President Donald Trump called it a matter of national defense. But Make America Healthy Again activists say he broke their trust by supporting glyphosate.
RFK Jr. drinks milk in a hot tub with Kid Rock in wild workout video
HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted a video of himself working out with Kid Rock, drinking milk in a hot tub and doing a cold plunge with jeans on.
With one signature, President Donald Trump ignited an uproar in the Make America Healthy Again movement, which has been a key constituency.
On Feb. 18, Trump issued an executive order, saying that for the sake of national defense, he was increasing domestic supplies of glyphosate, a chemical used in agricultural herbicides such as the weedkiller Roundup.
Glyphosate-based herbicides play a critical role in maintaining the United States’ “agricultural advantage by enabling farmers to efficiently and cost-effectively produce food and livestock feed,” according to the order.
For years, glyphosate, which has been linked to cancer and other health problems, has drawn the ire of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the MAHA movement’s leader. In 2024, Kennedy, who had frequently sued Roundup’s maker Monsanto when he practiced law, threw his support behind Trump, who in turn tapped Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Now, Trump’s executive order on behalf of the herbicide could cost him the support of those who backed Kennedy ‒ a potentially crucial voting block heading into this fall’s elections, with control of Congress at stake.
The executive order, which Zen Honeycutt, founding executive director of the advocacy nonprofit Moms Across America, described as a “glyphosate love letter … is a deep betrayal of MAHA.”
“Trump has broken the trust of the MAHA movement,” she said.
Honeycutt said many MAHA moms are Democrats or independents who crossed party lines to back Trump because of his embrace of their causes. But they might not do it again.
Other MAHA backers said they had hoped for more from the president.
“This administration is not significantly different from any previous administration in serving the chemical industry’s interests over human health,” said Kelly Ryerson, an activist known as @GlyphosateGirl on social media. “What is different in this case is that President Trump promised to address the damage of pesticides to human health.”
‘The most famously hated pesticide’
Ryerson said curbing pesticide exposure was a key issue driving MAHA voters.
In an email to USA TODAY, she wrote that the order to expand manufacturing of “the most famously hated pesticide under the umbrella of national defense was a surprisingly-poorly reasoned PR move, especially considering the upcoming midterm elections.”
Trump’s announcement seemingly contradicted what he promised during his campaign, when he and Kennedy pledged to take on pesticides in food.
MAHA influencers are now looking for Trump to reverse the order and invest in alternative farming practices, according to Honeycutt.
The White House said Trump and his administration remained committed to MAHA’s agenda.
“The President’s executive order is not an endorsement of any product or practice,” Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said in a statement. “This action simply seeks to strengthen our national security and end America’s decades-long reliance on foreign imports and supply chains.”
‘America First’ to support farmers
Bayer, with its subsidiary Monsanto, is the lone producer of glyphosate in the United States, but American farmers also rely on generic products from China, Reuters reported.
“Crop protection is an important tool in the toolbox for our farmers to continue to produce a safe, abundant, and affordable food supply,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement. “If our farmers are reliant on other countries − especially our foreign adversaries − for critical inputs, we will not be able to feed ourselves.
Trump’s inaugural committee received a $1 million donation from Bayer, federal filings show.
Rollins noted farmers and ranchers are increasingly using alternatives, including the more conservation-based approach of regenerative agriculture, but such changes can’t happen overnight and can be costly.
Agriculture and chemical industries celebrated Trump’s latest order, which relies on the 1950 Defense Production Act. The act allows the president to push industries to create materials and goods for national defense.
In a statement, Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said a strong domestic supply chain reduces dependence on foreign imports, while helping “ensure continued access to tools that contribute to the success of farmers who grow the food and fiber America’s families rely on.”
A Monsanto statement, attributed to Bayer spokesman Brian Leake, said Trump’s order “reinforces the critical need for U.S. farmers to have access to essential, domestically produced crop protection tools such as glyphosate. We will comply with this order to produce glyphosate and elemental phosphorus.”
Is glyphosate dangerous?
Concerns about the negative health effects of glyphosate have been raised for years.
In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” In December, a widely cited 2000 scientific review, purporting to show the chemical’s safety, was retracted over authors’ conflicts of interest with Monsanto.
The immediate need for Trump’s order on glyphosate production wasn’t clear.
“This is a made-up emergency,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, founding director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Gostin said he’s more concerned about the potential danger to the food supply from a chemical “we don’t fully understand,” than its national security implications.
Glyphosate has been the subject of lawsuits for years, and Bayer recently offered $7.25 billion to settle cancer claims. In 2018, Kennedy, then an environmental lawyer, helped win a $289 million settlement against Monsanto.
Bayer said it stood behind the safety of its glyphosate-based products, saying they had been extensively approved by regulators and used around the world for 50 years.
Rifts already between Trump and MAHA
The relationship between the administration and MAHA was already shaky, Ryerson, the activist, said.
Among other issues, she cited the decision by Trump’s Solicitor General in December to support efforts to limit Monsanto’s legal liability for glyphosate.
In January, MAHA activists helped kill congressional funding bills that could have shielded large chemical companies from liability over pesticides.
MAHA influencers have also tried to oust Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, whose agency recently approved use of weedkillers containing dicamba, another controversial pesticide.
MAHA influencers say they don’t blame Kennedy for the Trump administration’s actions.
Honeycutt, of Moms Across America, noted that Kennedy’s role in lawsuits against Monsanto showed his clear support for MAHA causes. Instead, she said, Trump needs better advisers and to have “courage and be unpredictable.”
Still, the administration’s support for glyphosate is disrespectful of the MAHA movement, said Ken Cook, president and co-founder of the advocacy nonprofit Environmental Working Group.
“MAHA supporters were promised reform, and instead, they’ve been treated by MAGA like a convenient group of useful idiots ever since Kennedy joined Trump on the campaign trail,” Cook said in a statement.
Contributing: Zachary Schermele and Reuters
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@usatoday.com or on Signal at emcuevas.01.