Nobody THOUGHT It Would Happen… Trump Just Declared WAR on Dem Big Four Meat Monopoly—Brazil Panics!

Boom! President Donald Trump just declared war on the four companies dominating America's beef industry and one of the giants controlling your hamburger, JBS, is Brazilian-owned. But, apparently, this is not the scary part. Oh, no, no. Guys, according to President Trump's critics, the terrifying possibility is that you might someday buy beef from, brace yourself, an American rancher near your house. Oh, my God! The humanity! Oh, because Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and, of course, National Beef control roughly 85% of the market that we're talking about right now. President Trump wants to crack that system wide open for small ranchers and processors and suddenly everybody discovered an intense emotional attachment to giant meat corporations. Local tomatoes? Wonderful. Local eggs? Sustainable. Local honey? Oh, save the bees. But local beef? Oh, wait, hold on, cowboys, step away from the and wait until you hear the really ridiculous part. American ranchers take the drought, feed, diesel, veterinary, weather, and financial risks while their share of the food dollar has fallen to around 14 cents. But this rabbit hole here goes back to Upton Sinclair in 1906 because the regulations supposedly controlling big meat have helped build the moat protecting big meat. Oh, yeah, this is going to be fun, guys. Be sure to subscribe because, apparently, we now need investigative journalism to buy a cheeseburger. Oh, and by the way, if you happen to know the best cheeseburger to buy, let me know your favorite restaurant. I'm a massive hamburger fan and, of course, if you enjoy the show, hit the like button on your way out. Plus, for free Medicare help through Chapter, hit the link in the description down below or dial the phone number I've left for you in the description, 909-563-8279, the average senior saving about $1,100 a year thanks to Chapter. So, let's go ahead and expose this thing. You've got 4 companies, that's it, guys. 4. Tyson, Cargill, JBS, National Beef. Together, they control roughly 85% of every steer and heifer bought in this country. 85%, guys. You probably have more friends in your group chat than that. And now, President Trump is standing up and saying what ranchers have whispered at the feed store for decades. This is just way too much power in too few hands. JBS, a Brazilian-owned company, Cargill, Tyson Foods, and National Beef, another Brazilian company. Those 4 companies monopolize about 85% of the U.S. processing market today. But it hasn't always been that way. The rate of this 4-firm control has accelerated since the 1970s. According to USDA data, concentration for cattle slaughter of these 4 was only 25% in 1977 and jumped to 71% by 1992. As mentioned today, it is an astounding 85%. Notably, these 4 firms now own together more than 70 subsidiary companies today. They don't own them together, but in total, there are 70 subsidiary companies that are owned by these 4. This has led to a frightening landscape for cattle ranchers. Industry consolidation reduces options for our ranchers looking to sell their cattle, it weakens their negotiating power, and it risks reliance upon a single buyer. Today, the concentration of larger plants opens the door to tighter coordination by the big 4 with producers and perhaps the exertion of control over them as well, giving they have limited options to sell their cattle. As ranchers face fewer options for selling their animals, the big 4 grow stronger and stronger. These companies now have an unprecedented ability to wield market power and influence prices paid for cattle, definitely more so than if we had greater competition. On top of that, half of these meatpacking giants, including the largest meatpacker in the world, are either foreign-owned or have significant foreign ownership and control, making them a threat not just to our cattle producers, but a threat to America itself. And as time has gone on, it becomes more and more clear that food security is truly national security. One Brazilian-owned company holds roughly a quarter of the market and has a documented history of international corruption and illicit activity. The brutal reality is that such foreign ownership of meatpackers has been affiliated not just with corruption, but also cartels and as recent as last week, slave labor, which is bad enough on its own, but it's also to the detriment of America's great independent ranchers and consumers. Further, when just 4 firms control a market, suppliers and food prices are rocked heavily when disruptions occur. Before the panicked merchants start screaming, no, this is not Trump saying, let's get rid of food safety, slow your roll, back your bus up, pump your brakes, this is about something much simpler than that. Who gets to sell you a hamburger? Here's the mystery I want you sitting with. How did American ranchers, cowboys, families, generations of them, end up funneling their cattle through a market this small? Oh, and why, when you're paying through the nose at the grocery store, is the guy who actually raised the cow getting almost nothing? Like, don't answer that. Just think about it because