In a twist no one saw coming, least of all economists, one of Donald Trump’s more eyebrow-raising economic boasts just stumbled into reality.
For months, Trump had been insisting egg prices were dropping like a rock. At the time, it wasn’t true, and fact-checkers had a field day. But now? It suddenly is.
According to fresh data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, egg prices plummeted 12.7% in just the last month, the steepest one-month drop since 1984. And the USDA says prices may keep falling. A dozen large white-shell eggs now average $3.30, a 69-cent dip in just one week.
So what changed?
For over a year, consumers cracked open their wallets to pay historic highs due to a devastating avian flu outbreak that decimated flocks. At one point, egg prices surged 49.3% year-over-year. Even this past Easter saw the most expensive eggs on record.
But supply chains are finally stabilizing, bird flu cases are down, and demand has cooled. That cocktail of market forces is now finally trickling down to grocery aisles.
Trump, meanwhile, jumped the gun.
In February, he loudly credited his administration for the phantom price plunge. At a rally, he claimed egg prices had dropped “like 93, 94%.” They hadn’t. At best, wholesale prices — what distributors pay, not consumers — had dropped by half. Consumer prices hadn’t budged.
Still, Trump’s premature celebration now sounds eerily prescient.
Was he bluffing? Misreading wholesale data? Taking credit in advance? Maybe all three. But the irony remains: Trump’s egg-price fiction has hatched into economic reality just weeks after he claimed it.
“Maybe the worst of EggGate has passed,” said Tyler Schipper, economics professor at the University of St. Thomas.
That’s cold comfort for shoppers still paying nearly 50% more than a year ago. But for now, at least, it looks like the yolk’s on the critics.
