Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) questions U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on June 04, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
Republican Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska on Tuesday warned President Donald Trump that his proposal for the U.S. to buy Argentina’s beef will hurt American cattle ranchers and fail to lower prices.
“Bottom line: if the goal is addressing beef prices at the grocery store, this isn’t the way,” Fischer wrote in an X post.
Trump floated the idea over the weekend as a way to bring down beef costs, which have soared in the U.S. this year.
The tentative plan would involve further U.S. investment in Argentina, the South American nation whose teetering economy has recently been buoyed by a $20 billion currency swap deal with the Trump administration.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that the U.S. is considering providing Argentina another $20 billion in financing. Argentina President Javier Milei is a close ally of Trump.
Fischer wrote Tuesday morning that she has reached out to the Trump administration to express “deep concerns” about the possible Argentine beef buy.
“I’ve also been sounding the alarm on the bleak state of our ag economy and the negative impacts facing Nebraska’s ag industry — the economic driver of our state,” Fischer wrote.
“Right now, government intervention in the beef market will hurt our cattle ranchers. The U.S. has safe, reliable beef, and it is the one bright spot in our struggling ag economy,” the senator wrote.
“Nebraska’s ranchers cannot afford to have the rug pulled out from under them when they’re just getting ahead or simply breaking even,” she wrote.
“I strongly encourage the Trump administration to focus on trade deals that benefit our ag producers — not imports that will do more harm than good.”
The White House and the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Fischer’s post.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One Sunday that his administration is “thinking about doing” the beef deal with Argentina.
“We would buy some beef from Argentina,” Trump said. “If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down.”
Asked to respond to U.S. farmers who feel that that deal would benefit Argentina over themselves, Trump was dismissive.
“Argentina is fighting for its life, young lady. You don’t know anything about it,” he said.
“If I can help them survive in a free world — I happen to like the president of Argentina. I think he’s trying to do the best he can. But don’t make it sound like they’re doing great. They are dying,” Trump said.
The president’s comments quickly raised alarms with U.S. cattle ranchers.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said in a statement Monday that its farmers and ranchers “are concerned that rewarding Argentina with this expanded access to the U.S. market harms American cattlemen and women, while also interfering with the free market.”
“This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices,” NCBA CEO Colin Woodall said in the same press release.
The Trump administration’s financial assistance for Buenos Aires had already drawn the ire of American soybean producers, who are reeling from the loss of China as a top customer due to the ongoing trade war with the U.S.
China has started buying soybeans from Argentina, which reportedly suspended export taxes last month — a move that coincided with Trump’s pledge to help Milei.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, asked Tuesday morning on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” about buying Argentine beef, noted that Trump “has mentioned it a couple of times.”
“I think you’ll be hearing more about exactly what that looks like,” she said.
Rollins said the beef industry in the U.S. has become massively consolidated in recent years, which has resulted in thousands of farms closing.
“The prices are high. The president is very focused on his promise of keeping grocery prices down, but he’s also very focused, and you’ll hear more from us perhaps in the next day or two, on what we’re are going to do to incentivize” people to become ranchers, Rollins said.
