Donald Trump routinely attacked Joe Biden for the cost of groceries last year. Now Democrats are trying to leave Trump with egg on his face.
The price of eggs has remained stubbornly high since Trump’s November victory. The key culprit: an Avian flu outbreak that throttled supply after arriving on the scene in 2022, and intensified in the final months of 2024. This week, popular southern breakfast chain Waffle House announced a 50-cent surcharge per egg on all menu items, to remain in place while the shortage persists.
Now, Democrats are hoping the issue will resonate with voters as they try to find their footing during a dizzying start to Trump’s second term. Some have honed in on Trump gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development, arguing that emptying out the foreign aid agency will only make things worse.
“Bird flu outbreaks are driving up egg prices for families,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote on X Monday. “Now, Elon Musk wants to shut down USAID, the agency responsible for monitoring outbreaks in dozens of foreign countries. With egg prices increasing grocery bills, why halt efforts to prevent a U.S. bird flu crisis?”
It is a reversal from 2024, when Trump and his running mate, now-Vice President JD Vance, continuously hammered Democrats over inflation on the campaign trail. But Republicans focused in particular on the price of eggs.
“Look at the prices here,” Vance said at a Pennsylvania grocery store in September. “Things are way too expensive, and they’re way too expensive because of Kamala Harris’ policies.”
But the president doesn’t have all that many levers to pull for egg prices. And Democrats are leaping at the opportunity to go after Trump over something he so heavily focused on when he was out of office.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) posted a video on social media from an IHOP alongside his son on Sunday morning. He said they go on weekends for pancakes.
“IHOP: International House of Paying-more-for-eggs-because-Trump-is-doing-nothing-to-lower-costs-or-combat-bird-flu,” he wrote alongside the video.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture now says the price of eggs will likely jump by 20 percent in 2025. An executive order Trump signed in January placed deregulation at the center of his cost-cutting strategy. But the administration has already looked to temper expectations that he’ll be able to lower prices on staples immediately.
“President Trump is already taking bold action to drive down costs with his executive actions to unleash American energy, and he is working diligently with Secretary Brooke Rollins to address the price of eggs,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to POLITICO. “Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren cheered on Joe Biden as he nearly doubled egg prices over four years — no one takes them seriously.”
And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt last week pushed back against Trump being blamed for egg prices, primarily blaming the Biden administration.
“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 said at her first press briefing.
Democrats aren’t buying it. They say Trump has already blown through a key campaign promise.
The White House has in recent days taken drastic steps to reorganize USAID and strip the embattled agency of its autonomy. USAID’s headquarters were closed Monday and Secretary of State Marco Rubio named its acting administrator. Trump doubled down on Tuesday, taking steps to put nearly all of the agency’s Washington-based staff on leave.
But shutting down an office that fights diseases worldwide will only mean prices stay high, Democrats argue.
“At a time of soaring egg prices, the Trump administration shutting off USAID programs that fight the global spread of bird flu is utterly asinine,” Schumer said on X.
from Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories https://ift.tt/89oMb0O
via IFTTT
0 Commentaires