Trump Vowed to 'Immediately' Bring Down Egg Prices. His New Press Secretary Says Sudden Spike Is Biden's Fault

Mar. 15, 2025

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has been forced to address the sudden rise in egg prices.Photo:Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty; Getty

Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty; Getty

Egg priceshave risen in the short time since PresidentDonald Trumptook office — despite hiscampaign promiseto “immediately bring prices down, starting on day one” — leading White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to begin mounting her boss’s defense.

In her first official White House press briefing on Tuesday, Leavitt, 27, blamed former PresidentJoe Bidenfor rising costs with “everything” across the country right now — including eggs, which have started to increase in price and demand due to bird flu outbreaks among chicken flocks.

“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 percent in this country.”

Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden debate on June 28, 2024.EyePress News/Shutterstock

EyePress News/Shutterstock

During the press conference, Leavitt claimed the spike in egg prices were due to the Biden administration’s “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.”

However, the “killings” are a standard practice for the Department of Agriculture — which the Trump administration is poised to continue — that’s intended to contain the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI, colloquially known as the bird flu.

“There is no treatment for HPAI. The only way to stop the disease is to depopulate all affected and exposed poultry,” theAnimal and Plant Health Inspection Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, writes on its website.

“Not to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re in this for a while,” Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, previously toldCNNof egg shortages. “Until we have time without a detection, unfortunately this very, very tight egg supply is going to continue.”

Donald Trump on Jan. 27.Joe Raedle/Getty

Joe Raedle/Getty

In the 2024 election, the cost of groceries, gas and other necessary goods was a large force behind how citizens voted — and two thirds of the people who cited basic goods cost as the most important issue for them voted for Trump.

However, many of the policy changes Trump has since began implementing — including a push for increased domestic oil production, decreased Biden-era climate change initiatives and unprecedented tariffs on imported goods — will have either no effect on prices or will affect them adversely, an expert told CNN.

source: people.com