Leavitt says egg shortage, grocery prices why Senate must ‘move swiftly’ to confirm Trump nominees

President Donald Trump’s White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt urged members of Congress to confirm Trump’s nominees to address problems like the U.S. egg shortage and the cost of living crisis. 

“This is an example of why it’s so incredibly important that the Senate moves swiftly to confirm all of President Trump’s nominees, including his nominee for the United States Department of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, who is already speaking with Kevin Hassett, who’s leading the economic team here at the White House, on how we can address the egg shortage in this country,” Leavitt told reporters Tuesday at her first White House press briefing. 

“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. 

Leavitt’s comments came directly after Democrats took several jabs at Trump’s handling of the cost of living crisis just days after his inauguration, citing rising prices for eggs amid larger conversations about the price of groceries and cost of living as a whole. 

While the consumer price index shows consumer prices increased roughly 20% under former President Joe Biden’s administration, Democrats remain skeptical that Trump’s economic proposals will prove effective. 

“The price of eggs and the cost of living was supposed to go down. Not up,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a post on X on Friday. 

SHELLING OUT: EGG PRICES RISE NEARLY 37 PERCENT

“Trump’s ‘concepts of a plan’ at work,” Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., said in a post on X on Friday, pointing to a photo claiming a dozen eggs cost nearly $9. It’s unclear where the photo originated or its authenticity. 

Subramanyam’s post referenced Trump’s comments that he had “concepts of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act, during a September 2024 presidential debate with former Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Meanwhile, the consumer price index shows egg prices have soared nearly 37% in the past year. For example, a dozen Grade A large eggs cost an average of $4.15 in December — up from $2.51 in December 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

In some states like California, those numbers have gone up to nearly $9 per dozen in certain areas. California, like other states including Arizona, Massachusetts and Michigan, requires all eggs sold in the state to come from cage-free hens, which typically are more expensive. 

The rise in egg prices comes amid high demand and a massive outbreak of avian flu, known as the highly pathogenic avian influenza, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture attributes to killing more than 20 million egg-laying hens in the last quarter of 2024. All birds from an infected flock are culled, exacerbating the impact of the flu. 

Leavitt on Tuesday blamed this killing policy for contributing to the egg shortage. 

“The Biden Administration’s slow and ineffective response to the avian influenza outbreak, which began in 2022, has negatively impacted U.S. poultry producers, and his USDA forced farmers to massively cut their livestock populations,” Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, said in a Monday statement to Fox News Digital. 

As a result, Kelly said Trump and Rollins would take “bold, decisive action” to address problems related to the avian flu, and direct the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to refocus on the health of animals and plants. 

Democrats previously have questioned Trump’s ability to reduce grocery prices, and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said in early January that “Trump has no idea” how to cut down such prices. 

SWALWELL SLAMMED ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR QUESTIONING HOW TRUMP WILL LOWER GROCERY PRICES 

“I don’t care if Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland. I just want to know what he’s going to do to lower the cost of groceries,” Rep. Swalwell wrote on X on Jan. 7. 

Vice President JD Vance addressed the cost of groceries in an interview Sunday with CBS’ Margaret Brennan, citing several executive orders that Trump signed his first week in office focused on the economy and reducing energy prices. Among those orders was a directive instructing every department and agency to address the cost of living crisis.

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE PRESSED ON WHEN GROCERY PRICES WILL COME DOWN: ‘WHICH ONE LOWERS PRICES?’

“Prices are going to come down, but it’s going to take a little bit of time, right?” Vance said. “The president has been president for all of five days. I think that, in those five days, he’s accomplished more than Joe Biden did in four years.” 

The state of the economy ranked as the top issue in the 2024 election, according to a Gallup poll conducted in September 2024.

Voters also believed Trump better equipped to address the economy than his opponent, Harris. While 54% of American voters claimed Trump could better handle the economy, only 45% backed Kamala, the poll found. 

Fox Business’ Alexandra Koch and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.