Can we just make egg prices normal again?
In the lead up to his presidency, Donald Trump promised that he would bring the cost of groceries “way down” on an interview with NBC. He soon backtracked on his vow, telling Time Magazine that it would be “very hard” to reduce prices like he promised. The internet has been flaming him ever since. “$13 carton of eggs! What a deal!” wrote Brian Krassenstein on Twitter, captioning a picture of a shelf of eggs bearing the sign “LIMIT ONE CASE OF EGGS PER CUSTOMER.” Krassenstein expressed his mock appreciation with a “Thank you Trump!” alongside “Making America Great Again!”
The price of eggs has reached record highs in recent months due to an epidemic of avian flu sweeping through American poultry farms, and is expected to stay high throughout the year. Since Trump took office, the price of food is expected to trend upward at an average 2.2%. Egg prices meanwhile will continue rise by about 20%.
Gotta call the plug for an omelette these days.
The clown show continues. The Trump administration recently decided to throw a pie in the face of three separate health agencies. The CDC, the FDA and the NIH were each told to stop all communication with the public until the end of January—at the same time the public is being affected by the avian flu. The move could possibly delay critical reports on the flu, and one person has died from the flu already.
According to the internet, Donald Trump has the situation under control. $18 eggs will soon be available for all.
While Trump previously talked a big game about lowering the price of food, his policies are set to have the opposite effect. Perhaps one of the most dire threats to the American food industry is Trump’s mass deportation plan, which he enacted on his first day in office. The trump administration has since empowered ICE to perform numerous raids across the nation, sometimes without a warrant. As a result, migrant farm workers are a fearful to show up for work, and many of them aren’t returning at all. According to the California Farm Bureau, a migrant labor shortage has almost entirely halted the citrus harvest in Central Valley.
Should Trump continue his deportation agenda with impunity, the agricultural industry woe’s will only compound. Migrants back up the backbone of the American agriculture, contributing to as much 42% of the workforce. Should Trump’s deportation plan go into full effect, the nation’s entire food supply system could be serious jeopardy.
Trump’s deportation plan isn’t the only thing set to drive up the cost of food. The Trump administration has threatened severe tariffs on NAFTA neighbors Canada and Mexico, and is set to levy high taxes on Chinese and European imports as well. The resulting effect will be disastrous for the American consumer, and the price of goods across the nation is set to skyrocket as the tariffs come into play. In 2024, the U.S. imported nearly $50 billion worth of food from Mexico alone, including fresh fruit and beverages—all of which will become more expensive if Trump makes good on his tariff threat.
Despite MAGA’s view to the contrary, expelling America’s agriculture labor force and igniting international trade wars will make the nation anything but great. America will become poorer than before, with working class Americans taking the brunt of the impact – working class Americans who voted for Trump will only have themselves to blame.
Published: Jan 28, 2025 04:28 am