Riding for the Trump brand got a little harder this week.

The president found a way to get on the wrong side of one of his most conservative and loyal constituencies, the American cattle rancher. Promoting a plan to import suspect beef from an undeclared foreign provider in the name of lowering consumer costs will do that.

In a statement that qualifies as a strong retort from a political ally, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall said, "While America's cattle producers share the goal of keeping groceries affordable for consumers, flooding the market with government-subsidized, below-market beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd. … Today's announcement and other market interventions throw cold water on the prospect of herd expansion and sacrifices long-term stability for short term messaging."

Sacrificing long-term stability for short-term messaging: That's Trumpian strategy in a nutshell. His problem now is that his daily marketing legerdemain has gotten so convoluted that it's practically indecipherable. Only his glassy-eyed acolytes and the reporters who try to keep up are still trying to make sense of it.

Lots of states produce more beef than Nevada, but ranching traditions are woven into our origin story. And ranching country has been Trump country.

But that's far from the only symbol he's managed to tarnish and turn upside down. American agriculture is imbued with its own traditional imagery. That, too, is being marred by Trump's reckless tariff policies and a senseless war with Iran that has greatly affected the world's agricultural fertilizer supply.

As a recent Farm Aid report put it, "Farmers have been hit from every direction: seesawing tariffs, damaging trade policies, inflation and drastic cuts to federal farm programs. These impacts combined with decades of agriculture policy that favors large-scale, industrial operations and corporations, are bringing many farmers, and the rural communities they support, to a breaking point. … [T]hese economic challenges don't just add up for farmers, they hit all of us who eat in the price of our food."

If you've been to the grocery store or thegas station, you already know this.

By late week, Trump had not only dumped the flyblown foreign meat idea, but also shifted his rhetoric on the beef tariffs that have been harming the industry for months. Then, in a move that made his previous mistakes seem like sound strategy, he floated a plan to allow cattle ranchers to bypass Department of Agriculture-inspected processing plants in an effort to lower the price of beef.

With that, the ghost of Upton Sinclair surely stirred in his grave.

Author of the 1906 novel The Jungle, Sinclair used personal research to expose the health and safety hazards of the American meat-processing industry. The book led to big changes in the law and has become a symbol of a style of muckraking journalism.

We live by symbols. They're never entirely accurate, but they strike chords in American hearts. Modern ranchers and farmers bear slight resemblance to the subjects painted by Thomas Hart Benton and Frederic Remington, but the imagery remains powerful in our culture and politics despite this cynical age.

The White House, Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and Kennedy Center carry their own historic symbolism. That's why it hurts so many people to see the White House used to stage a UFC event, why ruining the reflecting pool and lying about it matters, and why adding your name to the Kennedy Center doesn't put you in JFK's class.

Few American symbols compare to the Statue of Liberty. Trump's vilification of immigrants, especially the brown ones, has made that symbol a tasteless punchline. What next, painting Lady Liberty gold and injecting her with Botox?

For years Trump has manipulated those symbols, including the American flag and the badge of law enforcement, while pronouncing that those who disagree with his unconstitutional policies don't love their country or respect the police. And what he's doing to the image of the U.S. military endangers the world itself.

But now he's losing his own room, insulting ranchers and farmers as he continues to abuse military personnel with a war in Iran and make regular threats to invade and bomb allies and enemies alike.

Besides symbols, another thing we've cherished is our relationship with those close allies, including chief trading partners Mexico and Canada — countries that contribute greatly to Nevada's economy. After being punked by both nations despite his reckless tariffs, he showed them a thing or two by signing executive orders that pretend to change the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario.

That'll teach 'em to mess with the gold-plated Godfather. The New York Times bottom-lined it succinctly this week: "President Trump's usual playbook — make demands, threaten Armageddon, force capitulation — is not working."

With the midterms fast approaching and Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) and much of the state Republican Party still calling Trump's erratic behavior "leadership," their MAGA banner waves in the breeze. As the governor praises the billionaire class and the GOP candidate for secretary of state spreads lies about the security of our elections, those also have become symbols of the times we are in.

They're still riding for the Trump brand — and do so at their own peril. But the trail is now getting harder to read.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family's Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.