U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks and announces new nutrition policies during a press conference at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC, U.S., on January 8, 2026.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended President Donald Trump's executive order spurring domestic production of the herbicide glyphosate, as his Make America Healthy Again movement reels from the president's embrace of the chemical they despise.
Trump on Wednesday night signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to mandate domestic production of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides. Glyphosate is the chemical present in Bayer-Monsanto Roundup and is the most widely used herbicide on a large number of American crops. Trump, in the order, said shortages of both phosphorus and glyphosate would pose a national security risk.
Kennedy endorsed the president in a statement to CNBC Thursday morning.
“Donald Trump's Executive Order puts America first on what matters most: our defense preparedness and our food supply,” he said. “We must first safeguard America's national security, because all of our priorities depend on it. When hostile actors control critical inputs, they weaken our security. By expanding domestic production, we close that gap and protect American families.”
But Kennedy's MAHA coalition that supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election hates glyphosate, which has been accused of causing cancer in countless lawsuits. Now, the executive order threatens to disintegrate that coalition ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, which could loosen the president's grip on Washington.
“Just as MAHA's large base begins to consider what to do in the midterm elections, the president issues an executive order to expand domestic production of glyphosate,” said Kelly Ryerson, a prominent MAHA activist known as Glyphosate Girl, in a post on X. “The same carcinogenic pesticide MAHA is most concerned about.”
Ken Cook, chairman of the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog that has rejected chemicals in food for years, said in a statement that “I can't imagine a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mother than this.”
“Elevating glyphosate to a national security priority is the exact opposite of what MAHA voters were promised,” Cook said. “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.”
Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, once won a nearly $290 million case against Monsanto by a man who claimed his cancer was caused by Roundup. The executive order was issued a day after Bayer proposed paying $7.25 billion to settle a series of lawsuits alleging that Roundup causes cancer.
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., criticized Trump for signing “an EO that protects the cancer caused by glyphosate in our foods.”
Glyphosate is a critical chemical for American agriculture. It applies to many key commercial crops, such as corn and soybeans, and has been advocated by agricultural trade organizations. Phosphorus is a key input for the creation of glyphosate, which the White House says is necessary to maintain food safety. Elemental phosphorus is also used in the manufacture of some military materials.
“Thank you, President Trump, for recognizing the importance of glyphosate-based herbicides in American agriculture,” the House Agriculture Committee said in an X post Wednesday night. “This is a vital step to ensure that the domestic supply of this critical agricultural input remains available to our producers.”
House Agriculture Chairman Rep. GT Thompson, R-Pa., is trying to push a farm bill through Congress this year: a legislative package that covers federal farm support and nutrition subsidies. It has also recently come under fire from MAHA for a provision in that bill that would prevent state and local pesticide regulations from differing from federal guidelines.
