The domestic cattle industry was already struggling when Donald Trump announced on Friday morning that he’s prepared to make things a bit worse.

“Today, I concluded a deal to substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families,” the president wrote online, adding, “for the next 90 days, the United States will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariff. We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.”

Asked hours later which foreign countries were involved in this agreement, the Republican told reporters, “I don’t want to say which countries, but there are a few countries.”

Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California soon after asked online, “Why is Trump hiding where the foreign beef is coming from?” This hardly seemed like an unreasonable question under the circumstances.

The mystery, however, is hardly the only problem. MS NOW reported that the president also “angered the American beef industry and Republican lawmakers from Western and Midwestern states on Friday when he announced a plan to lower the price of imported beef.”

What’s more, while Trump’s move was apparently intended to lower beef prices until after the midterm elections (last month, the average price for ground beef cost reached nearly $7 a pound), there’s no reason to assume that consumers will notice an immediate difference. As The Washington Post reported, “Lifting tariffs won’t necessarily do much to reduce beef prices, since more than 80 percent of the beef Americans eat is raised domestically.”

Complicating matters further, there’s some question as to whether Trump’s policy is actually real or another fleeting thought he published to his social media platform. Politico reported that beef industry groups and even some top Department of Agriculture officials “were blindsided by Trump’s post, and had not received any briefings or details on the plan. Industry leaders also said they are not sure which countries even have 300,000 metric tons of beef trimmings available to meet Trump’s request.”

In other words, just because Trump claims to have “concluded a deal to substantially lower the price of ground beef” doesn’t mean that he necessary has reached such an agreement.

But as this controversy continues to unfold, there’s a foundational question hanging overhead: If the White House is correct that tariffs don’t push prices higher, why does the White House also believe suspending them will push prices lower?

This need not be a rhetorical question. The president has spent his second term telling anyone who will listen that his trade tariffs are a godsend that do not raise consumer prices. And yet, on Friday, Trump also said he intends to lower tariffs to give consumers a break.

How does he reconcile the contradiction (if he’s even aware of it)? Has he suddenly come to terms with how wrong he’s been? Are there any other consumer products he intends to make more affordable by revising his failed agenda? So far, the White House hasn’t said. Watch this space.

The post On Trump’s new policy on beef tariffs, the political backlash isn’t his only problem appeared first on MS NOW.

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From MS Now.