White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt exposed the Biden administration for driving an egg shortage through the "mass killing" of chickens, as President Trump comes under pressure to lower the cost of groceries.
The price of eggs has increased in part because of a bird flu outbreak that has killed millions of chickens through disease or culling. Leavitt suggested Biden mismanaged the situation at her first press briefing on Tuesday.
In the last quarter of 2024 alone, 20 million chickens died from bird flu. The impact has been felt by shoppers, with the average cost of a dozen Grade A large eggs hitting $4.15 in December.
President Trump made a campaign pledge to tackle inflation that soared under his predecessor, and Democrats aren't letting the president forget his promise. Republicans have fired back that Trump is inheriting a sticky economic problem that will take time to address.
"I would 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% in this country," Leavitt said.
"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," Leavitt said.
"As far as the egg shortage," she said. "What is also contributing to that is the Biden administration and the Department of Agriculture directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, and therefore a lack of egg supply, which is leading to the shortage."
The Department of Agriculture projects future egg price increases in 2025, with costs possibly hitting $5 by the end of the year.
When farmers find bird flu, they are forced to kill their entire flocks. Egg prices have also been attributed to cage-free laws in a handful of liberal states, which ban the sale of eggs from chickens confined in cages.
“Unlike in past years, in 2024, all major production systems experienced significant losses, including conventional caged, cage-free, and certified organic types,” said the USDA.
While it may be true that Biden drove inflation, Americans will eventually expect to see prices come down. Trump has acknowledged that it won't be easy.
"I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard," Trump told TIME in December,
