U.S. Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks, asserting new diet insurance policies throughout a press convention on the Division of Well being and Human Companies in Washington, D.C., U.S., Jan. 8, 2026.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Secretary of Well being and Human Companies Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended President Donald Trump’s government order spurring the home manufacturing of the weedkiller glyphosate, as his Make America Wholesome Once more motion reels from the president’s embrace of the chemical they despise.
Trump on Wednesday evening signed an government order invoking the Protection Manufacturing Act to compel the home manufacturing of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides. Glyphosate is the chemical in Bayer-Monsanto’s Roundup and is probably the most generally used weedkiller for a slew of U.S. crops. Trump, within the order, stated shortages of each phosphorus and glyphosate would pose a danger to nationwide safety.
Kennedy backed the president in an announcement to CNBC Thursday morning.
“Donald Trump’s Govt Order places America first the place it issues most — our protection readiness and our meals provide,” he stated. “We should safeguard America’s nationwide safety first, as a result of all of our priorities depend upon it. When hostile actors management vital inputs, they weaken our safety. By increasing home manufacturing, we shut that hole and shield American households.”
However Kennedy’s MAHA coalition that supported Trump within the 2024 presidential election hates glyphosate, which has been alleged to trigger most cancers in myriad lawsuits. Now, the chief order threatens to unravel that coalition forward of the 2026 midterm elections that might loosen the president’s grip on Washington.
“Simply as the massive MAHA base begins to think about what to do at midterms, the President points an EO to broaden home glyphosate manufacturing,” Kelly Ryerson, a outstanding MAHA activist often known as Glyphosate Woman, stated in a publish on X. “The exact same carcinogenic pesticide that MAHA cares about most.”
Ken Prepare dinner, president of the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog that has pushed again in opposition to chemical substances in meals for years, stated in an announcement that he “cannot envision a much bigger center finger to each MAHA mother than this.”
“Elevating glyphosate to a nationwide safety precedence is the precise reverse of what MAHA voters have been promised,” Prepare dinner stated. “If Secretary Kennedy stays at HHS after this, will probably be unattainable to argue that his previous warnings about glyphosate have been something greater than marketing campaign rhetoric designed to win belief — and votes.”
Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, notably as soon as gained a virtually $290 million case in opposition to Monsanto for a person who claimed his most cancers was brought on by Roundup. The manager order got here down in the future after Bayer proposed paying $7.25 billion to settle a sequence of lawsuits claiming Roundup causes most cancers.
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., knocked Trump for signing “an EO defending most cancers inflicting Glyphosate in our meals.”
Glyphosate is a vital chemical to American agriculture. It is utilized to many key money crops, comparable to corn and soybeans, and has been defended by agricultural commerce organizations. Phosphorus is a key enter to the creation of glyphosate, which the White Home argues is important to take care of meals safety. Elemental phosphorus can also be used within the manufacture of some navy supplies.
“Thanks, President Trump, for acknowledging the significance of glyphosate-based herbicides in American agriculture,” the Home Agriculture Committee stated Wednesday evening in an X publish. “It is a important step ahead in guaranteeing a home provide of this vital crop enter stays out there for our producers.”
Home Agriculture Chair Rep. G.T. Thompson, R-Pa., is attempting to push a farm invoice by means of Congress this 12 months — a legislative bundle that covers federal farm assist and diet subsidies. He is additionally come beneath fireplace from MAHA lately for a provision in that invoice that might block state and native pesticide rules from differing from federal steerage.