it gets even worse than that, I promise you. One of those 4 companies is not even American. Oh, and by the way, guys, this is exactly why I created the Ron Yates Report, because knowing that Trump is taking on the big 4 is interesting, sure it is, of course. But, I'm a lot more interested in the next question. What happens because he did it? Could this eventually change where you can buy your beef? Could it create new opportunities for local ranchers? Could more processing competition actually affect what you pay at the grocery store? Or, will the historically small cattle herd overwhelm all of it? This is the part I watch. The Ron Yates Report is where I connect all these dots. What happened, why it matters to you personally, and what I'm watching next so you can see the consequences before they become obvious. If you want that informational advantage, join the Ron Yates Report. There's a link in the description down below. Now, let's get back to this 85% meat processing machine. I do want to talk about JBS, Brazilian-owned, massive, and sitting right in the middle of America's dinner plate. Now, I want to be very careful here, guys. This isn't, like, scary foreigners bad. That's lazy. We're a lot smarter than that. Here's the actual question. How much of something you cannot live without should any foreign company control? I think it's a fairly simple question. It's a matter of national security if you ask me. Food belongs in the same conversation as energy, as medicine, as the chips in your phone. Things that are just too important to hand over and hope for the best. But here's a twist that nobody's talking about. It's not just about who owns it. It's about the choke points. When you cram all your processing into a handful of giant plants, you get efficiency. But you also get one really bad day away from disaster. Efficiency and resilience are not the same thing. Write that down, guys. I'd also like to thank President Trump and his administration, including the Department of Justice, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, for fighting on behalf of the American people and returning to the founding principles to defend liberty and freedom. For too long, farmers, ranchers, and American consumers have suffered at the hands of consolidated power. Just in the last generation, we have lost 665,000 beef cattle operations, which is 50% down from 1980. We have also lost 86,000 farmer feeders, which is 1,000 head and below. This has been driven by years of mergers and acquisitions of multinational corporations and foreign meat conglomerates. That has created a level of economic and political power that too often escapes oversight and accountability. As a result, unrestrained market control by these powerful corporations has increased input costs for producers, decreased profitability, and forced many to become price takers, while at the same time, this market control drives up costs for consumers. President Trump's recognition that this level of concentration has possibly led to market control and manipulation, political leverage, and vulnerabilities in our supply chains and food security is crucial to upholding our sovereignty and safety in this nation. So what would it look like if more cattle got processed closer to home? Well, it's funny you should ask, because that infrastructure used to exist, and it disappeared. So let's do some travel here. In 1977, America had roughly 2,600 local slaughter plants. The big boys only handled about 12% of cattle back then. Everybody else? Local guys. Small shop? You knew his name. They knew your name. Fast forward 15 years, under 1,400 plants left. Half gone. Not because small butchers suddenly forgot how to cut meat. Bigger got bigger. Smaller got squeezed. Math did the rest. Somewhere, a spreadsheet high-fived itself. So what happens when the plant 20 miles from your ranch shuts its doors? Your cattle travel further. Your buyers shrink to a handful. Your local butcher disappears. He's unemployed now. And you, the customer? Well, you get further and further from the guy who actually raised your dinner. This is not nostalgia for nostalgia's sake, folks. This is infrastructure America used to have, and quietly let rot. And believe it or not, Washington's been fighting this exact fight for over 100 years. Now, if you know somebody who thinks that this is just Trump getting rid of food safety rules, go ahead and send them this video. Because what happens next started over a century ago, and once you see it, you cannot unsee this. Now, meet Upton Sinclair, okay? Socialist writer, spent like seven weeks undercover in the Chicago stockyards so that he could write The Jungle, a book that was meant to make America furious about worker abuse. But instead, America read about what was in the sausage and just stopped eating sausage. Sinclair later said that he aimed for the public's heart and hit it in the stomach. Honestly, iconic own goal. Yep, he screwed himself, sir. Europe banned American meat. Sales collapsed. Congress panicked. And here's the plot twist nobody teaches you. The giant Chicago Packers, armor and Swiss, showed up to Congress and said, Now, why would a company beg for more rules? Because a federal inspector is a fixed