Last Friday, Trump announced that he’d closed a deal to import 300,000 metric tons of ground beef — the equivalent of more than 2.6 billion quarter-pounder hamburger patties — that would be sold at 25% below market price amid rising beef prices. When asked about the source of the ground beef, however, Trump declined to answer.

While the deal was widely condemned by American cattle ranchers for undercutting their industry, Trump's refusal to reveal the beef's origin unnerved critics — but on Tuesday, some believed the president had already given away the answer last year.

In October 2025, Trump told a reporter aboard Air Force One that his administration was considering purchasing “beef from Argentina” in an effort to bring “beef prices down,” using language notably similar to his justification for the mysterious 300,000-metric-ton beef shipment. The potential revelation disturbed onlookers given Argentina’s recent history of shipping potentially health-hazardous beef.