No one wants to eat anything like that and we don’t want it in the United States.”
Other notable Mississippi officials weighed in
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican and one of Trump’s close allies in Congress, did not side with the president on the issue. While refraining from calling the president out directly, she said she will continue to support policies that prioritize American cattle farmers over foreign producers. Hyde-Smith notably comes from a family of Mississippi cattle farmers and is up for reelection this year.
— U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (@SenHydeSmith) August 24, 2026
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, also a Trump-supporting Republican, joined Hyde-Smith in rejecting the president’s move without calling him out by name. Hosemann said a better solution than importing cheap beef would be to push policies that lower costs that hamper the ability of farmers and ranchers to grow their herds.
I strongly support American beef and our Mississippi cattle farmers. Importing more foreign beef at a lower rate is not the way to significantly lower prices for Mississippi families. We need to focus on lowering the costs our ranchers face to raise their cattle and get their…
— Delbert Hosemann (@DelbertHosemann) August 24, 2026
State Sen. Andy Berry, a Republican from Simpson County and executive director of the Mississippi Beef Council, echoed the sentiments of the other GOP politicians. Berry acknowledged that beef prices are high in the U.S., but for a justifiable reason. And that is simple economics.
“We have strong demand here in the U.S. and really, across the world for U.S. beef. And when you have low numbers and strong demand, that typically leads to higher prices,” Berry said on Mornings with Richard Cross.
The president’s solution to the issue, on the other hand, made no sense to the Mississippi lawmaker. Berry said the president floated the idea of importing beef in large numbers to lower prices earlier this year, but was swayed by the likes of Sen. Hyde-Smith and other ag officials to refrain. But that has since changed.
Officials are now in wait-and-see mode on how the president’s plan will play out. For now, those in the American and Mississippi cattle farming industry are enraged.