WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins told Breitbart News late last week that President Donald Trump and his administration are keenly focused on lowering the price of eggs in the United States and prepared to take any and all actions needed to do so.
Rollins, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday as Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture, spoke to Breitbart News on Friday afternoon on her first full day as Secretary. Rollins previously served in Trump’s White House in his first term, and then later launched the America First Policy Institute—an outside group advocating for America First policies.
After Trump’s historic victory in November’s election, she was appointed to lead USDA—which is a critically important government department involved heavily in policies focused on food prices. Her interview with Breitbart News on Friday afternoon was her first print interview with a non-trade publication.
Rollins said that one of the very critical parts of Trump’s mandate is to lower food prices and combat inflation, and she intends to be part of leading the charge to make that happen.
“First of all, it’s very clear that the president campaigned on significant and transformational change,” Rollins told Breitbart News. “Having been next to him for three years in the last White House, having launched the America First Policy Institute to continue the America First policies beyond President Trump—when I launched it I didn’t know he was going to run again so that wasn’t even really part of the plan, but we knew when the next conservative administration came in we wanted to be ready, and I believe just so sincerely that our team in the last Trump administration was ready and then when that opportunity came again that we would prepare for that day.”
“So when the president obviously ran again and began to talk directly to the American people it was border security, it was peace through strength, it was education opportunity, but right up there was food prices,” she continued. “In many of his interviews and many of his campaign stops, he talked about what happened under Joe Biden and the inflation rates and what that has done to moms who are trying to buy groceries. I am a mom of four teenagers. I feel this like everybody else does. It’s really imperative to me and it’s very top of the list to work as very hard as I can to help the president effectuate his vision on this issue of food prices, and specifically with eggs.”
Food prices have continued to rise—the recent economic numbers released earlier this month showed that the inflation that soared under former President Joe Biden was much worse than anyone in Washington realized—including most particularly the price of eggs. The egg industry has been rocked not just by inflation but also avian flu infecting hens nationwide, leading to shortages so bad that some stores are even implementing limits on how many eggs customers can buy.
Rollins told Breitbart News on Friday that as soon as she was voted on by the U.S. Senate and sworn in as the USDA Secretary that she rushed immediately into briefings Thursday afternoon on egg price issues and that she has spoken to President Trump and other top White House economic advisers, like National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, about the issue. She said to expect major actions this week on egg prices from the Trump administration, though did not provide much detail on specifically what those actions will be.
“My very first briefing—I think I was voted on around noon yesterday, I was sworn in around 3, took a couple pictures, and then I immediately went into a briefing on avian flu and egg prices with the team at USDA,” Rollins told Breitbart News. “I think I had about eight people in my office at USDA about it. I’ve already talked to the president about it. I’ve talked to my counterparts in the White House over at NEC, Kevin Hassett, and we’re not ready to announce anything yet, but next week we’ll be talking about this much more specifically.”
“I want to really get my arms around it before I start talking too much, but there are some real paths we can take,” she explained. “I think it’s real important for your audience to understand these egg prices are at an almost 40-year high and that this has been an upward trajectory for a little while. Now, under the four years of Trump, they came back down in ’17, ’18, ’19, and ’20. At least in recent history, those years we had some of the lowest prices on record.”
“But it is the last four years that have absolutely spiked egg prices, and it’s not surprising because we know the Biden approach of more regulation and higher taxes spiked costs for everyone,” Rollins noted. “I don’t yet want to cast blame or point fingers, but we knew this avian flu was a problem over the last several years, and why more wasn’t done to address it three years ago, two years ago, one year ago? I’m still trying to figure out. But we’re on it. We’re on it. And we’re going to do everything we can to address it.”
Asked for more specifics on what USDA might consider in combatting these issues with the dueling threats of inflation and avian flu, Rollins suggested possible biosecurity measures as well as efforts to repopulate farmers’ flocks.
“We’re looking at every tool in the toolkit including biosecurity measures,” Rollins told Breitbart News. “There are some successful models out there that the USDA is implementing on a much smaller scale. Maybe with all of the cancellation of DEI programs, and we can talk about DOGE too, but identifying additional funding for our farmers to be able to protect against the avian flu is really important in terms of biosecurity measures. There are other countries in the world that use vaccines for their egg-layers that have none of these issues. That’s a complicated solution because there are some trade implications that have to be considered. But listen, when Canada’s price of eggs is much lower than ours and they’re using that approach, that’s something we need to take a very strong look at.”
“Working to accelerate repopulation as the Biden administration and their USDA depopulated—which means wiped out—millions and millions of egg-layers,” she cited as another means of relief. “How do we quickly repopulate those farmers and their flocks? These are all really important points, and there are some other things we can do, but I think it’s important to note that it’s not going to happen overnight. This is years of arguably ineffective decision-making and not completely addressing the problem. There is a good chance we begin to cool this down over the coming weeks, more likely the coming months, and we’re already in talks with other food producers across the country, but I think it’s important everyone realize there is not a magic wand to be waved here. But there are some things we can do to begin tackling it not just for the next quarter of this year but for the next 10 years and 50 years to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Much more from the exclusive Breitbart News interview with Rollins is coming soon.
The post Exclusive — Trump’s USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins on Lowering Egg Prices: ‘We’re On It,’ ‘Going to Do Everything We Can to Address It’ appeared first on Breitbart.
