The Trump administration is rolling back tariffs on a wide range of agricultural and grocery items including coffee, tropical fruit, spices, and beef, the White House announced on Friday.
The president has signed an executive order exempting these goods from the “reciprocal” tariffs he put on most U.S. trading partners earlier this year.
The White House said the decision was because of “substantial progress” made recently in trade negotiations with foreign nations, though the move also follows political pressure on the president from voters concerned about continued inflation at the supermarket.
President Trump has insisted affordability questions are a Democratic “con job” and prices on “everything” are “way down,” though this is not true.
Inflation rose three percent between September 2024 and September 2025, according to the most recent federal data, which also showed the inflation rate increasing for five straight months. Food prices have largely mirrored rising inflation.
The price of beef and veal, meanwhile, jumped 14.7 percent in September compared to the previous month, a spike observers attributed to factors including tariffs, drought, and a pest impacting herds in Mexico.
Earlier this month, the president suggested on social media meat producers might be “driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation” and hammered what he said were “Majority Foreign Owned Meat Packers, who artificially inflate prices, and jeopardize the security of our Nation’s food supply.”
The president has steadfastly insisted the tariffs are a boon to the U.S. economy, rather than what amounts to a tax that companies pass onto consumers in the form of higher prices.
Trump has suggested sending a $2,000 tariff rebate check to low- and middle-income Americans, though experts are skeptical the proposal can be accomplished without adding to the national debt or potentially driving inflation, both of which would be political liabilities. Congress has also shown little interest in such proposals.
The Supreme Court is currently weighing whether the president’s emergency tariffs are illegal, after lower courts found he didn’t have the authority to launch them.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
