“Beef is coming down and the reason is they put restrictions on beef under the Biden administration, and it takes a while to settle that. But prices are down.”

Beef prices were at a record when he spoke. The Bureau of Labor Statistics average price series for ground beef stood at $6.899 a pound in April 2026, the latest month published at the time, against $5.545 in January 2025, a rise of about 24 percent. The April 2026 consumer price index release reported the beef index up 2.7 percent in the month, with beef and veal up 14.8 percent and uncooked ground beef up 14.5 percent over the year. Reporting that summer put ground beef at a record $6.90 a pound in April, nearly a dollar above a year earlier, and cited the Farm Bureau expecting no relief until 2028.

There were short dips, which is the claim's best defence. The same series eased from $6.752 a pound in January 2026 to $6.739 in February and $6.701 in March. Every one of those readings was far above January 2025, and the figure available to him when he spoke was the record.