Congressional Democrats are calling out President Donald Trump’s inaction on food prices, even though he campaigned on lowering them. On Monday, 19 of them sent a letter to his desk demanding that he act on record prices impacting American consumers.
“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.”
The letter proposed six concrete measures the White House could take to lower prices, including banning price gouging during crises like pandemics and allowing the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Agriculture to address monopoly practices in the food industry. Democrats bolstered their argument by citing recent examples of corporate price manipulation.
“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,” the Democrats said. “In 2023, a federal court found that the country’s largest egg producers had engaged in a pricefixing conspiracy in the mid-2000s. Major beef, poultry, and potato producers have similarly been accused of or admitted to price-fixing.”
Trump’s presidential campaign harped on inflation and food costs, blaming former President Joe Biden for skyrocketing grocery prices. The majority of voters indicated that the economy was one of the top deciding factors in the 2024 election, if not the top reason.
“First, we must get economic relief to our citizens,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention in July. “Starting on Day 1, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again. We have to make it affordable. It’s not affordable. People can’t live like this.”
Yet Trump spent his first week in office focused on muting health agencies, enacting mass deportations across the country that included wrongfully detaining U.S. veterans, pardoning violent Jan. 6 insurrectionists, potentially getting rid of FEMA, and dismantling DEI programs.
Chocolate, beef, coffee, and orange juice are some of the foods that have seen staggering price spikes over the past year. Meanwhile, egg prices have soared to an all-time high due to inflation and a spike in bird flu, which has led to significant shortages. Prices are expected to continue to increase 20% this year, with some states like California reporting $8 per dozen. Some restaurants have resorted to adding a surcharge for items with eggs in them.
Lowering food costs for working Americans is clearly not a top priority for the Trump administration. His vague executive order that focused on pricing directed the executive branch departments and agencies to “pursue appropriate actions” to lower prices on housing, health care, and home appliances—without any details on how to do so.
Instead of taking decisive action to lower food prices, Trump’s administration seems intent on raising them even higher. Case in point: the ongoing mass deportations of undocumented people, which could lead to labor shortages in industries that rely on migrant agriculture workers. This could further drive up costs for everything from food production to restaurant bills.
While Trump’s focus on high grocery prices has already shifted elsewhere, Democrats are placing the needs of American consumers front and center and working to ensure that grocery bills don’t continue to break the backs of everyday Americans. The ball is now in the White House’s court.
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