The 'Trump take egg' meme is an absurdly layered joke

Trump take egg. These three little words are as powerful as any other.

There's a good chance you've seen the words "Trump take egg" all over social media lately, which raises the question: What the hell do they mean? In short, it's a meme. But it's way more complex than that. We'll do our best to explain.

First, egg

In case you didn't notice, a carton of eggs costs roughly the equivalent of a down payment on a home right now. The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pegged the average price in January at nearly $5 per dozen, the highest mark in history. The price has only skyrocketed since. My local supermarket in New York City — I know, I know, I KNOW — has them priced at about a dollar per egg.

Obviously, folks are upset at paying historically high prices for a typically cheap, everyday item.

Trump take

So how did we get to the phrase "Trump take egg?" Like most memes — as well as onions and ogres — there are layers involved. First and foremost, "Trump take egg" is funny to write, say, and read. It just is. The internet loves absurdism and the phrase is certainly absurd — it's purposefully awkward to read and nonsensical.

Second, it's an obvious jab at the Trump voters who cast their votes in the name of inflation. Sure, egg prices are high because of the bird flu and price gouging, but it's an obvious way for liberals to prod folks who voted because they were upset about inflation and blindly believed Trump would fix it.

Phrasing this commentary as "Trump take egg" is, in a way, mocking that simplistic way of voting. Oh, you voted for "Trump fix egg?" Well, guess what? "Trump take egg."

Not for nothing, "Trump take egg" is effective branding. It's nonsensical and funny, but it is memorable. And it does place Trump's name directly next to a big issue hitting voters in the grocery store aisle.

Fundamentally, it seems more like a commentary on the absurdity of thinking egg prices were ever a serious concern for presidential politics. Egg prices never should have been a central pillar for the 2024 election. Yet it felt like they were. And now egg prices are at an all-time high.

And that's amid, well, so much else. Trump and his righthand billionaire Elon Musk have spent their first weeks in office attacking diversity measures, mass firing federal workers, and working to wrest control of nearly every part of the government.

It's hard to keep track of all the ways Trump and Musk are reshaping America in their shared image. But it's comprehensive and, for lots of people, frightening. So left-leaning folks posting Trump take egg are effectively pointing to the absurdity of worrying about egg prices in relation to — gestures at the world — everything else. And again, let me reiterate, Trump take egg is just a funny phrase.

Egg. But what else?

As with anything, memes evolve. In a bit of boomer humor, a new play on the meme is Trump take nest egg as the stock market has plummeted amid the president's tariffs.

A meme can be many things, and those things shift. Trump take egg started as a tongue-in-cheek meme about inflation. It developed into something more like, well, everything the Trump administration has done. Now, it's a boomer pun.

Mostly, it's just silly. And, one last time, it is really fun to say. Everybody now: Trump take egg.