Trump’s False Claims about Gas, Egg Prices – FactCheck.org

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Several times over the last week, President Donald Trump has assured Americans that the prices of eggs and gasoline are down significantly. But he has made false claims about the cost of both products.

“Prices are going down, not going up,” Trump said in Oval Office remarks on April 22, for example. “I see that we had a couple of states where gasoline was at $1.98 a gallon. Nobody thought they’d see that for years maybe.”

Later in his remarks, he said, “And as you know, the cost of eggs has come down like 93%, 94% since we took office, and they’re pretty much normally priced now.”

As of March, the most recent data available, the average retail price of eggs was up, not down. And there are no states where the price of gasoline has dipped below $2. The national average is $3.11.

Here are the facts.

Egg Prices

Contrary to what Trump claimed, average retail egg prices paid by consumers were still increasing last month, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data that is publicly available. In March, the nationwide average price for a dozen grade A white eggs was about $6.23 – up 5.6% from $5.90 in February, and up 25.7% from $4.95 in January.

Average grocery prices overall went up in March as well, contradicting Trump’s April 18 claim that “groceries are down,” too. The Consumer Price Index for at-home food items increased 0.49% from February — the last monthly decrease in the CPI was in March 2024.

April data on retail egg prices, and grocery prices, will be published in May. The average retail price of eggs would have to fall to about $0.35 a dozen for Trump’s claim of a “93%, 94%” price drop to be accurate.

Trump has previously referred to wholesale prices when claiming that egg prices have decreased by large percentages. The wholesale price is what retailers pay to farmers and other egg producers to procure eggs to sell in their stores.

But even wholesale prices haven’t declined by more that 90%.

As of April 18, the average wholesale price for graded, loose, white large shell eggs was $3.13 per dozen, according to the Department of Agriculture. That was down about 47% from the average price of about $5.87 on Jan. 17, days before Trump was sworn into office again.

The USDA will release its updated wholesale price data on April 25.

As we’ve written, egg prices spiked in 2024 because an avian influenza outbreak led to an egg shortage when tens of millions of egg-producing chickens were killed to prevent further spread of the virus. The USDA has said that wholesale egg prices began to decline because of “no significant outbreaks” of bird flu in March, which helped stabilize the U.S. egg supply.

Some economists have said that retail egg prices may not drop until store inventories diminish or retailers make back some of their lost profits.

We asked the White House for the source of the president’s claim about egg prices. In a statement emailed to us, Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said: “President Trump directed [Department of Agriculture] Secretary Brooke Rollins to develop a plan to combat bird flu, and their work has paid off – egg prices are down significantly since the President took office.”

Gas Prices

On at least four occasions in recent days, Trump has mentioned both eggs and the price of gasoline — claiming that gasoline prices are down dramatically since he took office and have dipped to under $2 per gallon in several states. That’s not accurate. Gasoline prices are about the same as they were when he was elected.

“Gasoline, yesterday … in three states hit $1.98 a gallon, and it looks like it’s at a level that it hasn’t seen since … my four years,” Trump said on April 18. “So, it’s about two — I’d say maybe I think we’re going to average — we’re going to be averaging $2.25 very soon.”

“One of the big things is energy is going down. I see that we had a couple of states where gasoline was at $1.98 a gallon,” Trump repeated on April 22. “Nobody thought they’d see that for years maybe. And that’s a big thing.”

The White House didn’t tell us the source of the president’s claim about gas prices.

But Trump is exaggerating when he claims that gasoline prices hit $1.98 in several states. No state has an average that low. According to AAA, the lowest state average for a gallon of regular gasoline on April 24 was $2.68 in Mississippi. In his remarks on April 23, Trump specifically mentioned Alabama, but the average price of regular gasoline there was $2.78. And in any case, the national average on April 24, according to AAA, was $3.17.

The average retail price of gasoline nationally is about the same as it was in Trump’s first week in office.

The national average was $3.11 the week of Jan. 20, when Trump was inaugurated, according to the Energy Information Administration. It was $3.14 the week of April 21. That’s slightly higher than the national average of $3.07 the week before the presidential election.

Trump’s claim that the price of gas is currently “at a level that it hasn’t seen since … my four years” is also not accurate. Gasoline prices spiked in mid-2022, reaching nearly $5 a gallon in June of that year. As we wrote at the time, those increases were tied to market forces resulting from the emergence from the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But gasoline prices were lower than they are now for the first six months of Joe Biden’s presidency, and for several months in 2024.

Trump is correct that the price of crude oil “has dropped substantially” to about $65 a barrel — depending on which index one is tracking — a decrease of about 15% to 17% since he took office.

According to an EIA analysis released on April 10, as a result of the recent tariffs imposed by Trump, OPEC+ announced it would move up a planned production increase to May. In response, the EIA wrote, “the Brent crude oil spot price fell by 14% from April 2 to $66 per barrel (b) on April 7. We expect that prices for crude oil and other commodities will continue to experience significant volatility as market participants assess the effects of trade policies.”

As a result of anticipated lower crude oil prices, EIA forecasts the retail cost of regular gasoline will average $3.10 per gallon this summer, which would be the lowest inflation-adjusted summer average since 2020, during the pandemic.

Trump predicted “we’re going to be averaging $2.25 very soon.” We can’t fact-check such speculation, but the government’s nonpartisan EIA projects the national price of regular gasoline will continue to average about $3.10 per gallon for 2025 and 2026.

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