In a Truth Social post Friday, the President announced he is authorizing legal documents so ranchers and farmers can DIRECTLY PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD, a direct strike at the four giant meatpackers who have squeezed independent producers for decades.
Trump wrote:
“Ranchers and Farmers have always been a number one priority for me. They work very hard, are smart, efficient, and immaculately CLEAN, but for years I have heard that they have had a tremendous problem with the Big Processors, who many say are a nasty Monopoly.
There are, essentially, 4 of them, a very non competitive number, and they make life miserable for our wonderful Farmers and Ranchers, and I can’t let that happen, can I?
So, in order to break this powerful monopoly, with much of its ownership based outside of the U.S., I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow Farmers and Ranchers to be given the right to PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD. This should move quickly.”
The numbers behind Trump’s warning are staggering.
According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, the four largest firms handle approximately 85 percent of all steer and heifer purchases in the United States.
The agency identified reduced competition, wider spreads between cattle and wholesale beef prices, and fewer local buyers as serious concerns in the consolidated market.
The four dominant companies are Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS USA, and National Beef Packing Company.
The White House said in November 2025 that JBS, Cargill, Tyson, and National Beef dominate 85 percent of the US beef-processing market and noted that two have foreign ownership or significant foreign control.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said major announcements on beef processing are expected to begin Monday. According to Reuters, the administration is preparing actions designed to expand interstate sales for ranchers, support smaller meat processors, and rescind outdated federal guidance.
The announcement came just two days after Trump told Glenn Beck that he would examine the federal regulations that make it difficult for small ranchers to process their own cattle and sell the meat. Beck urged the president to confront what he described as a meat-processing cartel.
Trump responded that he had heard “only bad” about the four-company system and agreed that the issue could become a major win for ranchers.
Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, farmers may slaughter livestock for personal, household, employee, or nonpaying-guest use under limited exemptions. But meat sold commercially generally must pass through federal inspection or an approved state inspection system.
Trump’s order to draft legal documents signals that his administration intends to expand market access beyond those narrow exemptions while cutting the regulatory barriers that keep small producers trapped inside the corporate processing system.
The meatpacking lobby is already pushing back. The Meat Institute warned that allowing uninspected meat to be sold could pose food-safety risks. The administration, however, has not announced that inspection standards will be eliminated. The precise legal mechanism and final safety requirements have not yet been released.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Trump ordered the Justice Department in November 2025 to investigate foreign-owned meatpacking companies over potential “illicit collusion, price fixing, and price manipulation.”
Trump said majority foreign-owned packers were blaming American ranchers while allegedly manipulating prices and threatening the nation’s food supply.
In April, The Gateway Pundit also reported that the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division had launched a criminal investigation into the conduct of major meatpackers supplying American consumers.
Friday’s move dramatically escalates that fight. Instead of merely investigating the corporate bottleneck, Trump is now preparing to give producers another path to market, potentially allowing family farms and ranches to bypass the processors that have dominated the industry for decades.
The move also comes one week after Trump announced a temporary tariff-relief plan for additional imported ground beef in an effort to lower grocery prices.
The Gateway Pundit reported that some American cattle producers and Republican lawmakers objected, warning that the import plan could undercut domestic ranchers already battling the packer monopoly.
Now Trump is answering the central complaint from those ranchers head-on: break the processing choke point, expand competition, and put more power back into the hands of the Americans who actually raise the cattle and produce the food.
This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com.
