President Donald Trump announced he was deregulating meat processing for farmers and ranchers after conservative media personality Glenn Beck encouraged him to do so earlier this week during a live interview.
“Ranchers and Farmers have always been a number one priority for me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday. “They work very hard, are smart, efficient, and immaculately CLEAN, but for years I have heard that they have had a tremendous problem with the Big Processors, who many say are a nasty Monopoly.”
Trump criticized the top, “very non competitive” meat processors — JBS S.A., Tyson Foods, Cargill, and Smithfield Foods — for making “life miserable for our wonderful Farmers and Ranchers.”
“I can’t let that happen, can I?” he asked. “So, in order to break this powerful monopoly, with much of its ownership based outside of the U.S., I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow Farmers and Ranchers to be given the right to PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD. This should move quickly.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins quickly responded to Trump’s social media post, previewing administration announcements next week, including helping farmers and ranchers sell their meat across state lines, repealing outdated guidance, introducing new technologies to assist with safety data, funding for small meat processors, and implementing new standards for food labels.
“Our great AMERICAN ranchers produce the highest-quality, most incredible beef in the world AND it is a matter of national security that we be able to feed and fuel ourselves,” Rollins wrote on X. “The world is hungry for American beef!”
We are on it Mr. President!
Our great AMERICAN ranchers produce the highest-quality, most incredible beef in the world AND it is a matter of national security that we be able to feed and fuel ourselves.
Big announcements starting Monday — including:
waiving red tape in… https://t.co/dDSHH3dnFV
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) August 28, 2026
During Thursday’s interview for his podcast, Beck, himself a rancher, encouraged Trump to investigate “the meat processing cartel,” alleging it prevented him and other farmers from processing their own meat because of “all of the federal regulations” and “insane” inspections.
“So you’re saying, with, with less regulation, you think that the ranchers and farmers would do a very good job of processing the beef?” Trump asked. “This could be a very good call for ranchers and farmers, no, for the country … This is a very big thing you just told me, though, because you just gave me a very good idea. OK, good, good, very good. I love the call. I love this call.”
Trump and Rollins’ announcements come as farmers and ranchers have criticized the administration’s decision last week to permit up to 300,000 metric tons of beef products to be imported into the country during the next three months without tariffs as a measure to counter affordability concerns before November’s midterm elections.
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Farm-state Republicans from cattle country have scrutinized the decision, contending that American farmers and ranchers could be undercut by foreign countries like Argentina.
“Wyoming ranchers produce the highest quality beef in the world,” Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) wrote on X. “Our ranchers don’t ask for special treatment. They simply want a fair marketplace. It needs to be easier – not harder – for Wyoming ranchers to feed America.”