Trump Directs Doj To Investigate Meatpackers Amid Beef Price Pressure

President Donald Trump said Friday that he asked the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into meatpacking companies, which he accused of illegally manipulating beef prices at the expense of beef farmers and consumers.

The announcement comes amid pressure over the high cost of beef — and a bubbling feud with farm state Republicans over plans to import beef from Argentina — and shortly after a White House meeting with a handful of senators from beef-producing states.

“I have asked the DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into the Meat Packing Companies who are driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation,” Trump wrote on social media on Friday. “We will always protect our American Ranchers, and they are being blamed for what is being done by Majority Foreign Owned Meat Packers, who artificially inflate prices, and jeopardize the security of our Nation’s food supply.”

“While Cattle Prices have dropped substantially, the price of Boxed Beef has gone up — Therefore, you know that something is ‘fishy,’” Trump continued.

The fight over whether to crack down on the country's largest meat-packing conglomerates is the source of a long-running and incredibly bitter internal fight among Senate Republicans.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), a Trump ally whose family raises cattle, told Vice President JD Vance last month that meatpackers were the reason for high beef prices, not ranchers, an argument Trump echoed Friday.

Trump met with Hyde-Smith and Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) on Friday shortly before his post, according to two people familiar with the meeting who were granted anonymity to discuss the conversations.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a social media post the investigation into the meatpacking companies is already underway, in coordination with the Department of Agriculture. Neither Bondi nor Trump specified which companies were being targeted, but many of the largest companies in the industry are based abroad.

The push from Trump also follows Tuesday’s sweep by Democrats of the major off-year election races, including the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, where Govs.-elect Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill made Trump’s inability to lower prices a central issue of their campaigns.

In the days following Tuesday’s results, Trump referred to the focus on Democrats’ affordability message as a “con job.” But many Republicans are calling on the president to take more steps to address high costs.

In identifying the price differentials between food producers and distributers, Trump has hit on a similar target as former President Joe Biden. The Biden administration made a focus on agricultural monopolies a key piece of his domestic agenda, writing regulations intended to make cattle markets fairer for ranchers and ensure better terms for contract poultry farmers. His administration also successfully blocked a grocery megadeal and sued beverage companies alleging price discrimination.

Yet Trump has also repeatedly blamed high food costs on his predecessor.

In his first few months in office, the Trump administration ended a USDA partnership with state attorneys general to tighten enforcement of federal antitrust law in food and agricultural markets.

Under the Trump administration, USDA announced a partnership with DOJ to scrutinize agriculture inputs like fertilizer for potential anti-competitive conduct in a bid to help lower costs for farmers and consumers.