A new polling analysis finds Trump’s approval ratings in America’s largest beef-producing states remained largely unchanged in the six days following his decision to allow more tariff-free imported beef.
On August 21, Trump announced the U.S. would let up to 300,000 metric tons of imported beef in tariff-free for 90 days, aiming to knock down ground-beef prices before the midterms. Ranchers, unsurprisingly, weren’t thrilled about it. Yet according to a Newsweek analysis of Civiqs polling data covering 126,377 responses, Trump’s approval barely moved in the nation’s ten biggest beef-producing states over the six days that followed.
Nine of the ten states saw zero change, and Kansas only nudged up by a single point.
So the beef fight hasn’t dented him yet, at least not on paper. Zoom out to the last year and a half, though, and Republicans might want to sit down first.
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Every one of those ten states has watched Trump’s approval slide since he took office in January 2025, and in a few places, that slide has turned into something closer to a freefall. Kentucky fell 28 points, going from solidly positive to underwater. Oklahoma and Missouri each dropped 24 points. Texas swung from a modest plus-6 all the way to negative 17. Even Kansas, the one state where the beef news actually moved a needle, has slid 21 points since Trump’s first day back in office.
Compare the two, and the takeaway is obvious. Six days of beef backlash barely register next to eighteen months of steady decline.
Trump, for his part, wasn’t interested in letting the numbers speak for themselves. He posted on Truth Social that farmers and ranchers had “always been a number one priority” for him, while accusing the country’s largest meat processors of running a “nasty Monopoly.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins jumped in too, framing domestic beef production as a matter of national security, which is a bold way to talk about ground chuck.
That pitch hasn’t exactly won over everyone on the right.
Kentucky’s Thomas Massie dismissed the whole plan as a “nothing-burger” on X, which might be the best pun to come out of Congress all year, and questioned what farmers were actually being promised. He’d rather see Congress pass his PRIME Act, arguing that real legislation, not an executive order, is what would actually let ranchers “flourish.”
What a slap in the face to American cattlemen & consumers. Worse than socialism! Dumping foreign beef in U.S. markets can temporarily lower prices but it won’t incentivize American farmers to raise more beef. Bring back Country Of Origin Labels & pass my PRIME Act. pic.twitter.com/18Ml6NlRxB
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) August 21, 2026
Timing isn’t doing Republicans any favors here, either.
Nebraska’s Senate race already had incumbent Pete Ricketts locked in a dead heat with independent challenger Dan Osborn, 47 to 47, before beef ever entered the conversation.
Texas isn’t much calmer, with several polls showing Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico separated by margins thin enough to keep campaign staffers awake at night.
Featured image courtesy of Newsweek / Civiqs
