President Trump has repeatedly boasted about bringing down egg prices during his second term.He's often blamed former President Joe Biden for the recent high costs American consumers were paying for the dietary staple, claiming it was his return to office that finally put an end to runaway egg prices.It's true that the price of eggs has declined by more than half over the course of Trump's second term.
According to federal data, the average cost of a dozen eggs when he took office in January 2025 was $4.95, while the typical price this August was just $2.27.But the reasons why egg prices have plunged so far in that time are complicated, and agriculture industry experts say the administration has taken other actions that have made it harder for farms to turn a profit.Perhaps the single most significant factor affecting egg prices in the past five years has little to do with policy.Avian flu wiped out flocks across the U.S.
and ate into domestic egg supplies, causing retail prices to take off.Prices went down again as flocks recovered."That's been the big factor, and it's overwhelming everything else," said Michael Walden, an emeritus professor of economics at North Carolina State University.The Trump administration has helped farmers beef up biosecurity measures to protect their flocks, and Walden also noted that the U.S.
Department of Agriculture tried to cut red tape for egg farmers.But he said Trump's tariffs on foreign trading partners and the war with Iran have made life harder for farmers by driving up their operating costs for necessities like diesel."While the federal government has tried to loosen some regulations on farmers to reduce costs, the benefits there have been far outweighed by the negatives," he said.Now, as the midterm elections approach, Trump and his fellow Republicans continue to grapple with voters' concerns about affordability — in particular, the cost of food.Beginning in early 2022, the U.S.
began experiencing its largest outbreak of...