Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said demand for beef remains strong despite rising prices, and Americans say they are “good with” paying more for meat to feed their families. Affordability remains a pressing political concern for the Trump administration ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. President Donald Trump made combating high prices central to his 2024 election bid, but Americans still face high costs, including beef.
The cost of uncooked ground beef hit $7.16 per pound in August 2026, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rollins, during a Monday interview on The Benny Show, said there are several reasons beef prices remain high, blaming Democrats for working “to destroy our cattle herds” and “take them off of our grazing lands,” as well as the response to the New World screwworm.
She said high demand from the MAHA movement also plays a role. People are like, I want beef. America eats more beef than anywhere else in the world.
And instead of eating less beef, as the price continued to rise, which is supply and demand, Americans began to eat more beef,” she said. I want this protein for my family.’ So they continue to buy.” Newsweek reached out to USDA for further comment via email. Beef prices have steadily increased over the past few years.
Prices rose from $7.116 in July 2026 to $7.158 in August 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That marks a record high for beef prices, up from $6.631 a year earlier. Rising beef prices have been attributed to a shrinking number of domestic cattle in the United States.
A June 2026 report from the lobbying group Coalition for a Prosperous America cited several reasons for the price increase, including that the number of U.S. cattle had fallen to 86.2 million, the smallest in 75 years. The report also says there are more than 450,000 fewer cattle ranchers than in 1997. Drought has worsened the crisis, with 75 percent of the beef cow herd being raised in drought, according to that report.
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