Money Grab/Charge for access to the president
Pilgrim’s Pride gives the inauguration $5M and USDA drops its salmonella rule
The largest donor to Trump’s inauguration was a chicken company. Three months later the government dropped the rule that would have let inspectors pull contaminated chicken off the line.
What happened
In August 2024 the Agriculture Department proposed, for the first time, to treat raw chicken carrying high levels of the most dangerous salmonella strains as adulterated. Adulterated is the word that lets an inspector stop a product from being sold. Until then, chicken could leave a plant with any amount of salmonella on it, and the only remedy was a recall after people got sick. The poultry industry filed its objections and lobbied Congress against the proposal.
Pilgrim’s Pride, the country’s second-largest chicken producer, gave $5 million to Trump’s inaugural committee. It was the single largest gift to the inauguration, more than Amazon or Meta. Pilgrim’s is controlled by JBS, the Brazilian meat conglomerate.
On April 25, 2025, the department withdrew the proposal. The notice said commenters had raised “significant financial and operational burdens” and that the agency would reconsider its approach. The National Chicken Council praised the decision the same day. In June, JBS listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, a step it had sought for years and the administration cleared that spring.
Who benefited
Pilgrim’s Pride and every other large chicken processor avoided a standard that would have changed how plants handle birds. It would have taken contaminated product off the shelf at the company’s expense. JBS got its New York listing in the same year.
Who wanted something
The chicken companies had fought this rule for two years in comments and on Capitol Hill. The $5 million did not have to buy a specific decision. It bought standing with an administration that was already inclined to drop the rule, and it was paid before anyone had to ask.
Who lost out
About 1.3 million Americans get salmonella each year, 26,000 are hospitalized and about 420 die, and poultry is the leading source. Inspectors have asked for this tool since the 1990s. They still do not have it. You still buy the chicken.
Why it matters
The inaugural committee took a record $239 million from companies with business before the government. This is one of those gifts followed to its outcome. We do not claim the $5 million bought the withdrawal. We record that the largest donor got the decision it wanted within three months, and that the people who eat the chicken were not in the room.
Sources Federal Register (USDA FSIS) (primary)Yahoo NewsDaily Intake (Hogan Lovells food-law blog)