WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump today signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to guarantee the supply of glyphosate-based herbicides, claiming it is critical to national security.
“If anyone still wondered whether ‘Make America Healthy Again’ was a genuine commitment to protecting public health or a scam concocted by President Trump and RFK Jr. to rally health-conscious voters in 2024, today’s decision answers that question,” said EWG President and co-Founder Ken Cook.
“I can’t envision a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mom than this,” he added. “By granting immunity to the makers of the nation’s most widely used pesticide, President Trump just gave Bayer a license to poison people. Full stop.”
“It’s a shocking betrayal to protect all of us but especially the people who live and work near farm fields where glyphosate is used,” said Cook.
For years, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – now Health and Human Services secretary – publicly attacked glyphosate and built a national profile suing its maker, Bayer-Monsanto, over health harms tied to the herbicide.
On the campaign trail, both Kennedy and Trump pledged to confront pesticides like glyphosate and clean up the food supply to win the trust of health-conscious voters worried about pesticide exposure.
“Elevating glyphosate to a national security priority is the exact opposite of what MAHA voters were promised,” said Cook. “If Secretary Kennedy remains at HHS after this, it will be impossible to argue that his past warnings about glyphosate were anything more than campaign rhetoric designed to win trust – and votes.”
“First President Trump sided with Bayer-Monsanto on glyphosate at the Supreme Court, and now he’s elevating it through the Defense Department,” said Cook. “At this rate, maybe the National Cancer Institute will be next to bless the safety of this notorious weedkiller at his urging.
“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,” he added.
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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
