Humiliation as Trump walks back key economic claim

President Donald Trump has consistently received staunch support from farmers, who remain among his most loyal constituents to this day. Yet they have taken economic hit after economic hit from his policies of mass deportations, unprecedented tariffs and a war against Iran that has raised prices on fertilizer and fuel.

Now Trump must walk back what he claimed was one of his major achievements: a supposed rise in beef exports. After initially claiming through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that American been exports had risen by 500 percent from the previous week, to 126,062 metric tons, Trump is now reversing himself.

“In a revised report released Thursday, the agency lowered that figure to just 12,064 metric tons,” wrote Mediaite's Kathryn Wilkens on Thursday. “The original report immediately drew skepticism from traders and analysts, Reuters reported, with some questioning whether the unusually large sales were even plausible. The USDA said on Thursday that the figures had been ‘reported in error,’ though it offered no further explanation for what caused the mistake.”

In particular, skeptics were surprised that the USDA claimed Americans had exported 38,434 metric tons of beef to Chile and 32,274 metric tons to Italy, even though neither usually receive large amounts of American beef. In fact, it appears Chile only received 367 metric tons and Italy only received 350 metric tons. In addition, the USDA had to revise down export sales for 14 other countries.

“The correction is likely to intensify scrutiny of the agency’s reporting after staffing losses and other recent data issues,” Wilkens explained. “Reuters reported that the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, which oversees export sales reporting, lost roughly 21 percent of its workforce during the first half of last year. The agency has also faced criticism after significantly underestimating U.S. corn acreage last year and delaying a quarterly agricultural trade report.”

Wilkens added, “Before reversing course, though, the USDA had publicly defended the report. According to the outlet, the agency said on July 2 that multiple export sales had been reported late and that it had confirmed the figures with an exporting company, stating, ‘As part of ⁠the Export Sales Reporting team’s data review of weekly submissions, the exporting company was contacted, and the ESR team confirmed that the quantities are correct and were reported as MTs.’”

This is not the first time the Trump administration has been caught making dubious economic claims. Earlier on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board called out Trump for falsely claiming his tariffs brought a Toyota factory to San Antonio. In fact, his tariffs have hurt the American auto industry.

“Auto makers have also reduced imports, and in some cases discontinued sales, of entry-level models because the tariff costs render them unaffordable,” the Journal explained. “One result is that younger and middle-class Americans are struggling to afford new cars, especially on the heels of the Biden inflation.”

Similarly, on Wednesday he was called out for incorrectly claiming credit for Walmart lowering prices.

“If you've ever shopped at Walmart, you know that they have these rolling sales and promotions all the time — that's sort of the business model for retailers like this,” The Bulwark’s Catherine Rampell wrote. “In fact, it's not just Walmart — there are lots of companies still running their July 4th sales and may soon have other seasonal discounts pegged to back-to-school season or similar. But sure, you know, credit our fearless leader.”

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