Warren, McGovern, Lawmakers Blast Trump’s Inaction on High Egg Prices

Lawmakers lay out six executive actions that could lower costs.
“We urge you to make good on your campaign promise to lower food prices for American families.”
Text of Letter (PDF)
Washington, D.C. –U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) led 19 of their colleagues, writing to President Donald Trump, pushing him to take meaningful steps to lower the prices of eggs and other groceries—a problem he largely ignored during his entire first week in office.
During his campaign for president, Mr. Trump repeatedly promised he would lower food prices “immediately” if elected. Trump even told the press, “I won on groceries.” But during his first week, he instead focused on attempting to end birthright citizenship, firing inspectors general, and pardoning January 6 attackers, including those who assaulted Capitol police officers.
“Your sole action on costs was an executive order that contained only the barest mention of food prices and not a single specific policy to reduce them,”wrote the lawmakers.“You have tools you can use to lower grocery costs and crack down on corporate profiteering, and we write to ask if you will commit to using those tools to make good on your promises to the American people.”
“To make food more affordable, you should look to the dominant food and grocery companies that have made record profits on the backs of working families who have had to pay higher prices,”continued the lawmakers.
For example, last year a Kroger executive admitted in federal court that the company raised the price of eggs and milk “significantly higher than the cost of inflation” in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, a federal court found that the country’s largest egg producers had engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy in the mid-2000s as well. Now, egg producers and grocery stores may leverage the current avian flu outbreak as an opportunity to further constrain supply or hike up egg prices to increase profits.
“If you are indeed committed to lowering food prices, we stand ready to work with you,”wrote the lawmakers.
The lawmakers laid out six recommendations for executive actions to lower prices by encouraging competition and fighting price-gouging at each level of the food supply chain:
“Americans are looking to you to lower food prices. Instead of working to lower their grocery bills, however, you have used the first week of your administration on attempting to end birthright citizenship, pardoning individuals who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and renaming a mountain,”concluded the lawmakers. “We urge you to make good on your campaign promise to lower food prices for American families.”
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