Despite concerns about high prices and the avian flu, President Donald Trump said that he won’t be swapping out real eggs for plastic ones for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll this month.
“They were saying that for Easter: “Please don’t use eggs. Could you use plastic eggs?’” said Trump during remarks this week on his reciprocal tariff plan. “I said: ‘We don’t want to do that.”
Back in the 1870s, Capitol Hill became a popular place for children to roll eggs – and sometimes themselves – on Easter Monday. While Congress passed a law forbidding that use of the grounds in 1876, President Rutherford B. Hayes issued an order allowing children to roll their eggs at the White House in 1878, according to the National Park Service.
“The tradition has been carried on since, and has grown into the major event you can experience today,” said the service. This year’s event will be held on April 21 and it is expected to include family activities such as stories, games and live entertainment.
While Trump said that the eggs used this year will be real ones, he did acknowledge the high prices consumers have been seeing for cartons this year. CNN reported that the price of a dozen eggs hit a 10-year high that month at $5.90, per to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“I got blamed for eggs. I said: ‘I just got here,’” said Trump of the high prices. He also praised Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins for her work on egg prices. In February, the Trump administration announced a plan to invest $1 billion to bring down egg prices.
According to the USDA’s March 28 “Egg Markets Overview” report, “negotiated wholesale prices for graded loose eggs moved lower,” and demand was improving “as Easter nears and marketers look to build sufficient stocks to satisfy holiday demand.”
That report said that wholesale prices for white large shell eggs declined $0.26 to $3.00 per dozen. Additionally, the supply at grocery outlets had improved “and consumers are once again seeing fully stocked shelves and enjoying a range of choices without purchase restrictions,” and slowly declining prices.
“There is a general sense that current price levels, though still relatively high compared to past Easters, offer enough of an attractive contrast to consumers from where prices stood just a few weeks ago to encourage holiday demand,” the USDA said.
It noted that outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in commercial table egg layer flocks in 2025 to date have already resulted in the depopulation of 30.3 million birds, representing 10.6% of the conventional caged layer flock, 10.8% of the non-organic cagefree flock, and 0.1% of the organic flock on Jan. 1 of this year. As of March 28, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service had confirmed 40 outbreaks in layer flocks in nine states
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current public health risk for bird flu is low, though the disease is widespread in wild birds. So far, 70 human cases have been detected by the CDC, including one death. Of these cases, 41 are linked to cattle herds, 24 are linked to poultry farms and culling operations, two are linked to other animal exposure and three have an unknown exposure source.
In previous years, other groups have also called for presidents to swap real eggs for something else during the White House Easter Egg Roll. Last year, Audacy reported that Ingrid Newkirk, president of the animal rights group PETA, implored White House and former First Lady Jill Biden to replace the eggs with potatoes.