Trump at Oz Swearing-In: “Egg Prices Down 87%, Gasoline Hit $1.98”; Young Family Member Faints, Ceremony Ends Abruptly

President Trump used the Oval Office swearing-in of Dr. Oz as CMS Administrator in April 2025 to deliver a broadside on economic progress. “Egg prices are down 87%. But nobody talks about that,” Trump said. “Gasoline yesterday in three states hit $1.98 a gallon. Prices are coming down, not going up. Only the fake news says they’re going up.” He added that the only lagging indicator was interest rates, blaming Fed Chairman Powell: “If we had a Fed chairman that understood what he was doing, interest rates would be coming down too.” Secretary Kennedy administered the oath to Oz before the ceremony was cut short when a young girl, a minor family member of Dr. Oz, fainted approximately 40 minutes into the event, and the press was ordered to leave immediately.

”Egg Prices Down 87%”

Trump delivered an impromptu economics briefing before the swearing-in ceremony.

“Prices are down. Groceries are down,” Trump began.

He seized on the egg issue that had defined his first weeks in office: “Eggs, which you hit me so hard, I’ll never forget. The first day, first week in office, everybody was screaming at me about eggs.”

He recalled the crisis: “I said, what’s going on with eggs? They were doubling and tripling. I said, I just got here. They were up like double, triple, and you couldn’t get any. They said, you won’t have eggs for Easter.”

He delivered the turnaround: “Well, you can have all the eggs you want.”

He credited his team: “I’ll tell you, Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, did a great job.”

He gave the number: “And the egg prices are down 87%. But nobody talks about that. You can have all the eggs you want. We have too many eggs. In fact, if anything, the prices are getting too low.”

The egg saga was a perfect microcosm of the administration’s economic approach. When Trump took office, egg prices had become a national punchline — a symbol of Biden-era inflation that affected every American household. The media had used eggs to attack Trump from day one, demanding to know what he would do about prices that had spiraled under his predecessor.

Within months, the administration had resolved the crisis. The 87% price reduction was not achieved through price controls or subsidies but through deregulation and practical management — Secretary Rollins working with producers to address the supply disruptions that had driven prices up. The result was not just lower prices but an oversupply — “too many eggs” — that demonstrated the power of free-market solutions when government got out of the way.

”$1.98 a Gallon”

Trump moved from groceries to energy with equal enthusiasm.

“Gasoline yesterday in three states hit $1.98 a gallon,” Trump said. “And it looks like it’s at a level that it hasn’t seen since my days, my four years.”

He projected forward: “So it’s about two to — I’d say maybe, I think we’re going to average, we’re going to be averaging $2.25 very soon.”

He summarized the overall picture: “So I just want to let you know, because I keep hearing about prices and inflation, prices are coming down, not going up. Only the fake news says they’re going up.”

The $1.98 per gallon figure was symbolic as well as economic. During the Biden administration, gasoline had exceeded $5 per gallon in some markets, with the national average hovering near $4 for extended periods. The return to sub-$2 gasoline in some states represented a halving of energy costs for American families — effectively a tax cut that put hundreds of dollars per month back in household budgets.

The decline was driven by Trump’s energy policies: reopening federal lands to drilling, approving pipeline projects, reducing regulatory barriers to domestic production, and signaling to global markets that American energy would be abundant. The resulting increase in domestic production had pushed global oil prices down, and those savings were flowing directly to consumers at the pump.

The Fed Chairman Problem

Trump identified the one economic indicator that hadn’t improved — and assigned blame.

“The only thing that’s even is our interest rates,” Trump said, “and if we had a Fed chairman that understood what he was doing, interest rates would be coming down too.”

He was direct: “He should bring them down.”

The interest rate complaint was consistent with Trump’s ongoing criticism of Jerome Powell. With egg prices down 87%, gasoline below $2, and overall grocery prices declining, the case for maintaining high interest rates had evaporated. The data said deflation was the greater risk; Powell was still fighting the last war against inflation that no longer existed.

The persistence of high interest rates while every other price metric was falling created an artificial drag on the economy. Mortgage rates remained elevated, making homeownership more expensive. Business borrowing costs stayed high, slowing investment and job creation. Consumer credit cards carried interest rates that reflected an inflationary environment that had already passed.

Trump’s argument was that Powell’s stubbornness was costing the economy growth, jobs, and prosperity — all because the Fed chairman was too slow to recognize that the inflationary conditions of 2022-2023 no longer applied.

The Oath of Office

Secretary Kennedy administered the oath of office to Dr. Oz in a formal exchange in the Oval Office.

“I, Mehmet Oz, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Oz repeated after Kennedy, “against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

The sight of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. administering the oath to Dr. Oz in the Oval Office represented the convergence of two movements — the MAHA health reform agenda and the institutional reform of America’s healthcare bureaucracy. Kennedy’s HHS would address the systemic causes of chronic disease; Oz’s CMS would reform the payment system that bore the cost. Together, they constituted the most comprehensive healthcare reform effort since the creation of Medicare itself.

The Medical Emergency

The ceremony was cut short by an unexpected medical event.

Approximately 40 minutes into the Oval Office event, a young girl — identified by the White House as a “minor family member” of Dr. Oz — fainted. The press pool was immediately ordered to leave, and the ceremony was brought to an abrupt end.

The incident was handled with the kind of swift professionalism that characterized the Trump White House’s management of unexpected situations. The press was cleared to ensure privacy for the family and to allow medical attention to be administered without the intrusion of cameras. The young girl’s condition was not publicly disclosed, but the incident was treated as a routine medical event rather than a crisis.

The irony of a family member fainting at the swearing-in of a world-renowned surgeon and the nation’s new healthcare administrator was not lost on observers. Dr. Oz was presumably the best-qualified person in the room to respond to a medical emergency — a reminder that his credentials were not merely academic but practical.

Key Takeaways

• Trump announced egg prices down 87%: “You can have all the eggs you want. We have too many eggs — prices are getting too low.”
• Gasoline hit $1.98 per gallon in three states, with Trump projecting a national average of $2.25 “very soon.”
• Trump on prices: “Prices are coming down, not going up. Only the fake news says they’re going up.”
• He blamed Powell for the one holdout: “If we had a Fed chairman that understood what he was doing, interest rates would be coming down too.”
• Kennedy administered Oz’s oath; the ceremony ended abruptly when a young family member of Oz fainted in the Oval Office.