It has become routine practice to turn to Trump administration spokespersons to learn how Democrats and illegal immigrants are the source of all our problems. The high price of beef? Check.

Here, for example, is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explaining for Fox News on Sunday why beef prices have been soaring:

“This is the perfect storm,” he said, “something we inherited.” (That’s the blaming the Democrats part.)

“Also,” he continued, “because of the mass immigration, a disease we’d been rid off in North America made its way up through South America as these migrants, they brought some of their cattle with them. So part of the problem is we’ve had to shut the border to Mexican beef.”

As is sometimes the case with Bessent, there’s a tiny nugget of truth in his words, surrounded by a bodyguard of misrepresentation.

The truth nugget is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture shut the border to Mexican cattle in March, in order to block the spread to the U.S. of the New World screwworm, a gruesome parasite that has been found in Central and South American herds.

But Bessent’s image of immigrants smuggling their infected beeves across the border is transparent fantasy. The USDA’s announcement of the blockade didn’t tie the screwworm peril to immigration, illegal or otherwise, but to commercial imports. The agency also stated that the infestation hadn’t yet penetrated farther north than Oaxaca and Veracruz, 700 miles from the U.S. border.

The Treasury Secretary’s spiel can properly be seen as standard Trumpian deflection.

That’s because at least some of the run-up in beef prices at the supermarket can be blamed on Trump policies, including his tariff on beef imported from Brazil, which has been a major exporter to the U.S. Trump himself implicitly acknowledged this Friday, when he announced that he was scrapping tariffs on beef and other foodstuffs to bring prices down.

Trump’s budget-cutting also has contributed to the crisis. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in June announced a “five-pronged plan” to combat the parasite south of the border. What she didn’t mention was that in March, the Trump administration cut off funding for anti-screwworm efforts operated by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization as part of its decimation of the U.S. Agency for international Development.

That said, much more is driving beef inflation than tariffs and the screwworm. And an examination of all the root causes indicates that things are likely to get worse at the meat counter before they get better. A recovery in beef prices, according to agricultural experts, may take years.

Before going further, let’s look at the raw numbers. It won’t be news to most shoppers that beef prices have been on a long-term ascent. The average price of uncooked beef steaks reached a record $12.26 per pound in September, up 15.2% from just before Trump took office.

That’s the tail of a long trend, however: The price was $3.64 in January 1998, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, meaning that it has more than trebled during a period in which the overall consumer price index merely doubled.

In recent months, major food processing companies have felt more than a slight pinch. Donnie King, chief executive of Tyson Foods, which owns such lunch meat and sausage brands as Hillshire Farms, BallPark, Jimmy Dean and Aidells, told investors at its fourth-quarter earnings roundup Nov. 10 that “the beef segment remains our only soft spot.”

The company reported an adjusted operating loss of $426 million on beef in fiscal 2025 and projected a loss of up to $600 million in the category for the 2025-26 fiscal year, in part because cattle costs had increased by $1.84 billion, a far larger cost increase than it experienced for any other input. It said that its earnings have been protected by gains in chicken, which has attracted shoppers shunning beef. Overall, for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 27, Tyson reported a profit of $507 million on revenue of $54.4 billion.

That brings us to the real factors driving beef prices higher. To a great extent, they’re secular. One is a long-term decline in the size of the U.S. cattle herd, which has fallen to about 87.2 million head of cattle and calves, its lowest level since 1951. Among the factors in that slide was a drought that struck the cattle-raising prairie states starting in 2020 and lasting through 2022. The all-time peak in the U.S. herd came in 1975, when it reached 132 million head.

Hay prices shot up by about 45% in 2022. With feed costs consuming the value of livestock, ranchers sold off their herds or stepped up the slaughter of their cows and heifers — producing a short-term glut of beef at store shelves but mortgaging their future supply.

Raising an animal from calf to marketable beef takes at least three years. Tyson executives told investors that they had seen signs that ranchers were finally rebuilding their herds, but that means a continued shortage of beef in the years just ahead.

Into this uncertain environment, Trump threw another complication: tariffs. These included a 50% levy on imports from Brazil, which Trump imposed in July not as a protectionist step, but because he was discontented with the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for an alleged coup plot. (Bolsonaro was convicted and sentenced in September to more than 27 years in prison.)

That was a problem because, although foreign beef doesn’t account for a large share of overall beef consumption, it’s important for some categories, notably “lean beef trim,” which gets mixed in with fattier U.S. ground beef to yield the hamburger meat favored by American consumers. Brazil’s production of lean trim helped its beef exports reach more than 25% of all U.S. beef imports.

