President Trump celebrated on Thursday the return to normalcy for the price of eggs, declaring they were “plentiful and inexpensive.”
Trump was responding to a tweet from Waffle House announcing that the 50-cent egg surcharge they had imposed for the last five months was officially off the menu.
“We brought the price of Eggs back to what they were supposed to be,” President Trump exuberated on Truth Social. “When I took over on January 20th, the Fake News was screaming that, ‘Egg prices have gone through the roof, quadrupled,’ they said. Now they’re plentiful, and inexpensive. ‘Thank you President Trump!’”
In early February, Waffle House instituted its egg surcharge, saying it was the result of the “continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (Bird Flu)” that had triggered a “dramatic increase in egg prices. … Consumers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions. Rather than increasing prices across the menu, this is a temporary targeted surcharge tied to the unprecedented rise in egg prices.”
According to the USDA, the price of a dozen eggs soared nationally in March to $8.17; it has plummeted to $2.54.
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Almost exactly concurrent with the apex of egg prices, on February 26, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced a $1 billion comprehensive strategy to “curb highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), protect the U.S. poultry industry, and lower egg prices.” The five-point plan included dedicating up to “$500 million to helping U.S. poultry producers implement gold-standard biosecurity measures,” making “$400 million of increased financial relief available to farmers whose flocks are affected by avian flu,” “exploring the use of vaccines and therapeutics for laying chickens,” removing “unnecessary regulatory burdens on egg producers where possible,” and considering “temporary import options to reduce egg costs in the short term.”
On June 26, Rollins gave an update on the five-pronged strategy, saying, “After reaching a record high due to the Biden Administration’s lack of action, wholesale egg prices have now dropped 64%, with retail prices falling 27% from their peak earlier this year.”
“When President Trump entered office, the cost of eggs was at a record high, seriously denting consumers’ wallets after years of awful inflation,” she continued. “On my first day as Secretary, we got to work to implement a five-pronged strategy to improve biosecurity on the farm and lower egg prices on grocery store shelves. The plan has worked, and families are seeing relief with egg prices driving food deflation in the April Consumer Price Index.”