cost. Armor could spread that cost across a million cattle a year. You're a local butcher, killing 40 head? He's cooked. Pun intended. So, a rule that was supposed to protect you also quietly built a wall around the biggest players. And the group that's representing the meat industry today? Well, it's family tree runs straight on back to that room. So, say hello to the Meat Institute. Today, they talk about food safety and market standards. Very, very serious. Very, very official. But here's the family story. Here's the family history that tells a completely different story. Here's the concept. And I promise this is going to be sixth grader level. Anybody can follow this. If a rule costs the same dollar amount, whether you're processing a million cattle or 100, who barely notices the bill? That's right. It's the giant who gets absolutely flattened and slaughtered. Pun intended. Earl down at Earl's butcher shop. Exactly. Poor Earl. He ain't losing to better hamburger. He's losing to a compliance binder that's thick enough to stop a bullet. Now, nothing says free market quite like handing your smallest competitor a mountain of paperwork and a smile. Now, listen, guys, don't hear what I'm not saying. Inspection is not the villain here. Nobody wants wild west beef. The real question is simpler. Does keeping people safe require rules that just so happen to crush the little guy while the big guy cashes a bigger check? Because I don't know about you, but that's not safety. This is a moat with a food safety costume on. Oh, and that brings us to the accusation everybody's already screaming. Here comes the meltdown, guys, right on schedule. Trump wants Bob's discount slaughterhouse operating out of a garage with a pocket knife. Sit down. Okay, breathe. Turn down the TDS, okay? This is not what's happening here, guys. The intel is clear. 29 states already run their own meat inspection programs required by law to be just as strict as the federal one. It's the same standard. It's the same safety. The only thing stopping that meat from reaching you? A line on a map. That's it, guys. A border between Idaho and literally anywhere else. This is not Trump's idea from a Tuesday cheeseburger craving, either. Representative Thomas Massie and lawmakers from both parties, in fact, have been pushing this fix for years. Republicans, Democrats, actual bipartisan agreement, which, in Washington, is rarer than a unicorn with a briefcase. Here's the actual question. If your neighbor's rancher meets an approved inspection standard, why does the government get to say, sorry, still no? Inspection stays. Standards stay. Only the wall comes down. So right now, go ahead and check your freezer. Go on. I'll wait for you. What does the label say? A plant number? That's it. A random string of digits with all the personality of a parking ticket. Under the new approach, that label would actually tell you something. Who processed it, who owned the animal, where it was raised, the day it was slaughtered. This is not crazy. This is called information. Here's a twist everybody skips. Everybody loves warning you about the dangers of decentralization. Ooh, spooky small butcher. Nobody warns you about dangers of decentralization. One hiccup at a small local plant, small problem, stay small. One hiccup for a mega-facility processing beef for half the country, this is not a hiccup, this is a headline. I'm not saying your local guy is automatically safer. I'm saying redundancy matters. Spreading the risk out matters. Don't put all your ribeyes in one basket. And, of course, if the label tells you exactly what you're buying and you still choose it, that's called America. Here's a number that they would really rather you didn't know the math on. Back in 1970, for every dollar you spent on food, the farmer who actually grew it kept $0.35. Today, $0.14. Let that sit for a second. The farmer is getting screwed. Now, walk through what that rancher actually did to earn it. The drought, the feed bills, the diesel, the vet bills, 18 months raising the animal before it was even worth anything, interest on loans, weather that doesn't care about your mortgage payment, he absorbs every bit of that risk. There's no guarantee for him. And, at the end of it, he hands his cattle over to a market where 4 buyers decide the price. Not 40, not 400, 4. Meanwhile, you're standing in the grocery store wondering why ribeye now requires a payment plan. So, here's the question nobody in Washington wants to answer. If the rancher's getting squeezed and you're getting squeezed, where exactly did all this money go? Well, I'm glad you asked. Let's talk receipts, guys. Actual, legal paperwork receipts. Tyson and Cargill agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims they fixed beef prices. Hmm, they agreed to pay that? Really? Well, JBS paid $83.5 million to settle with ranchers. Now, in all fairness, guys, first, okay, because I'm not here to lie to you. All of them deny wrongdoing. No court found them guilty of anything. That's the honest version. But, here's what's not in dispute. The Department of Justice has a criminal antitrust investigation running right now, actively. They've actually plowed through more than 3 million documents looking for a pattern. 