Why should America worry about Trump? Try the price of eggs, say some
Democrats
[March 07, 2025]
By STEVE PEOPLES
NEW YORK (AP) — As their party struggles to navigate the early days of
Donald Trump's second presidency, some Democrats are convinced that
their road to recovery lies in the price of eggs.
Instead of leaning into Trump's teardown of the federal government or
his alliance with billionaire lieutenant Elon Musk, they're steering to
what they perceive as the everyday concerns of Americans — none more
important than grocery prices and eggs in particular.
U.S. egg prices hit a record average of $4.95 per dozen in January,
surpassing a previous record set in January 2023, according to federal
data. In some parts of the country, they’re much higher. A Safeway
supermarket in San Francisco was selling a dozen eggs for $10.99 this
week.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects egg prices to rise 41% this
year. Already, some restaurants are adding temporary surcharges when
customers order eggs. Denny’s said its surcharge varies by region and
even by restaurant, while Waffle House added a 50-cent surcharge per egg
at all its restaurants.
The Democratic establishment’s focus on blaming Trump for those price
spikes represents a stark break from its activists, who have launched a
protest movement arguing that Trump is a budding dictator with no regard
for the Constitution.
Such concerns may be valid, some Democratic members of Congress say, but
they don't resonate with working-class Americans trying to feed their
families.
“When that is your day-to-day worry, the philosophical conversations
about a constitutional crisis or the democracy is simply not a luxury
you can afford,” Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Mich. “I’m not saying we
shouldn’t worry about those things, because we should and they are
important, but they are not primary in the minds of the people in
Saginaw, Michigan.”
The message underscores the Democratic ecosystem's broad acknowledgment
that the party must make changes to win back the hearts and minds of
voters worried about the economy, who shifted toward Trump's GOP last
fall and gave Republicans control of the White House and both chambers
of Congress.
It’s unclear, however, whether the Democrats’ newfound focus will do
much in the short term to stop Trump’s sweeping campaign to consolidate
power in Washington or if it can harness the energy of the party’s
progressive base, which wants new and creative solutions to address what
they view as an existential threat.
Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin, whose organization helped coordinate
a nationwide protest movement that put House Republicans on defense,
called the Democrats’ focus on eggs “a communications strategy built for
a 1990s policy fight.”
“They’re looking at polls that say inflation is unpopular, and they
think Dems can win people with boring, tired talking points,” Levin
said. “But it’s 2025 — this isn’t how politics works anymore. And their
failure to update their approach to creeping authoritarianism is a
simple failure of leadership.”
Moving from billionaires to eggs
The Democratic establishment's new approach echoed across Washington
this week after Trump delivered a 99-minute speech to a joint session of
Congress. Trump defended the tariffs he has threatened to impose on
America’s trading partners. A trade war could boost prices further on
everything from fruits and vegetables to cellphones, lumber and cars.
In the opening hours of Trump's presidency, the Democratic National
Committee issued talking points encouraging allies to talk about
“Trump's plans to screw over America” and highlight Trump's alliances
with Musk and other tech billionaires.
The DNC's talking points sounded different after Tuesday's speech.
“We saw Trump ramble on about invading Greenland and planting the
American flag on Mars, but what we didn’t hear was a plan to lower costs
and address Americans’ anxiety about the looming economic disaster he’s
driving us toward,” read the DNC talking points. "Consumer confidence
has fallen sharply, everyday costs are skyrocketing, and congressional
Republicans are pushing deeply unpopular tax cuts for the
ultra-wealthy.”
At the same time, Democratic officials shared new internal data Thursday
that they say indicates inflation and the cost of living are voters’ top
priority. Democracy, by contrast, ranked No. 12.
Public polling goes further.
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A sign is mounted on a shelve of eggs at a grocery store in
Northbrook, Ill., Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
A Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that one month into the new
administration, U.S. adults remain almost universally unhappy about
the cost of groceries. According to the survey, about 9 in 10
Americans say that food prices are “not so good” or “poor,”
including about half who say they’re “poor.” And a CNN/SSRS poll
conducted in mid-February found that about 6 in 10 Americans said
Trump had “not gone far enough” in trying to reduce the price of
everyday goods.
But the party is hardly united on the new approach.
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was ejected from the House chamber during
Trump's speech and eventually censured for refusing to stop shouting
his concerns about potential Medicaid cuts. Other Democrats silently
waved small signs that read “Musk steals,” “Save Medicaid” and
“Lies.” Still others skipped the speech altogether in protest.
Why are egg prices so high?
In this week's speech, Trump blamed the surge on his Democratic
predecessor.
“Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control — the
egg prices out of control. We're working hard to get it back down,"
Trump charged as Democrats in the chamber booed.
The industry and most experts agree that the ongoing bird flu
outbreak is the main reason egg prices are setting records, although
some question whether egg producers are inflating prices to boost
profits.
As further evidence that Trump's team is aware that the situation is
becoming a political liability, Musk used his social media platform
on Thursday to cast more blame on Biden.
“There was an insane slaughter of 150 million egg-laying chickens
ordered by the Biden administration,” Musk wrote on X, neglecting to
mention the millions of egg-laying chickens killed since Trump took
office.
Indeed, as of Thursday afternoon, 27,116,857 birds have been killed
since Trump returned to the White House to limit the spread of bird
flu. That’s because the federal government’s longstanding policy
requires farmers to kill their entire flocks anytime a bird gets
sick to help limit the spread of the virus.
Overall, more than 166 million birds — most of them egg-laying
chickens — have been slaughtered since the outbreak began in 2022.
The Trump administration did unveil a plan to combat bird flu to
help ease egg prices. But the impact is hard to predict given that
the $1 billion plan isn’t a drastic departure from the previous
policy.
Specifically, Trump's plan doesn’t change the USDA’s longstanding
policy of slaughtering flocks when a sick bird is found. Instead,
the plan focuses on helping farmers adopt the most effective
biosecurity measures to keep the virus out and explores the
prospects for a bird flu vaccine, among other moves.
Rep. Josh Riley, D-N.Y., who recently confronted a bird flu outbreak
in his upstate district, said almost every conversation he has with
constituents centers on rising prices, especially eggs. He made a
direct link between concerns about the economy and democracy.
“If you’re worried about our democracy ... that’s more of a reason
to be worried about the price of eggs,” Riley said. “The reason our
democracy is in the situation is in, the reason our country is in
the situation it’s in, is because for decades, politicians have
neglected the needs of everyday working people.”
He continued: “Is it any wonder, after 40 years of shipping jobs
overseas just to make Wall Street rich, after three years of egg
prices skyrocketing and nobody around this place doing a goddamn
thing about it, that people are really, really frustrated and
believe that our democracy does not work for them? Can you blame
them?”
___
AP writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit;
and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed.
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