During the campaign, Donald Trump stood before a table of groceries, a box of eggs included, and promised: “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” It’s now past day 14, and eggs prices are hitting record highs. Or to use a Trumpian locution, egg prices are the worst they’ve been in history.

You surely heard that Waffle House raised the price of its breakfasts by 50 cents an egg? Or that 100,000 eggs — valued at $40,000 — were just stolen from a single store in Pennsylvania?

Where are prominent Democrats emoting in supermarket aisles, hyperventilating on X or renting garments on the steps of the Capitol over this great injustice? It happened on Trump’s watch breaking a sacred promise.

As of this typing, Trump has yet to blame egg prices on DEI or Hunter Biden. He hasn’t said, as George Conway playfully tweeted, “THIS IS TOTALLY KAMALA HARRIS’S FAULT.” Trump probably doesn’t want to draw attention to the matter.

But now that Trump’s in charge, his propagandists have discovered the bird flu, which killed egg-laying chickens during the Biden years. The influenza A viruses obviously haven’t gotten the memo that they were supposed to disappear on Inauguration Day. That has Trump supporters hollering about the unfairness of blaming the MAGA god for an act of God.

But is it unfair for Democrats to fight unfairness with their own unfairness? After all, Trump unfairly blames everything on them.

The power of these lies is threefold. One, much of the public reads it as genuine criticism. Two, the target must spend time and energy explaining what the truth is. And a third advantage not equally shared: Many Republican followers are fully aware of the falsehoods but simply enjoy the discomfort they visit on Democrats.

Trump blamed the tragic plane crash in Washington on DEI. Those diversity, equity and inclusion policies will not be missed by many of us, but they had zero to do with the air disaster. Bringing them up, however, let Trump play around with racist and sexist innuendo.

Democrats could have countered with the verifiable truth that there were no commercial air disasters during the Biden administration. What’s gone wrong since Trump took over? Democrats could have claimed that Trump’s mania for deregulating has already brought laxness to air safety. And his vow to ax the jobs of government workers has left traffic control towers demoralized and understaffed.

Perhaps Democrats didn’t want to stoop that low, but they surely could have come up with a bolder response than Chuck Schumer’s drone before the mics. The Senate minority leader complained that Trump’s unfounded explanation was “idle speculation” exploiting a terrible tragedy. His voice seemed to come out of a Victrola whose turntable was losing speed.

Maybe Democrats should ignore me on this. Ideally, one ought not unfairly blame anyone for anything. And Democrats have not been immune to attributing unrelated causes to things that went wrong under Republican governance. But their lying generally wasn’t so blatant and gleeful.

Now a brief foray into the fact-based world: Economists say that Trump’s trade wars will raise the cost of food still higher. And so would his plans to deport farm workers without the proper papers. Be prepared.

Now let’s go back. There was a time when you didn’t have to mortgage your home to buy breakfast. Perhaps if I act now and sell some stock, I can afford to take my family of four to Waffle House for a two-egg breakfast, side of bacon. With tip, that would cost we hardworking Americans more than $40. Shocking inflation.

AND THIS IS TOTALLY DONALD TRUMP’S FAULT!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.