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Most Americans know that eggs are both incredible and edible.
But now they’re political too.
As the average price of a dozen large, grade-A eggs continues to soar amid a raging bird-flu outbreak — hitting $4.13 in December 2024, up nearly 37% from a year earlier — Democrats in Congress are accusing newly inaugurated President Trump of backtracking on one of the key promises of his 2024 campaign: to “end inflation and make America affordable again,” “starting on day one.”
“I won on groceries,” Trump told NBC last month. “When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down.”
Yet according to a group of congressional Democrats led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Trump has spent his first week back in office too focused on other priorities instead, such as “mass deportations and pardoning Jan. 6 attackers.”
“Your sole action on costs was an executive order that contained only the barest mention of food prices and not a single specific policy to reduce them,” Warren and 19 other Democratic lawmakers wrote Sunday in a letter to the president. “Americans are looking to you to lower food prices.”
In response, White House press secretary Karolin Leavitt continued to blame former President Joe Biden Tuesday, saying that “we have seen the cost of everything — not just eggs; bacon, groceries, gasoline — [increase] because of the inflationary policies of the last administration.”
Why are eggs suddenly the hot topic in Washington, D.C.? And what — if anything — can be done to make them cheaper? Here’s everything you need to know about the Great Egg Debate of 2025.
All in all, the Department of Agriculture now estimates that egg prices will increase by another 20% or so in 2025, compared with about 2.2% for food prices in general.
For Trump’s 2024 campaign, eggs were the gift that kept on giving: an everyday grocery-store staple that was about three times more expensive on Election Day than it had been when Trump left office four years earlier — making it easy fodder for attacks on his Democratic rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Let’s talk about eggs,” Trump’s running mate JD Vance said at a September grocery store event in Reading, Pa. “Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now a dozen eggs will cost you around $4. … Looking at the prices here, things are way too expensive and they’re way too expensive because of Kamala Harris’s policies.”
Never mind that the eggs displayed behind Vance actually cost $2.99 per dozen; the broader message connected with swing voters.
“I hope that people can get over their own feelings about tweets and things [Trump] says and look at the bigger picture with where our economy is now,” one told a New York Times focus group. “When eggs are $6 for a dozen, how many feelings do you really need to have?”
"It used to be $1, or even 99 cents," Samuel Negron, a Pennsylvania state constable, added in a BBC interview. "A lot of us have woken up, in my opinion, from Democratic lies that things have been better. We realized things were better then."
Ultimately, about nine in 10 voters said they were very or somewhat concerned about the cost of groceries, according to Associated Press exit polling.
“Grocery prices have skyrocketed,” Trump said at an August press conference. “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/democrats-blame-trump-for-soaring-egg-prices--just-like-trump-blamed-biden-can-anyone-actually-fix-the-problem-213416201.html
But now they’re political too.
As the average price of a dozen large, grade-A eggs continues to soar amid a raging bird-flu outbreak — hitting $4.13 in December 2024, up nearly 37% from a year earlier — Democrats in Congress are accusing newly inaugurated President Trump of backtracking on one of the key promises of his 2024 campaign: to “end inflation and make America affordable again,” “starting on day one.”
“I won on groceries,” Trump told NBC last month. “When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down.”
Yet according to a group of congressional Democrats led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Trump has spent his first week back in office too focused on other priorities instead, such as “mass deportations and pardoning Jan. 6 attackers.”
“Your sole action on costs was an executive order that contained only the barest mention of food prices and not a single specific policy to reduce them,” Warren and 19 other Democratic lawmakers wrote Sunday in a letter to the president. “Americans are looking to you to lower food prices.”
In response, White House press secretary Karolin Leavitt continued to blame former President Joe Biden Tuesday, saying that “we have seen the cost of everything — not just eggs; bacon, groceries, gasoline — [increase] because of the inflationary policies of the last administration.”
Why are eggs suddenly the hot topic in Washington, D.C.? And what — if anything — can be done to make them cheaper? Here’s everything you need to know about the Great Egg Debate of 2025.
Trump pins egg prices on the Biden administration
Expensive eggs aren’t a new problem. Their average price hasn't been below $3 per dozen since June — and it hasn't been below $2 since the start of 2022. That’s when the current avian influenza outbreak started (which led to the death of more than 20 million egg-laying chickens in the U.S. during the last quarter of 2024 alone). Fewer chickens means fewer eggs, and fewer eggs means pricier eggs — especially as demand rises over the holiday season (all that baking) and in the lead-up to Easter (all that painting). Other factors — lingering COVID-era inflation, supply-chain issues, cage-free requirements and panic buying — have contributed as well.All in all, the Department of Agriculture now estimates that egg prices will increase by another 20% or so in 2025, compared with about 2.2% for food prices in general.
For Trump’s 2024 campaign, eggs were the gift that kept on giving: an everyday grocery-store staple that was about three times more expensive on Election Day than it had been when Trump left office four years earlier — making it easy fodder for attacks on his Democratic rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Let’s talk about eggs,” Trump’s running mate JD Vance said at a September grocery store event in Reading, Pa. “Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now a dozen eggs will cost you around $4. … Looking at the prices here, things are way too expensive and they’re way too expensive because of Kamala Harris’s policies.”
Never mind that the eggs displayed behind Vance actually cost $2.99 per dozen; the broader message connected with swing voters.
“I hope that people can get over their own feelings about tweets and things [Trump] says and look at the bigger picture with where our economy is now,” one told a New York Times focus group. “When eggs are $6 for a dozen, how many feelings do you really need to have?”
"It used to be $1, or even 99 cents," Samuel Negron, a Pennsylvania state constable, added in a BBC interview. "A lot of us have woken up, in my opinion, from Democratic lies that things have been better. We realized things were better then."
Ultimately, about nine in 10 voters said they were very or somewhat concerned about the cost of groceries, according to Associated Press exit polling.
“Grocery prices have skyrocketed,” Trump said at an August press conference. “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/democrats-blame-trump-for-soaring-egg-prices--just-like-trump-blamed-biden-can-anyone-actually-fix-the-problem-213416201.html