White House blames Biden for killing ‘100 million chickens,’ refuses to admit Trump broken vow on costly eggs

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday blamed soaring egg pirces in the U.S. on former President Joe Biden’s administration for killing “100 million chickens” to stem the spread of bird flu.

Bot the disease and culling has impacted egg prices, but President Donald Trump vowed in November that he would “immediately” reduce prices.

“As far as the egg shortage … the Biden administration and the Department of Agriculture directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country,” Leavitt said when pressed about the ongoing high price of eggs, despite Trump’s promise.. “Therefore, a lack of egg supply … is leading to the shortage.”

Trump promised at a press conference two months ago: “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” But now Vice President J.D. Vance has since said the administration needs a “bit of time.”

Leavitt insisted that egg prices had increased by 65 percent while Biden was in the Oval Office “or upstairs in the residence sleeping, I’m not so sure,” she added sarcastically.

“We also have seen the cost of everything, not just eggs – bacon, groceries, gasoline – have increased because of the inflationary policies of the last administration,” she told reporters in the White House press room.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds her first news conference at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Leavitt blamed the Biden administration for the nation’s soaring price of eggs, but did not reference the role of bird flu (Getty Images)

Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the average cost of a dozen grade-A large eggs rose to $4.15 last December from $2.51 in December 2023.

She said that the president’s nominee to lead the Department of Agriculture, former White House aide Brooke Rollins, had already spoken about the egg shortage with National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett.

The prevalent H5N1 strain of bird flu has forced farmers to slaughter millions of chickens each month, sending prices for the reduced number of eggs skyward.

The Department of Agriculture, which has spent at least $1.14 billion on compensating farmers for birds they’ve had to kill, predicts that prices will soar another 20 percent this year. Prices on other groceries could also be impacted on Trump’s promise to impose tariffs on goods from Mexico, which provides a significant volume of fruits and vegetables to American stores.

More than 17 million birds have been affected by the virus in just the last 30 days, with the majority reported in Minnesota, South Dakota, and California, according to recent Department of Agriculture data. The virus has infected more than 140 million birds since the current outbreak’s start January 2022.

A recent report from the department comparing annual inflation rates in 2023 and 2024 noted that 13.6 million egg-laying birds died in December due to bird flu — the most of any one month last year. Egg supply in 2024 was down 1.7 percent year over year, and 5 percent from the 2021 total, the year before the current series of bird flu.

A grocery store worker rearranges items in the depleted egg section of a grocery store last week in Miami, Florida. Millions of egg-laying hens have been killed due to the surge of bird flu across the U.S. (Getty Images)

The department’s weekly egg markets overview said that inclement weather over much of the U.S. had also disrupted normal shopping patterns and compounded “already challenging supply issues resulting from recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) even in states that had largely escaped outbreaks in 2024.”

Scientists have voiced concerns about the U.S. response to these outbreaks, which have killed one person in Louisiana and sickened dozens of others who were exposed to the virus.

The Biden administration ordered more testing during its last days and invested more than $300 million toward monitoring and preparedness. But, how the Trump administration responds to outbreaks remains a mystery for now.

Leavitt’s remarks came amid a concerning freeze on many federal health agency communications with the public concerning all health issues through at least the end of the month.

With reporting from The Associated Press