The long-term rise in beef prices has provoked market participants into a spate of finger-pointing, not all of which is groundless. In 2019, consumer advocates accused Tyson, Cargill and other meat-packers in a lawsuit of conspiring to fix beef prices. Tyson and Cargill settled the accusations against them last month without acknowledging guilt, Tyson paying $55 million and Cargill, $33.5 million. Two foreign-owned companies, JBS USA and National Beef Packing, are still in court.

Others have pointed to putative profiteering by cattle ranchers, whose profits per animal have spiraled higher, even as many have pared the size of their herds.

One might also point to American consumers, who haven’t moderated their beef buying enough to subject the commodity to the rigors of supply-and-demand economics.

The administration’s approach to the rise in beef prices has been chaotic and incoherent. Last month, Trump said he would alleviate the price spike by importing more beef from Argentina.

The proposal garnered instantaneous backlash from American cattle producers. They said the plan “only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices,” in the words of Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn. The group noted that Argentina accounts for a bare 2% of U.S. beef imports, meaning that even a significant expansion of the trade flow would do little to moderate prices.

In sum, there’s little Trump can do to influence beef prices, except to make the situation worse, as happened because of his tariffs. Now that he has reversed course and lifted his thumb off the Brazil trade, prices might improve, if modestly. But all those other factors such as drought, the long-term decline in domestic herds and disease, will still be with us, for some time.

Amazon-owned Zoox is offering free rides on its San Francisco fleet of boxy, driverless taxis.

The company said Tuesday it is providing the rides to people who download the Zoox app and join a waitlist. The sneak peek is part of a program in which riders provide feedback about the robotaxis before they become more widely available.

The preview shows that Zoox is moving closer to expanding its robotaxi service in San Francisco, a city filled with hundreds of self-driving cars from major rival Waymo. Zoox’s robotaxi service will be available in the SoMa, Mission and Design District neighborhoods.

“We have seen incredible interest in Zoox in this market and are excited about this first step to bring our purpose-built robotaxi experience to more people,” Aicha Evans, Zoox’s chief executive, said in a statement.

Headquartered in Foster City, Calif., the company has been testing autonomous technology in San Francisco since 2017. Zoox employees have been trying out the robotaxis, but this will be the first time the rides will be available to the general public in America’s tech capital. The company hasn’t said when it plans to start charging for its robotaxi service in San Francisco.

The robotaxi race has been ramping up in California, a hotbed for testing autonomous vehicles. Waymo, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, rolled out its service to highways and Bay Area airports. Ride-hailing company Uber teamed with Lucid Group and Nuro to launch robotaxis in the San Francisco Bay Area next year. Tesla said it would start testing robotaxis with drivers in the Bay Area.

Zoox’s boxy, aloe green vehicle, described by some people as a “toaster on wheels,” looks different from its rivals. Designed to fit four people, the electric vehicles don’t have a steering wheel or pedals and the doors slide open and closed. While people face each other during the ride, some who have tested the vehicles reported feeling motion sickness from moving backward. The robotaxis include wireless charging, an emergency call button and a touchscreen to control the music and the vehicle’s temperature.

The company has a fleet of about 50 robotaxis across San Francisco and Las Vegas. In September the company started allowing the public to hail its robotaxi service around the Las Vegas Strip. Zoox opened a massive facility in Hayward, Calif., and said it will be able to assemble more than 10,000 robotaxis a year as demand for its services grows.

People are using self-driving vehicles more, but robotaxis also have ignited concerns about job loss, safety and privacy. Santa Monica residents have complained about the beeping noises from Waymos. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, people have vandalized the cars and set them on fire. And after a Waymo ran over KitKat, a beloved cat, San Francisco residents have expressed more safety concerns about self-driving taxis.

Some companies have failed to launch robotaxis. Last year automaker General Motors shuttered the development of its Cruise robotaxis, citing high costs and increased competition. Cruise lost the permits it needed to continue testing in California because of public safety risks after a woman was dragged underneath one of its robotaxis in San Francisco.

Zoox issued voluntary software recalls to address potential safety concerns. In May an electric scooter rider in San Francisco sustained minor injuries after the person struck an unoccupied Zoox vehicle that braked at an intersection. When the rider fell next to the robotaxi, it began to move but then stopped. The company said in a blog post it updated its software to improve how it tracks nearby pedestrians and prevent movement when a person is very close to the vehicle.

