Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is sticking it to the “radical Left” on National Egg Day by bragging about falling prices, but her celebration doesn’t quite capture the larger picture.
“PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT!” she crowed on X Tuesday, claiming that “For months, the radical Left gloated over soaring egg prices, desperately pinning their failures on President Trump.”
But Rollins’ promises, not unlike her boss Donald Trump’s, are being kept in glass henhouses.
The price of eggs was indeed down as of Tuesday after a bird flu epidemic that curtailed the supply for months. Americans are once again enjoying an over-easy breakfast without breaking the bank—thanks, in part, to Rollins’ short-term import plan.
To try to ease the pain of a decimated egg supply and subsequent record-high prices, Rollins opted to import 1.6 million eggs from Turkey, Brazil, and South Korea in January and February alone.
Related | Trump begs Denmark for eggs after months of threats and taunts
However, this temporary fix only serves as a Band-Aid while struggling chicken farmers across the United States work to restore egg production to normal levels. And continuing to lean on countries like Turkey and Brazil might be difficult as they deal with their own bouts of bird flu, according to Reuters.
And while Rollins gave herself a pat on the back Tuesday, one of the largest egg suppliers in the Southwest was still grappling with the loss of nearly 6 million hens.
Hickman’s Family Farms in Arizona was hit by the highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as HPAI, forcing the supplier to close its operations. The farm, which employs about 850 people, is expected to have massive layoffs as well.
CEO Glenn Hickman pointed a finger at Rollins’ inaction for why millions of chickens are dead. Despite the USDA granting conditional approval in February for a poultry vaccine, the billion-dollar meat industry has lobbied against its use in the U.S. because some countries won’t buy vaccinated meat.
“The federal government knows that vaccination works,” Hickman said during a press conference on May 30. “Some European countries are already vaccinating their poultry.”
The Trump administration seems to be siding with the billion-dollar meat industry for now. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time Rollins chose big business over workers and consumers.
“The news about the devastating impact of HPAI on Hickman's Family Farms is another reminder that we are not yet out of the woods on HPAI,” a spokesperson for the American Egg Board told Daily Kos. “More action is required to defeat the deadly HPAI virus.”
In other words, Rollins is trying to have her eggs and eat them too.
Campaign Action Alix Breeden June 04, 2025 at 12:00AM From Daily Kos
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