Dem
47
GOP
53
One of the main reasons Donald Trump got elected is that people felt that eggs cost too much and that Trump would lower the price. Given that, one would have expected that among the dozens of XOs so far, there would have been an eggsecutive order lowering the price. There wasn't any. The president can't do that, but it is a secret. The voters don't know that. Here is a graph showing the price of a dozen eggs since 2013. That price is now at an all-time high:
The reason for the current spike is the avian bird flu, which is requiring egg producers to cull their flocks of chickens. There is nothing the president can do about this. Still when voters are unhappy, they blame the president.
Trump's promise to lower prices is about to hit reality in multiple ways and he is ill-prepared to deal with it. The only XO so far touching on prices is a five-paragraph XO that devotes the first four paragraphs to saying that things are expensive and it is Joe Biden's fault. The fifth one orders the bureaucracy to do things to lower prices, like eliminating "coercive climate policies." It is worth reading because it appears that Trump wrote it personally. Former and future director of the OMB Russell Vought doesn't whine like that.
But most of the actions Trump will take are going to drive prices up, not down. Tariffs, which he has promised by Saturday, will make imports more expensive. He also has tried to get the Fed to lower interest rates, but lower interest rates give people more money in their pockets, so they spend more, which drives up prices. Drill, baby, drill, could take years to have any effect. Besides, oil companies generally only expand drilling when world oil prices are high and seem likely to remain so. That is not the case right now.
People are not confident that Trump will succeed in lowering prices. An AP/NORC poll taking in January shows this clearly
:
The conclusion here is people don't have much faith in Trump to lower prices. And again, keep in mind that when people are unhappy, they blame the president. Democrats are sure to remind the voters in 2026 that they gave Republicans total power in 2024 and they did nothing to help them. Time to try the other team. (V)