NEw York – While their party has trouble sailing in the first days of Donald Trump’s second presidency, some Democrats are convinced that their path to recovery lies in the price of eggs.
Instead of looking at Trump’s dismantling of the federal government or its alliance with Lieutenant billionaire Elon Musk, they are heading for what they perceive as the daily concerns of Americans – not more important than the prices of the grocery store and the eggs in particular.
The prices of American eggs reached an average record of $ 4.95 per dozen in January, exceeding a previous record set in January 2023, according to federal data. In some parts of the country, they are much higher. A Safeway supermarket in San Francisco sold a dozen eggs for $ 10.99 this week.
Find out more: Why are the eggs so expensive at the moment
The American Department of Agriculture expects egg prices to increase 41% this year. Some restaurants already add temporary surcharge when customers order eggs. Denny’s said that its surcharge varies according to the region and even by restaurant, while Waffle House added an additional 50 cents per egg in all its restaurants.
The emphasis on the Democratic Establishment on the Trump blame for these price tips represents a striking break in its activists, who launched a protest movement arguing that Trump is a budding dictator without regard to the Constitution.
Such concerns may be valid, say certain Democrats of Congress, but they do not resonate with the Americans of the working class trying to feed their families.
“When it is your daily concern, philosophical conversations on a constitutional crisis or democracy is simply not a luxury that you can afford,” said representative Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Mich. “I am not saying that we must not worry about these things, because we should and they are important, but they are not primary in the minds of the people of Saginaw, Michigan.”
Find out more: Do egg producers swell prices during the bird flu epidemic?
The message highlights the broad recognition of the democratic ecosystem that the party must make changes to win back the heart and mind of the workers worried about the economy, which has moved to Trump’s GOP last fall and gave the Republicans control of the White House and the two Congress Chambers.
It is not clear, however, if the new orientation of the Democrats will do a lot in the short term to stop Trump’s radical campaign to consolidate power in Washington or if it can exploit the energy of the progressive basis of the party, which wants new and creative solutions to approach what they consider an existential threat.
The indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin, whose organization helped coordinate a national protest movement which put the Republicans in the Chamber in Defense, called the Democrats on eggs “a communication strategy built for a political struggle of the 1990s”.
“They look at surveys that say that inflation is unpopular, and they think that DEMS can earn people with boring and tired discussion points,” said Levin. “But it’s 2025 – it’s no longer how politics works. And their inability to update their approach to rampant authoritarianism is a simple failure of leadership. »»
Go from billionaires to eggs
The new approach to the Democrat Establishment echoed Washington this week after Trump delivered a 99 -minute speech to a joint congress session. Trump defended the rates he threatened to impose on American business partners. A trade war could further increase prices on everything, from fruits and vegetables to mobile phones, wood and cars.
In the opening hours of Trump’s presidency, the National Democratic Committee published discussion points encouraging the Allies to speak of “Trump plans to screw America” and highlight Trump’s alliances with Musk and other technological billionaires.
DNC’s discussion points seemed different after Tuesday’s speech.
“We saw Trump walking on invading Greenland and the planting of the American flag on Mars, but what we did not hear was a plan to reduce costs and approach the anxiety of the Americans about the imminent economic disaster to which he leads us,” read the DNC discussion points. “Consumer confidence has dropped sharply, daily costs are soaring and the congress republicans are pushing deeply unpopular tax reductions for ultra-rich.”
At the same time, democratic officials shared new internal data on Thursday which, they say that inflation and the cost of living are the absolute priority of voters. Democracy, on the other hand, was placed n ° 12.
The public survey goes further.
A Washington Post / Ipsos survey has revealed that a month after the new administration, American adults remain almost universally dissatisfied with the cost of the grocery store. According to the survey, around 9 out of 10 Americans say that food prices are “not so good” or “poor”, including about half that say they are “poor”. And a CNN / SSRS survey conducted in mid-February revealed that around 6 out of 10 Americans said that Trump had “not gone far enough” trying to reduce the price of daily goods.
But the party is hardly united on the new approach.
The representative of Al Green, D-Texas, was ejected from the house of the house during Trump’s speech and finally censored for refusing to stop shouting his concerns concerning the potential cups of Medicaid. Other Democrats have made silent signs of small signs that read “Musk Steals”, “Save Medicaid” and “Lies”. Still others have completely jumped the speech to protest.
Why are egg prices so high?
In this week’s speech, Trump blamed the push of his Democratic predecessor.
“Joe Biden in particular left the price of eggs becoming uncontrollable – the prices of eggs out of control. We work hard to bring him back, “said Trump while the Democrats in the House were hué.
The industry and most experts are suitable that the current bird flu epidemic is the main reason why egg prices establish recordings, although some wonder if egg producers swell prices to increase benefits.
As an additional proof that Trump’s team is aware that the situation becomes a political responsibility, Musk used its social media platform on Thursday to blame Biden more.
“There was a crazy slaughter of 150 million egg -weathed chickens commanded by the Biden administration,” wrote Musk on X, neglecting to mention the millions of egg chickens killed since Trump took up his duties.
Indeed, from Thursday afternoon, 27,116,857 birds were killed since Trump returned to the White House to limit the spread of the bird flu. Indeed, the long -standing policy of the federal government forces farmers to kill their entire flock each time a bird falls ill to help limit the propagation of the virus.
Overall, more than 166 million birds – most egg -weighted chickens – have been shot down since the start of the epidemic in 2022.
The Trump administration has unveiled a plan to combat bird flu to help reduce egg prices. But the impact is difficult to predict since the $ 1 billion plan is not a radical difference compared to the previous policy.
More specifically, Trump’s plan does not change the longtime policy of the USDA of the slaughter of herds when a sick bird is found. Instead, the plan focuses on farmers’ aid to adopt the most effective biosecurity measures to prevent the virus from exploring and exploring the prospects of a bird flu vaccine, among others.
Representative Josh Riley, Dn.y., who recently confronted an epidemic of bird flu in his northern district, said that almost all the conversations he had with voters centered on prices increase, in particular eggs. He has established a direct link between concerns about the economy and democracy.
“If you worry about our democracy … It’s more a reason to worry about the price of eggs,” said Riley. “The reason why our democracy is in the situation, the reason why our country is in the situation in which it is, it is because for decades, politicians have neglected the needs of daily workers.”
He continued: “Is it astonishing, after 40 years of shipping jobs abroad just to make Wall Street Rich, after three years of priced eggs arrows and that no one in this place, doing a fucking thing on this subject, that people are really, really frustrated and believe that our democracy does not work for them? Can you blame them?
The writers AP Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit; and Amelia Thomson Deveaux in Washington contributed.
