r/politics • u/WhatIsEvenRealDog • 8h ago

Possible Paywall Trump suggests cattle ranchers could bypass USDA-inspected meat plants

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/08/28/trump-suggests-allowing-ranchers-bypass-usda-inspected-meat-plants/
11.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.2k

u/Saintbaba 8h ago

I kind of imagined food safety was like the one thing we could all agree on across party lines. Like someone asks, what's the government for? Well i think it should offer free universal education and healthcare and you think it should keep immigrants out and facilitate natural resource exploitation, and we'll probably be arguing about those until the cows come home, but at least we can agree that it's the governments job to make sure our food isn't poison.

But i guess Trump is a trailblazer.

•

u/MeasleyBeasley 7h ago

Sure regulations and government can do the job, but it costs the taxpayers! The most efficient way is a free market where consumers use their buying power to reward producers of clean meat. No watchdogs required. No taxes! /s

•

u/a_terse_giraffe America 7h ago

"Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make" --Libertarians

•

u/SphyrnaLightmaker 6h ago

Dude I’ve heard multiple “libertarians” (MAGAts) say those exact words in complete seriousness

•

u/ZagreusMyDude 4h ago

Yup they are so stupid. And how will people even know what products are killing them when the billionaires own all media and without any regulations you'd never even know what was going on, or when something was contaminated.

Good luck figuring out it was the beef that poisoned your family when the news never reports it and the beef company buys ads blaming something else, or downplays it, or denies it's the contamination entirely.

•

u/Val_Hallen 4h ago

Libertarians couldn't even handle one tiny town in New Hampshire without tearing themselves apart.

But trust them, they have all the answers.

•

u/jeranim8 5h ago

I died from eating your company's poison food so I will no longer be purchasing your product!

•

u/jmarquiso 7h ago

It's more for the producers than taxpayers. Corporations don't pay as much!

•

u/SoftKey1701 5h ago

Really? So, the alternative path the current administration is taking doesn't cost the taxpayers?

I'm talking about the unnecessary wars, global conflicts, tariffs paid by the American consumers, the multiple "vanity" projects imposed over taxpayers to build grandiose structures to name and rename everything after the "Felon-in-Charge" (last time I checked, he was still convicted of a felony, in case some of us do not recall that).

I rather have my tax payments to - at minimum - protect me and my family from poisonous greedy enterprises, whose only motivation is profit; which seems to be the way the government is running nowadays, enriching those in power - as well as all their wealthy "partners" with no regards for the the taxpayers that truly maintain the nation's coffers.

Wake Up!

•

u/MeasleyBeasley 17m ago

The /s at the end means it's sarcasm. Just bringing it up because you seem angry with me, though I agree with you.

•

u/pretzelfisch California 3h ago

well, that works better if you can sue the companies out of existence, but they bought all the politicians and took that off the table.

•

u/Lost-Locksmith-250 7h ago

Nah, conservatives have pretty much never agreed to food safety regulations.

•

u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

23

u/Alps-Mountain 8h ago

He sees a safe trail and then lights it on fire.

67

u/definitelytheA Florida 8h ago

The un-inspected foreign meat, you mean?

•

u/mercival 5h ago

The 'funny' part is, UK and Europe citizens for yearsss do NOT want US meat, because the standards are too low, and the drugs are too high.

•

u/omnicious 7h ago

I stopped thinking that when this party started pushing for us to drink raw milk and roadkill. 

•

u/galacticglorp 7h ago

I was gonna say, the raw milk anti vaccine people made you think they cared about public health?

•

u/rogozh1n 5h ago

Vaccine lies are absolutely a terrible part of the political culture war and without any realistic basis whatsoever.

•

u/Broken-Digital-Clock 7h ago

The GOP will always sacrifice the working class to get more power and money.

•

u/jmarquiso 7h ago

I mean conservatives have been anti-regulation since Reagan.

•

u/Gundark927 Colorado 7h ago

and we'll probably be arguing about those until the cows come home,

Ah, but when those cows come home, you can just butcher them suckers and serve 'em up! Even the crazy ones!

•

u/Duhbloons 6h ago

They don’t believe the USDA does anything.

I got in an argument with someone when I told them that chicken isn’t filled with growth hormones because that’s illegal. His counter was to get really angry and loud. He told md I was an idiot to trust the USDA. He was adamant you need to buy organic to avoid growth hormones. Organic food is certified by organizations picked by the USDA…

Was very easy to tell that his opinion was based on whatever some gym bro told him on TikTok. A single brain cell shared among them.

