Donald Trump is currently facing the “great American egg crisis” as the prices continue to rise despite his pre-election promise. The situation emerged from the H5N1 (commonly known as bird flu, which transformed into the biggest outbreak in a decade in the U.S. starting from August 2024.

While the nation is already struggling with the soaring cost of eggs, a daring heist worth approximately $40,000 has escalated the crisis. A police spokeswoman suggested that this Pennsylvania egg theft is seemingly tied to the bird flu situation. It has been reported that hardened criminals have stolen over one thousand organic eggs off the back of a distribution trailer. Law enforcement is currently scrambling to crack the case.

However, this sky-high egg price is a bit of a problem for the newly-elected POTUS. Bringing down the prices of essential goods was a major part of Trump’s presidential campaign.

Democrats are keen to use the most of this opportunity to land a hard blow on him. During his first week in office, the president was accused of his “passivity on the issue.” Democrats claimed that the only action he took was an executive order that “barely mentioned food prices.”

Adding to the escalating situation, Trump’s tariff on China, and also Canada and Mexico, on whom he plans on imposing, is now risking a global trade war. According to experts, this will subsequently lead to further inflation, and the egg prices in the United States will be vastly affected by it.

As of December 2024, the average price for a dozen eggs surged to $4.15. It is not far from hitting an all high, surpassing the $4.82 record from two years ago. According to the Agriculture Department, the price is expected to rise a further 20 per cent this year.

Meanwhile, restaurant chains are also grappling with the situation. Waffle House, earlier this week, added a 50-cent surcharge per egg, bringing down the total cost of its regular two-egg breakfast to a dollar more.

Waffle House is forcing a surcharge of $0.50 per egg on customers to combat the rising price of eggs. https://t.co/IPeWK5bAH1 pic.twitter.com/aRC0d6SfS6

— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) February 5, 2025 

The company commented that while they are waiting for the sudden price surge to end soon, they are unable to predict if it will actually be a short-lived event. Meanwhile, their customers are not happy, and some even called it “blasphemy.”

In many parts of the country, people continue to suffer the consequences of this bird flu outbreak. Many stores have introduced an order limit, while shoppers also face empty shelves or double the usual price.

Will Trump be able to fix the crisis? During his presidential campaign in August, he vowed to “immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” He delivered the press conference in a place surrounded by meat, milk, eggs, and condiments.

However, following his victory, the president is seemingly not eager to keep his promises. In fact, in an interview with Time Magazine, he said, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up.”

The price of a dozen eggs has gone up nearly a full buck since President Trump’s inauguration on January 20th.

Yet of the dozens of executive orders he’s issued, exactly none of them are addressing avian flu, salmonella, and listeria, the key drivers of this price increase. pic.twitter.com/pHCaKBaD5c

— Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) February 6, 2025 

Mr Trump claimed that he plans to take care of the situation by increasing energy production, pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates and deregulation. But will this work? Economists have warned that it may be difficult for the government to pull all these levers.

Jai Kedia, a research fellow at the Cato Institute specializing in monetary policy, said otherwise on the situation, emphasizing that the egg prices are rising, “because there has been a supply problem since before the pandemic, and lots of hens were killed in that period.”

Donald Trump has taken the cue to pin the blame on Joe Biden, the last POTUS. His press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the predecessor of “directing the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens.”

🚨SHUT DOWN! Reporter attempts to place egg price blame on Trump, but Karoline Leavitt fires back:

“When Joe Biden was in the Oval Office or upstairs sleeping.. I’m not so sure.. egg prices increased 65 percent.”
pic.twitter.com/q2qsTyiVse

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 28, 2025

The bird flu outbreak started in 2022 and led many farmers to slaughter their entire poultry. According to The Telegraph, more than 145 million egg-laying chickens, turkeys, and other birds have been killed since the avian pandemic began.

With no sign of the situation abating, Trump might be in hot water. However, it is not the first that such an incident happened during a strongman president’s era. Early last year, Vladimir Putin banned hoarding eggs after the price surged by 40 per cent. As the tension grew, later, he was forced to apologize.

However, such an apology is unlikely to come from the president of the United States. In particular, amid the blockbuster plans of an immigration crackdown, USAID’s merging, DEI issue, tariff, and others, the future of the “great American egg crisis” is unpredictable.