President Donald Trump has a new idea that’s pretty much certain to make Americans sicker—and it’s all thanks to Glenn Beck.
In a post on Truth Social Friday morning Trump called the Big Four meat-processing companies a “nasty Monopoly,” and said he would authorize legal documents to be drawn in order to grant farmers and ranchers the right to slaughter and process their own meat instead of using facilities inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “This should move quickly,” he added.
It appears that Trump was inspired to act during an interview Wednesday on the Glenn Beck Program, when the host—and cattle rancher—raged against the “meat-processing cartel” and urged the president to “break the back of those processing plants.”
“This is a very big thing you just told me, though, because you just gave me a very good idea,” Trump replied.
But not everyone agrees with Trump’s “very good idea,” including the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, which released a statement Friday opposing the plan.
“NCBA supports more competition, more opportunities for small & regional processors, and eliminating unnecessary regulations but weakening federal meat inspection & food safety standards isn’t the answer,” the statement said. “America’s cattle producers have earned consumer trust in U.S. beef over generations. That trust, and the gold standard food safety system behind it, shouldn’t be put at risk for a short-term political fix.”
In the beef industry, just four processors control 85 percent of the market: Tyson Foods and Cargill Incorporated, which are U.S-owned, as well as JBS and National Beef, which are Brazilian-owned. In May, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into the big four meat-processing companies. In June, the Department of Agriculture directed $60 million to support small meat processors.
Trump’s short-sighted announcement arrives as the president faces major backlash on a plan to begin importing tariff-free beef. The plan has been condemned by the American Farm Bureau, and to make matters weirder, the administration won’t reveal where the imported beef will come from.
All of this comes as beef prices are steadily rising, and as the shrinking American herd struggles to keep up with high demand. At the same time, farmers in the Midwest—who were once some of the president’s most steadfast supporters—are facing the toughest economic crisis in decades.
Far-right political pundit Milo Yiannopoulos has been detained by ICE in Louisiana.
TMZ reports that Yiannopoulos, who reportedly works as a spokesperson and legal liaison for Kanye West, was detained at an airport, and is now being held in a detention facility.
Far-right commentator, Trump administration confidant, and bigot Laura Loomer took credit for Yiannopoulos’s arrest and detention, claiming on X that she “was the first person to report on the fact that Milo was in the US illegally where he incited violence against President Trump and worked for Marjorie Traitor Greene.”
“When Milo called for me to be assassinated, I reported him to ICE and the FBI. I told you all that Milo was an illegal alien. He was detained in Louisiana by @ICEgov,” Loomer posted. “Milo is going to be deported back to the UK where he can live among the Muslims he has recently chosen to embrace. Today is a great day for America.”
Yiannopoulos has oddly been supportive of Muslims in recent months on his X account, a reversal of his history of bigotry towards Islam and its adherents. That has put him at odds with Loomer, who speaks proudly of her Islamophobia, and the two publicly feud online. Loomer has boasted about getting people deported by the Trump administration before.
The British-born Yiannopoulos has a long history of racism, white nationalism, and controversy. He used the 2014 Gamergate online harassment campaign to build up his right-wing following, later working as a Breitbart editor under Steve Bannon. He was depicted singing “America the Beautiful” with a group of neo-Nazis and white supremacists including Richard Spencer at a Dallas, Texas, bar in 2016, who cheered him on with the Nazi “Seig Heil” salute.