The amount of time it will take to get off the waitlist in San Francisco will depend on demand and the availability of its robotaxis. Zoox said there isn’t a limit to how many people can join the waitlist, but it aims to remove it next year.

The company also partnered with Tartine Manufactory, a popular bakery in San Francisco that’s well-known for its bread and pastries. Zoox posted on social media that people who download its app and sign up for the waitlist from Nov. 15 to 22 will be able to get a free pastry while supplies last.

Zoox has been testing its robotaxis in other major cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin and Miami. Tech giant Amazon bought Zoox in 2020 for more than $1.2 billion.

Television station owner Sinclair Inc. has taken an equity stake in fellow broadcaster E.W. Scripps, signaling its intent to become a behemoth in the shrinking field.

Sinclair disclosed its interest in Scripps, which owns stations in Fresno, Bakersfield, Buffalo, N.Y., and Billings, Mont., in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing Monday. Baltimore-based Sinclair, known for its conservative political bent, said it has acquired about 8% of Scripps’ equity by buying some of its publicly traded shares.

Sinclair disclosed that it has had “constructive discussions with [Scripps] for several months regarding a potential combination of the two companies.”

No deal has been reached.

Cincinnati-based Scripps, in a statement, suggested that it wasn’t interested in a tie-up with Sinclair, saying the Scripps board and management instead were “focused on driving value for all of the company’s shareholders through the continued execution of its strategic plan.”

“The board and management are aligned on doing only what is in the best interest of all of the company’s shareholders as well as its employees and the many communities and audiences it serves across the United States,” Scripps said.

Sinclair appears to be putting pressure on Scripps by making the stock purchases and the public disclosure. Scripps stock jumped 40% to $4.28 at the market close on Monday. The company is valued at about $363 million.

Sinclair shares also got a bounce, gaining 5% and closing at $16.87. The company’s market value is $1.2 billion.

Television station owners are hoping that President Trump and his appointments to the Federal Communications Commission will lift the government-imposed cap on broadcast ownership. Currently, stations are restricted from owning outlets that reach more than 39% of the U.S. population.

Sinclair currently owns or operates 185 television stations in 85 markets, according to its website.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has signaled a willingness to undertake a massive deregulation. The anticipated push has prompted a flurry of deals among broadcasters, who have seen their advertisers scatter and audiences decline as more consumers get their news through social media.

Sinclair, in its filing, made a nod to the changing political winds in Washington.

“Recent industry consolidation and intensifying competition reinforce [Sinclair’s] view that further scale in the broadcast television industry is essential to address secular headwinds and compete effectively with larger-scale big-tech and big-media players, as well as major broadcast groups,” Sinclair wrote.

In September, Sinclair prodded the Walt Disney Co. to punish late night host Jimmy Kimmel after the host made comments about the alleged gunman who was later arrested and charged with the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah. Sinclair owns several ABC affiliate stations and dropped “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for more than a week.

Sinclair demanded that Kimmel make a “meaningful personal donation” to Kirk’s political organization, Turning Point USA.

But Sinclair’s campaign crumbled after Disney’s brass returned Kimmel to his late night perch — without making concessions that Sinclair had demanded.

Critics have pointed to the alleged harms of TV station consolidation, including fewer on-the-ground workers and journalists reporting on the communities where the stations are based.

Sinclair’s filing contradicted such arguments, writing that “greater scale will also strengthen broadcasters’ ability to sustain their vital public service role in producing local news.”

The filing said consolidating Scripps could produce “more than $300 million in expected annual synergies.”

“The proposed combination would be structured to require no external financing as the combined company would maintain each company’s respective debt and preferred capital structures,” Sinclair wrote in the filing. “The transaction would avoid significant refinancing costs while meaningfully reducing leverage through the realization of synergies and lowering future refinancing risk.”

In its 2024 annual report, Sinclair said its dozens of stations produced “more than 2,400 hours of live news coverage per week across its station footprint, in addition to our various digital, social and audio platforms.”

Sinclair said in Monday’s filing that it was “committed to constructive engagement with [Scripps] toward reaching a definitive transaction agreement,” and Sinclair would like to consolidate its fellow broadcaster “within nine to 12 months.”

Scripps took a defensive stance in response to Sinclair’s overture, saying in a statement that “the board will take all steps appropriate to protect the company and the company’s shareholders from the opportunistic actions of Sinclair or anyone else.”

Elsewhere in the local TV business, Texas-based Nexstar, the nation’s largest TV broadcaster, is seeking government approval for its $6-billion deal to buy rival broadcaster Tegna.