New York’s Attorney General Letitia James is one of several local government officials who are warning businesses against price gouging.
“The bird flu is affecting poultry farms and causing a national shortage, but this should not be an excuse for businesses to dramatically raise prices,” James said over the weekend.
Consumers are already outraged.
“It’s just robbery,” Minneapolis resident Sage Mills, who bought eggs to bake a birthday, told NBC News recently. “Eggs used to be kind of a staple food for us, but now you know, you might as well just go out to eat.”
The egg price explosion also poses a potential political problem for Trump, who won the White House in November by hammering the Biden Administration for high food and other costs. Trump also promised to bring grocery prices down on his first day in office.
Already, the Democrats are hammering Trump for not making good on his promise to “immediately” lower food prices
In a sign of how sensitive the issue is to the Trump Administration, Karoline Leavitt, in her first official press briefing last week, pointedly blamed the Biden Administration for rising egg prices and even took a jab at the former president.
“There’s a lot of reporting out there that’s putting the onus on this White House for the increased cost of eggs,” Leavitt said. “I’d like to point out to each and every one of you that in 2024 when Joe Biden was in the Oval Office — or upstairs in the residence sleeping, I’m not so sure — egg prices increased 65% in this country.”
Under Biden, the USDA “directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, therefore a lack of egg supply, which is leading to the shortage.”
Leavitt did not mention why the chickens were culled. But she said Brooke Collins, who is Trump’s pick to head the USDA, is already working with the White House economic team “on how we can address the egg shortage in this country.”
During her confirmation hearing last month, Rollins said one of her top priorities is to “immediately and comprehensively get a handle on the state of animal disease outbreaks.”
Rollins is president of the America First Policy Institute, a right-leaning think tank that worked closely with Trump’s campaign to help shape policy on various issues.
The surge in egg prices comes as Trump has signed executive orders that, starting Tuesday, implements tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China — a move that many economists predict will drive-up the prices of other consumer goods and stall, or even stop, the strong post-pandemic economic recovery that began under Biden.
“So at the end of the day, it’s the American taxpayer and American people who are going to pay and pay dearly for this stupid move,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Sunday on MSNBC of the tariffs.
Canada and Mexico have already vowed to retaliate by implementing tariffs on goods from the U.S.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Beijing would file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization “and take necessary countermeasures to firmly safeguard its rights and interests.”