3 million, guys. Somewhere, there's a DOJ intern who will never look at a filing cabinet the same way again. So, let's stack it up, guys. Massive concentration, multi-million-dollar settlements, an active federal investigation, furious ranchers, and a president publicly calling it all out? This is not just a tweet, okay? This is 4 different fires burning at the same time, and somebody finally brought the hose. Now, deep breath, guys, because I promise you honesty, not some pep rally. The national cattle herd is the smallest it's been in 75 years. Fewer cattle, higher prices. This is just math, not a conspiracy. And, USDA economists will tell you straight up, big plants really are cheaper per animal. Spread your costs across a million cattle, and the bill per cow shrinks. Basic economics. Annoying, but it's true. So, even the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, a rancher's group, not a packer's group, has raised its own concern about how this plays out. So, let's be adults about it, guys. Your local butcher may never beat Walmart on price, ever, and that's okay. But, here's a question that actually matters. Why is the government deciding that competition before you even get a vote? Let the little guy compete. If nobody buys it, the market says so. If people do buy it, well, now Tyson has a real problem. Local tomatoes? Adorable. Local honey? Oh, that's precious. Local eggs from a chicken that you've personally met? Sustainable. Darling. $11 artisan sourdough from a guy named Gary? Take my money, please. Local beef? Whoa. Hold it, cowboy. We're going to need a multinational corporation involved for this one. You see what I'm saying, guys? It's funny how this works. The same crowd that has been lecturing us for years about knowing your farmer suddenly gets very quiet about when the farmer's raising cattle instead of kale. So, let's apply the logic evenly. If knowing your farmer matters, then let Americans know their rancher, too. Could more people buy a quarter or a half straight from a local ranch? Sure. Could regional processing make a comeback? Maybe. Nobody's saying burn down the grocery store. Tyson isn't disappearing. Cargill isn't disappearing. JBS isn't disappearing. National beef isn't disappearing. We're just saying, look, maybe the rancher down the road doesn't have to disappear either. Wild concept, I know. Competition. Capitalism. Free marketplace, right? So, look, picture a rancher in Idaho. 50 head a year. One, maybe two places nearby that he can actually process them. So, his cattle end up hauled to Denver and from there into one of the big four slaughterhouses. This is the entire story, shrunk down to one guy and one truck. The cow is right there. The customer is right there. But the road between them got complicated on purpose. Trump, Massey, Tyson, Cargill, JBS, National Beef, DOJ, USDA, Meat Institute, NCBA, Upton Sinclair, every name we name today, all pointing at one question. Does America want more pathways through its food system or fewer? Do we want empty shelves? Do we want more competition? More backup plans? More local capacity? More truth on the label? And if Washington actually manages to crack open competition in an industry this lockdown, beef might not be where the story ends. In fact, dairy is next. Pork is next. We've got 4 companies, 85% of the market, one of them foreign-owned, a hundred years of history repeating itself, and a rancher in Idaho who just wants to sell his cattle without driving them to Denver first. The scam wasn't hiding, it was just labeled efficiency. Now, before you go, guys, I want you to think of one person in your life who still thinks this is just politics. Send them this video. Not to piss them off, I'm sure they already are. Send it so that they know that the game's been rigged for a long time and people are finally saying it out loud. And hey, guys, if you're not subscribed yet, what are you waiting for? We call this stuff, I've called this before, it was cool. Hit subscribe right now. And if this one opened up your eyes even a little bit, hit the like button on the way out, it's totally free, helps a lot of people find the truth. And here's what I'm watching right now. Not whether everybody argues about Trump and beef for another 48 hours. That's easy. I'm watching what happens after the argument disappears from the headlines. Do local processors actually gain ground? Do ranchers get more leverage? Does anything actually happen to the prices? Does the DOJ increase pressure on the industry? And most importantly, if President Trump successfully cracks open a market dominated by Tyson, Cargill, JVS, and National Beef, does Washington stop with the beef? Because there's what happened, and then of course there's what happens because it happened. That's the advantage I want to give you with the Ron Yates report. I track the next moves, the consequences, and the signals that tell us where this may be going, especially the ones that could eventually affect your money, your choices, your investments, and your family. Now, if this is the kind of information you want before everyone else starts talking about it, join the Ron Yates report. There's a link in the description below.