Waffle House has just shown us how badly President Donald Trump is failing egg-centric Americans.
Like many voters, I am a breakfast-oriented ovo-voter, meaning I cast my presidential ballot for whoever I think will bring down the price of eggs. We ovo-voters had our voices heard loud and clear in the 2024 presidential election. Egg prices were high, so we voted for Donald Trump, a convicted felon, because we figured he’d strong-arm the chicken cartel.
Boy, was that a mistake. On Tuesday we learned the restaurant chain Waffle House will start charging customers a 50-cent-per-egg surcharge. That means the special-order 12-egg-and-sausage scramble I have each morning before heading to work at the defibrillator factory will cost an extra $6.00!!
Trump told me the cost of my eggs would go down, not up!
Waffle House has introduced a new surcharge for eggs amid rising prices thanks primarily to bird flu.
Waffle House officials released a statement that said: “Consumers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions. Rather than increasing prices across the menu, this is a temporary targeted surcharge tied to the unprecedented rise in egg prices.”
Excuse me, but I specifically voted for lower egg prices, not for an “unprecedented rise in egg prices.”
Is bird flu to blame for the egg prices? Nah, it’s gotta be the president.
The company blames the ongoing spread of bird flu, and The Associated Press reported: “Bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, pushing U.S. egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023. And it appears there may be no relief in sight with Easter approaching.”
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Blah, blah, blah. If I cared about the “reason” egg prices are high, I wouldn’t have previously blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for egg prices and then voted for the Republican presidential nominee.
bacon, egg and cheese hashbrown bowl
And now that Trump is in office, you know what I’m having to do when I got to Waffle House? I’M HAVING TO PAY EXTRA FOR MY BACON, EGG AND CHEESE HASHBROWN BOWL!!!
Trump seems to be doing everything except trying to lower egg prices
And what is the president I entrusted to oversee the egg economy doing while consumers like me face some form of Waffle House egg tariff?
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office on Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington, DC. After signing a series of executive orders and proclamations, Trump spoke to reporters about a range of topics including recent negotiations with Mexico on tariffs.
Well, he appears to be focusing on removing words associated with diversity, equity and inclusion from government websites and getting thousands of government employees to accept buyout offers.
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I care about yolk, not woke. And unless those government employees are going to enter the private sector as large-scale chicken farmers or start laying eggs, I don’t care about the buyouts, either.
I’m an egg-price voter, and I demand fast results
It seems that bird flu is causing egg prices to soar, and if egg prices were one of the top priorities of the people who put Trump in office, maybe he should be focusing on dealing with the bird flu crisis.
Instead, he’s focused on letting an unelected billionaire like Elon Musk take over the U.S. Treasury with his band of non-egg-producing minions and making sure nobody ever says the word “gender.”
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Trump can dismantle the federal government and push America toward fascism and line his pockets all he wants. As long as I’m not having to pay more for eggs at Waffle House.
That’s pretty much what I said with my vote in November, and I’d be a real hypocrite if I changed that view now.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Waffle House egg surcharge is Trump’s latest economic fail | Opinion
