By NBC News Political Desk – Published: October 23, 2025 – Updated 30 minutes ago
In a seismic shift that’s sending shockwaves through the heartland, conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren unleashed a blistering tirade against President Donald Trump, accusing him of outright betrayal by pushing to flood American markets with cheap Argentine beef while U.S. ranchers teeter on bankruptcy’s edge.
“Why the actual F— would we buy Argentinian beef? Our AMERICAN ranchers are getting crushed already by cheap shit foreign imports,” Lahren raged in a viral X post, viewed over 2 million times in hours. Insiders whisper this isn’t just rhetoric—it’s the spark igniting a full MAGA civil war, with leaked texts revealing Lahren’s private fury: “Trump’s sold us out for Milei. This ends now.”
The controversy erupted Sunday when Trump, aboard Air Force One, floated the idea of ramping up beef imports from Argentina to slash sky-high prices—up 12% this year amid droughts and herd shrinks to 1951 lows. But our sources confirm it’s no offhand remark: A $20 billion U.S. bailout to ally Javier Milei’s teetering regime already funneled cash south, paving the way for this “stabilization” deal. Ranchers, Trump’s rural bedrock, see red—literally. Wyoming’s Meriwether Farms blasted it as an “absolute betrayal,” while the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association slammed the plan for injecting “chaos” into a market strangled by screwworm threats from Mexico and Trump’s own Brazil tariffs.
Lahren’s defection? Pure dynamite. The Fox alum, a MAGA darling who’s rallied crowds from Iowa caucuses to Mar-a-Lago galas, reportedly clashed with Trump advisors in a heated Mar-a-Lago call last week. “They begged her to spin it as genius,” a campaign insider leaked to NBC. “She hung up, called it a ‘disgrace’ and ‘stab in the back’—then went nuclear online.” Her post, laced with expletives, has fractured the base: #MagaBeefWar trends with 150,000 posts, pitting “America First” purists against Trump loyalists defending the move as a “masterstroke” to curb inflation before midterms.
Whispers of deeper rot abound. Is this payback for Trump’s soybean tariffs that handed China to Argentina? Or a quid pro quo for Milei’s election boost, with U.S. taxpayers footing the bill? Farm Action calls it “gifting the cattle market” after soybeans—echoing Lahren’s cry that meatpackers are already undercutting producers. Even Trump’s Truth Social retort, dubbing ranchers “ungrateful dummies,” backfired, alienating key donors like Texas oil-rancher hybrids.
As boycotts brew and petitions for a beef tariff surge past 100,000 signatures, one truth slices through: MAGA’s monolith is cracking. Will Lahren bolt for a primary challenge? Launch a rancher PAC? Or force Trump’s hand with a heartland revolt? The steaks couldn’t be higher—stay locked, because this feud’s just searing the pan.