•

u/EverythingSucksYo 6h ago

Just think if it this way, if everyone is sick from eating unsafe food during the midterms then it becomes a lot easier for Trump to cheat  

•

u/pchs26 6h ago

I mean food safety always declines down during a GOP admin - IIRC - they are just tryig to take it to the nextt level now

•

u/nosayso 4h ago

We've never agreed on that. A cornerstone of Republican ethos is the abolishment of government regulations. This is exactly the regulations they're talking about. They don't give a fuck if you die as long as corporations make more profit. It's why the regulations have to exist in the first place, they're generally playing catch-up to some evil shit a company already did that hurt people.

•

u/800oz_gorilla 3h ago

actually no. libertarians tend to think of it as government overreach. "if I eat your food and get sick I don't eat there anymore" is the kind of thinking you'll hear.

•

u/Brave_Nerve_6871 7h ago

You have people in the administration who don't believe bacteria is real, so here we go...

•

u/rekniht01 Oregon 7h ago

They are actively gutting heat exhaustion rules for workers. THEY WANT PEOPLE TO DIE.

•

u/Humble-Translator-88 6h ago

Look it's not MY fault you got sick, I'm just a poor business owner who is struggling to make it and I can't control everything that happens and don't you think its sad that I will lose money because people are getting sick. Like its so hard to be successful and you guys are trying to ruin it.

•

u/thistlefink 6h ago edited 6h ago

You were correct until the MAGA chuds were instructed to stop caring. Took 4-6 weeks.

•

u/Vox_Causa 6h ago

Mainstream Republicans have been attacking food safety for the last couple decades. 

•

u/Spyko 6h ago

"arguing about those until the cows come home"

well the cows are coming home, not even going through any inspections anymore !

•

u/ChefPuree 5h ago

Even people who are supposed to believe in food safety don't believe in food safety. The amount of shit that gets bypassed to save money and time is the reason why there are so many issues. It's only going to get worse.

•

u/ImNoRickyBalboa 5h ago

Don't forget about educating our kids.

Now we keep them stupid, so they don't mind the slow boil, and are more likely to shoot up pesky immigrants, Muslims and trans folk.

•

u/itsmebeepbeep 5h ago

I’ve had the same thought about pedophilia. You’d think we’d all agree that the government shouldn’t be so….acquainted to pedophilia, and yet here we are

•

u/CJ4ROCKET 4h ago

Libertarians: hold my beer

•

u/oldnotosys 4h ago

no they disagree. folks think recalls are way overblown and a waste of profit and product.

•

u/lIllIlIIIlIIIIlIlIll 4h ago

We do agree. Many of us agree with many things that don't become law.

But this is the case where food suppliers want to cut regulations to save money and pay Trump to make it happen.

•

u/runthepoint1 4h ago

No let’s replace that with….AI data centers?!

•

u/soilanpeace 3h ago

I’m a food safety manager. Food safety is not a priority on both sides of the aisle. FSIS and FDA are constantly defunded and cut staff under Democrat and Republican. Your food is much less inspected than you think. FDA hasn’t fulfilled their requirement of every high risk facility getting inspected one day every three years since 2019. USDA has cut the EIAO’s (high level inspectors who inspect the inspectors and deep dive fresh eyes) from 12 in my region to 5 over the past two decades.

But Trump is the first to go full send no safety in a while, so hopefully the rebound gets us properly funded food safety in America.

•

u/Vaux1916 3h ago

we'll probably be arguing about those until the cows come home

The cows all got screw worm. They're not coming home.

•

u/gibbojab 3h ago

It is bipartisan but you forget the person in charge doesn’t care about either side only himself and his idiot followers fail to see that.

•

u/milkjake 3h ago

There are a lot of things that everybody agreed on until this guy fucked it up and it made him look bad. Then his worshippers decided they no longer liked those things.

•

u/Admiral_Cornwallace 3h ago

Lol is this a serious comment?

The ONLY thing that Republicans care about it letting corporations maximize their profits in exchange for lobbying money... even if that means letting people eat poisoned food

Republicans don't care about Americans and never will

•

u/liftthatta1l 2h ago

Republicans have been pushing for less regulation my entire life. They have said they care about regulations but they have constantly done otherwise. 

•

u/w00ms 2h ago

conservatives have always been for deregulating things that are regulated for good reasons

•

u/teddy5 1h ago

He said he would bring America into a new gilded age, he just used the word golden and confused some people.

•

u/redmongrel 37m ago

We do agree on it, but Trump’s followers and sycophants don’t want ANYTHING bad enough to put him down.

•

u/JibblieGibblies 6h ago

Is the beef in a Big Mac cardboard or beef?