Is US egg shortage Biden’s fault, as Trump spokesperson claims?

President Donald Trump promised to lower prices for groceries, including eggs. But one crack in his plan is that egg prices haven’t fallen since he took office on January 20.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in her first on-camera news briefing on January 28, blamed that on former President Joe Biden’s “inflationary policies”.Leavitt said the Biden administration and the US Agriculture Department “directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, therefore a lack of egg supply, which is leading to the shortage”.

Leavitt’s statement is partially accurate about the culling of millions of chickens, but she omitted important details and context about why that happened.

First, the chickens were killed to prevent the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu.

Second, it’s been longstanding USDA policy to cull an entire flock of birds once bird flu has been detected, including during Trump’s first administration.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly referred PolitiFact back to Leavitt’s news briefing comments.

Egg prices rose under Biden – from $1.60 per dozen in February 2021 to $4.10 in December 2024 (his first and last full months in office), Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. The Agriculture Department’s January food price outlook said egg prices could rise about 20 percent more this year.

A spokesperson for Expana, a company that tracks consumer prices, told news outlet Axios that a dozen large eggs costs more than $7 in some US regions.