Can Trump fix eggflation?

“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs” is a maxim attributed to leaders on both sides of the French Revolution. “Move fast and break things” is today’s equivalent, emanating from Silicon Valley and amply demonstrated by Donald Trump and Elon Musk in their approach to government and geopolitics. “You can’t make omelettes at all if you can’t afford eggs” might be the next variant: inflation and scarcity afflicting America’s favorite breakfast have become a major political issue.

In brief, a dozen US eggs used to cost $2 or less but by January this year the supermarket price was $5 and rising – in some places $9 was reported, rationing had to be introduced and Mexican suppliers were spotted smuggling truckloads across the border. The primary cause is an avian flu epidemic leading to the mass culling of flocks. Trump blamed Joe Biden for mishandling the crisis (though culling is a standard response) and claimed he would fix the problem on “day one” of his new presidency. Having failed to do so he tried to downplay it by re-posting a Truth Social article headed “Shut up about egg prices” before returning to the subject (“We’re working hard to get it down”) in his recent speech to Congress.

In his haste to heap chicken shit (as it were) on Biden and federal bureaucrats, Trump seems to have overlooked another factor: corporate profiteering. Eggs still cost only 70-90 cents a dozen to produce; America’s largest supplier, Cal-Maine Foods of Jackson, Mississippi, tripled its profits between 2021 and 2024. And prices have stayed high partly because the US egg industry has not rebuilt capacity after the culls as fast as might have been expected – because two other companies have strangled the supply of egg-laying hens.

And guess what, both live in the bloc Trump believes was formed “to screw the United States”: the European Union. I’m grateful to lawyer Basel Musharbash, in a report titled “Hatching a Conspiracy,” for the information that family-owned Erich Wesjohann Group of Visbek, Germany, and private-equity-held Hendrix Genetics at Boxmeer in the Netherlands between them command duopoly power over US and European layer-hen breeding. Both have shown steep growth in US revenues, while allegedly stoking grocery bills by keeping chick supply tight.

So there’s your next target, Mr. President. Meanwhile, egg prices dipped this week as demand faltered but are expected to rise again towards Easter – and this is just the sort of mundane issue that could one day burst the preposterous Trump balloon. Inflation-stung US consumers and offended citizens everywhere should hang the expense and take every chance to hurl eggs at him.