[ad_1]
President Donald Trump claimed victory last month in his so-called war on egg prices, boasting that his administration brought costs way down. But new data released Thursday shows that’s just not true.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average price of eggs in March was around $6.23, up from $5.90 the month before. Despite Trump’s chest-thumping about some supposed dramatic drop, shoppers are still paying through the nose, and any real relief is likely still weeks away.
“All indications are that there’s some relief coming for consumers. Even then, there are a lot of other factors that determine the price of eggs,” David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, told The New York Times.
The increase in egg prices aligns with earlier warnings that “eggflation” was coming for consumers’ wallets. In February, the Department of Agriculture predicted egg prices would swell by 41.1% in 2025, alongside a 3.4% increase in overall food costs.
The latest spike comes as retailers brace for the effects of Trump’s global tariffs—which are still wreaking havoc, despite his last-minute lowering of tariffs for 90 days.
And while overall inflation cooled slightly in March, that could soon be erased by Trump’s tariffs, which threaten to undo any short-term gains.
Industry experts told The Associated Press that they expected retail egg prices to dip since wholesale prices began dropping in March. But these drops didn’t kick in until mid-month, and with Easter boosting demand, it’ll take time for shoppers to see any real impact.
The 5.9% spike in just one month is the opposite of what Trump claimed—and a blow to the White House as it keeps pretending that it solved a crisis that was never really theirs to fix.
“A dozen eggs are now $3.10 cheaper since January 24. That’s a 47 percent decrease overall. So I think the American people do have great reason to be optimistic about this economy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in March.
Sure.
Then came Trump’s chaotic “Liberation Day” speech, where he pulled a 59% price drop out of thin air. And this week he doubled won, claiming that prices fell 79%—again with zero evidence.
Trump has become weirdly obsessed with egg prices, using them to score cheap political points while real people continue to watch their grocery bills climb. He’s used the spike to bash the Biden administration, even though prices rose during the early months of his own presidency. In February alone, the average cost of a dozen eggs hit $5.90—nearly a full dollar more than it was in January.
And prices are still sky-high, depending on where you live. The Associated Press found a dozen cage-free eggs going for $9.99 in San Francisco, $6.69 in Denver, and under $5 in Omaha, Nebraska. There’s certainly a range, but no one’s feeling great about it.
Even if wholesale prices are inching down, the fact that everyday shoppers haven’t caught a break says a lot about how little Trump has actually accomplished.
One expert told Bloomberg that egg prices could hover between $2 and $6 per dozen for the next few months, but they also warned that it’s “difficult to predict” where things will land.
But one thing is clear: While consumers are still getting squeezed, egg producers are doing just fine.
Despite a devastating bird flu outbreak that led to the slaughter of millions of hens, Cal-Maine Foods, the country’s largest egg producer, just posted a quarterly profit of $509 million. That’s three times what it made in the same period last year. The Justice Department’s antitrust division is now investigating the company.
So, yes, someone’s doing fine. It’s just not you. But that part won’t be making it into any of Trump’s speeches.
Campaign Action
[ad_2]
Source link
