Tolkkinen: Amid the Trump chaos, egg prices are still $7.50

Here in Minnesota’s western hinterlands, egg prices vary.

You can find them for $3 or $4 a dozen if you’re lucky enough to know someone with laying hens. You can spend $10 or more at gas stations.

Mostly, though, Grade A large eggs are going for around $7.50 a dozen at grocery stores. Once a reliable source of cheap protein, eggs are shockingly expensive, especially for those on a tight budget.

While running for the presidency, Trump promised to bring down grocery prices on Day 1, before edging away from that promise once he won election. In January, eggs reached near record highs. Apparently egg prices resist the sort of bullying diplomacy that brings Trump’s human foes to their knees, although has he even tried? He seems more intent on keeping his critics off balance than paying attention to the needs of the little guy.

In the nine days he has been in office, Trump has kept up a steady stream of demoralizing chaos. Red Lake Band of Ojibwe leaders are warning members to obtain tribal identification papers in case they get caught up in immigration stings, as has been reported by tribes in the southwestern United States. Apparently we’re in an era where if you’re not white, you have to be ready to show your ID.

But, Mr. President, eggs are still $7.50 per dozen.

Trump unleashed a flood of stress and confusion across America this week by precipitously announcing a halt to federal loans and grants, only to rescind that order after a federal judge ruled against him. Trump is waging heart-attack politics. It echoes his sudden 2017 travel ban for Muslims which left travelers stuck at airports, families wrenched apart, medical travel in limbo. Only now Trump is swinging his guns on his own people. (It’s a metaphor, folks.)

In Fergus Falls, in response to a Facebook post about egg prices, historian Missy Hermes posted World War II-era recipes for eggless corn muffins and eggless steamed pudding. Others posted other solutions, like substituting apple sauce.

Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of about 1,500 people convicted of offenses related to storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, including associates of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. One man pardoned by Trump was shot and killed by Indiana law enforcement on Sunday. Indiana State Police said the man was armed and resisted arrest during a traffic stop.

On Wednesday, Second Harvest Heartland released its first-ever statewide study of hunger in Minnesota. It shows that 1 in 5 Minnesota households deals with food insecurity, which either means that they don’t have enough to eat, or they rely on food shelves or some other assistance to provide them with food. Egg prices are making it worse.

Trump did not cause the price of eggs to go up (nor did President Joe Biden, for that matter). Egg prices are rising because avian influenza is forcing farms to cull tens of millions of egg-laying hens, and because of inflation. But Trump made it a campaign issue.

Greater Minnesota loves Trump. They overwhelmingly voted for him. They believed that he would make America great again and that their lives would be better. They flocked to his rallies. They paraded the lakes in boats festooned with Trump flags. They assembled caravans of vehicles called “Trump trains” that rumbled through rural communities.

Yet, none of his executive orders have addressed hunger in rural America or the price of food. Instead, he has belittled transgender people. He wants to create an “Iron Dome” defensive shield over our country. He wants to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal.

But what about us, Mr. President? What about families with small children who are trying to pay sky-high rent, unable to buy a home? What about rural people who can’t buy cheap eggs from Trader Joe’s or Costco because there isn’t one nearby?

Second Harvest’s study shows that hunger is worse in parts of greater Minnesota than it is in the Twin Cities metro area. In northern and southwestern Minnesota, 1 in 4 households can’t get enough to eat on their own.

Thirty percent of Minnesotans say they worry they won’t have enough food this coming year, says Second Harvest CEO Allison O’Toole. That’s almost 1 in 3 households, a figure she said indicates that hunger in Minnesota will get worse.

“We have to stop that trajectory,” she said.

But none of Trump’s executive orders show any awareness of how much the people who voted him into office are struggling to pay for their everyday lives. The cost of child care is staggering — if families can even find child care.

We have the Gulf of America now. But another gulf is growing ever wider — the one between President Trump and the people who voted for him.