Trump promised to bring down egg prices on day one. Now, he’s sharing articles telling people to ‘shut up’ about it
President Donald Trump vowed to bring down the price of eggs on the first day of his second term — now he reposted an article asking the public to “shut up about egg prices.”
Speaking next to a table of packaged goods during an August press conference, Trump promised, should he be re-elected, to lower grocery prices on “day one.”
“Grocery prices have skyrocketed. Cereals are up 26 percent, bread is up 24 percent, butter is up 37 percent, baby formula is up 30 percent, flour is up 38 percent, and eggs are up 46 percent,” he said. “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.”
More recently, in his speech to Congress last week, Trump said: “Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control. The egg prices out of control. And we are working hard to get it back down.”
But over the weekend, he signaled he may have had enough of discussing the rising costs when he shared on Truth Social conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s Daily Caller article titled “Shut Up About Egg Prices — Trump Is Saving Consumers Millions.”
In the piece, Kirk points fingers at the former president and insists that Trump should get credit for his efforts to curb inflation. “The high price of eggs is in no way President Trump’s fault. Almost all the increase took place during Biden’s final months in office,” he wrote, pointing to the bird flu outbreak. Tens of millions of hens have been lost to the virus since January, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s March Egg Markets Overview.
“And why carry out such a massacre?” Kirk continues. “Because the Department of Agriculture compensates poultry farmers for eliminating flocks that have been exposed to bird flu, but offers no compensation if the birds die from the disease. This creates an incentive to slaughter more chickens than may be strictly necessary.”
“Federal law gives the U.S. Department of Agriculture authority to depopulate animals in these situations to stop disease spread,” the department wrote in a release. In terms of the financial reward he alluded to, Kirk may have been referring to the financial assistance that the USDA offers to farmers whose flocks have been affected.
The Turning Point founder also argued: “Trump voters weren’t just mad about the price of eggs. They were mad about inflation in general.”
Meanwhile, dozens of House Democrats wrote a letter in mid-February to Trump over the “skyrocketing price of eggs,” blaming his policies for not helping to curb the rising costs.
“Over the last several weeks, you have done nothing to address these rising costs. Moreover, your flurry of executive actions has hampered the government’s response to effectively address the underlying causes of this crisis. Eggs are a basic necessity for families in our districts, and the financial burden caused by these surging prices must be resolved,” they wrote.
Because egg prices are linked to the bird flu outbreak, “we are deeply concerned by your previous statements calling to disband the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy,” the Democrats added. On top of this threat, the Department of Government Efficiency mistakenly laid off federal employees working on the bird flu response, only to later try to rehire them.
“Although several positions supporting [bird flu efforts] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters,” a USDA spokesperson told NBC News last month.
As of January, the price of a dozen large grade-A eggs hit an all-time high in the past 20 years, averaging $4.95.
