{"id":41593,"date":"2025-11-16T21:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T21:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41593\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T21:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T21:30:11","slug":"treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-warns-of-perfect-storm-behind-ground-beef-soaring-to-10-a-pound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41593\/","title":{"rendered":"Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warns of ‘perfect storm’ behind ground beef soaring to $10 a pound"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The steaks are high.<\/p>\n

Top Trump officials were out in front on Sunday, defending President Trump\u2019s efforts to fight rising food prices following a report that ground beef is headed to $10 a pound<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent<\/a> blamed the soaring beef prices on a \u201cperfect storm\u201d of problems inherited from the Biden administration as well \u2014 as the spread of a horrifying parasite from<\/a> Mexico.<\/p>\n

During an interview with Fox Business\u2019 Maria Bartiromo, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent faulted the problems that the Trump administration inherited for the soaring costs of beef. Fox News<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beef market is a very specialized market. It goes in long cycles, and this is the perfect storm, again, something we inherited,\u201d Bessent told Fox News\u2019 \u201cSunday Morning Futures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question from Fox Business\u2019 Maria Bartiromo, followed an interview last week with Omaha Steaks President and CEO Nate Rempe \u2014 who warned that ground beef could rise to $10-a-pound by next fall.<\/p>\n

He said it likely won\u2019t come down in price until 2027.<\/p>\n

Ground beef cost an average of $6.32 in September \u2014 up from $5.67 a year before, according to data<\/a> from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.<\/p>\n

Bessent pointed out that the Trump admin last week eased tariffs on imports of beef, coffee, tropical fruits, and other food products to help address affordability concerns.<\/p>\n

The ground beef could jump to $10 a pound, according to Omaha Steaks President and CEO Nate Rempe. Getty Images<\/p>\n

He explained that the Trump administration is keen on tackling the affordability crisis by focusing on economic growth and the implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also known as the Working Families Tax Cut Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe inherited this terrible inflation, Bessent said. \u201cWe are flattening it out. I believe we\u2019re going to push it down. Energy prices are down. Interest rates are down. But the real thing that is going to happen that is going to give Americans real purchasing power increases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett also faced questions about food prices \u2014 sparring with John Karl on ABC\u2019s \u201cThe Week\u201d about Trump\u2019s claims that Thanksgiving food prices were down 25%. <\/p>\n

That stat was based on a Walmart Thanksgiving package<\/a> \u2014 which dropped in price, but also had fewer items than last year. <\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted that Americans would feel a stronger economy at the start of next year. Andrew Leyden\/ZUMA \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Grocery prices have increase 2.7% this year \u2014 but, a report from Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, suggested that Thanksgiving dinner could end up 2% to 3% cheaper<\/a> if shoppers are savvy and choose store brands.<\/p>\n

Hassett ripped into the cherry-picking of specific products that went up in price and argued that the Trump administration has made significant progress on boosting affordability relative to what it inherited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prices went up so much under Joe Biden, and inflation is way down. Inflation is about half what it was in December,\u201d Hassett told ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week\u201d on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is something that\u2019s being fixed fast,\u201d Hassett continued. \u201cSure, you could find a few things where the prices is higher, but there\u2019s a whole bunch of stuff where the price is lower, like gasoline, like mortgage rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as beef prices, Bessent said that the solution is complicated \u2014 because the origins are complicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the problem is, we have had to shut the border to Mexican beef because of this disease called the screwworm. So we\u2019re not going to let that get into our supply chain,\u201d the Treasury secretary said.<\/p>\n

President Trump\u2019s team is planning to put more of a focus on affordability heading into the 2026 midterm elections. AP<\/p>\n

New World screwworm fly is a nasty parasite with larvae that chew on the flesh of animals like cattle, causing severe wounds that can be fatal. The US and Mexico have partnered for decades to combat screwworms by mass-producing sterile flies to slash their population and larvae.<\/p>\n

For reasons that aren\u2019t fully clear, Mexico has been battling a screwworm outbreak. Some scientists have speculated<\/a> that this is due to a decrease in the production of sterile flies during the pandemic. <\/p>\n

In May, the Trump administration cut off imports of cattle, bison, horses and other livestock from Mexico in response to the outbreak.<\/p>\n

Bessent said he\u2019s confident that inflation on groceries and household goods will begin to ease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would expect in the first two quarters we are going to see the inflation curve bend down and the real income curve substantially accelerate,\u201d he added. \u201cWhat we\u2019re not going to do is tell the American people that they don\u2019t know how they\u2019re feeling, which is what the Biden administration did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trmp\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill slashed taxes on tips and overtime pay, while also establishing \u201cTrump accounts\u201d for children born between 2025 and the end of 2028. Each account gets $1,000 from Uncle Sam.<\/p>\n

Cost-of-living concerns emerged as a top issue during the 2025 off-year elections earlier this month, which Democrats swept. <\/p>\n

Several top advisers to Trump have hinted that the president intends to put a larger emphasis on affordability issues leading into the 2026 midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, for example, Trump floated a $2,000 tariff dividend, though he would almost certainly need approval from Congress and the Supreme Court\u2019s tariff case could scramble those plans. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is on the table,\u201d Bessent said about the tariff dividend. \u201cThat would be for working families. We will have an income limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bessent blamed the government shutdown for slowing down the Trump administration\u2019s economic gains, but predicted the economy would pick up early next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are going to see a substantial acceleration in the economy in the first, second quarter,\u201d the Treasury Secretary said. \u201cWe\u2019re already seeing on many prices, as I said, we\u2019re bending that curve down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The steaks are high. Top Trump officials were out in front on Sunday, defending President Trump\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5859,3365,9,11,10,87,16371,2083,18543,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-41593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-beef","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-scott-bessent","15":"tag-tariffs","16":"tag-treasury-department","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}