Trump angers MAHA with glyphosate order and gives Democrats a chance

President Donald Trump is heading toward the Make America Healthy Again iceberg after issuing an executive order to boost domestic production of a key herbicide called glyphosate. Democrats see an opportunity to bring the health-conscious movement back to their side.

Trump agreed to a second term in the White House after former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abandoned his independent bid for president and endorsed him. Kennedy's MAHA movement, which rejects chemicals in food and promotes natural alternatives, played a key role in Trump's victory, and Trump rewarded Kennedy by naming him Secretary of Health and Human Services.

But Trump's recent actions that benefit the very chemicals MAHA hates are creating fissures in the foundation that helped put him in the White House, with less than nine months until the crucial midterms and primaries that begin next week. Democrats hoping to strip Trump of near-total control of Washington now see an opportunity to win back MAHA.

“What the president did in the EO, and saying, you know, 'trust me on this, we'll get to it later,' really angered a lot of people,” Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, the top person on the panel that oversees the Environmental Protection Agency, said in an interview with CNBC. “It creates enormous opportunities for candidates who are willing to talk about the health of our diet, 'food is medicine.' [and] toxic chemicals in our environment.

Pingree is pushing a bill to repeal the executive order on glyphosate with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and has long advocated against chemicals in food.

At stake for MAHA is not just last week's executive order to boost glyphosate, the main chemical in Bayer-Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, which has been linked in the past to cancer but is still considered safe by the EPA. MAHA advocates say they have been snubbed by the White House and Republicans on multiple occasions.

The administration has also sided with Bayer-Monsanto in a Supreme Court case that would weaken petitioners' ability to sue if they believe they contracted cancer from a pesticide or herbicide. And congressional Republicans are pushing a new farm bill that MAHA advocates say is a “liability shield” for chemical manufacturers.

“This EO feels very, very close to breaking point,” said Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA advocate known by the nickname “Glyphosate Girl.” “People can't keep making excuses for the administration and saying, 'Well, you know, they'll get it done or whatever,' because it's just not happening.”

Ryerson said the MAHA contingent she sees fleeing the Trump administration are independents who supported Kennedy and Democrats who crossed the aisle to support Trump in hopes he would deliver on Kennedy's health agenda.

“That's a very, very, very real and very large contingent of the group, and very concerning in terms of going into the midterms now,” Ryerson said.

Many in the MAHA movement were initially aligned with the Democrats. Some worked to elect former President Barack Obama, making Trump's acceptance especially shocking for Democrats. Republicans have traditionally aligned with chemical manufacturers and big agricultural interests on pesticides and herbicides, supporting the industries' desire for less oversight and regulation.

“I've had conversations with people who, you know, are very committed to the MAHA movement and who say, 'Are there Democrats who support these things besides you?'” Pingree said. “I wonder, holy cow, how did we miss the boat here? … We have a large number of people who will sign laws like this or support these types of issues.”

Pingree said she is encouraging her group to talk more often about MAHA issues and trying to find opportunities to get involved in the topic.

Other Democrats are also taking the opportunity to get involved. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said in an interview on Capitol Hill that the administration's move represents an opportunity for Democrats.

“I think the answer is yes, especially given the fact that Kennedy has basically completely ruined his own people,” Heinrich said. “We need to demonstrate that we are actively working on those issues and that we will do so in a consistent and predictable way.”

“This whole practice of using glyphosate to dry crops before turning them into Cheerios doesn't work well in New Mexico,” Heinrich said, pointing to a particularly hot-button issue for MAHA.

And Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, a Democrat who has been outspoken about MAHA and was “excited” about RFK's appointment as health secretary, told CNBC in a statement that he “has always supported removing harmful pesticides from our foods so Americans can be safer.”

“RFK Jr. felt that way too, and it's incredibly disappointing to see him and the administration turning their backs on Americans like this,” Polis said. “The president's decision to side with large-scale chemical manufacturers ultimately makes Americans less healthy.”

Kennedy has supported the administration's executive order on glyphosate, despite once winning a $290 million case for a man who said he contracted cancer from the chemical. In a lengthy statement on X this week, he said it is necessary to “return chemical production to the United States and end our near-total dependence on adversary nations.” He noted the administration's commitment to regenerative agriculture, which eschews traditional chemical applications in favor of practices that improve soil health, as a pillar of the strategy.

“If these inputs were to disappear overnight, crop yields would fall, food prices would rise, and the United States would experience massive farm losses even beyond what we are witnessing today,” Kennedy said, blaming Washington for entrenching the use of chemicals in big agricultural companies. “We are now changing course, without destabilizing the food supply.”

White House spokesperson Kush Desai told CNBC in a statement that the Trump administration has complied with MAHA by “removing artificial ingredients from our food supply, revising dietary guidelines for Americans, reexamining infant formulas and more.”

“Democrats have talked for a long time about health issues, but President Trump and his administration have truly delivered and will continue to deliver on the MAHA agenda,” Desai said. “The president's executive order to shore up domestic production of elemental phosphorus, which is needed to make military equipment and other cutting-edge technology, will not change our commitment to making America healthy again.”

Ryerson did not say that the MAHA movement was completely abandoning Trump and Kennedy yet, leaving the door open to a course correction. He also noted that Kennedy's role at HHS does not have jurisdiction over pesticides, which are administered by the Environmental Protection Agency.

But he warned that time is running out for the administration to act.

“There is no evidence right now that points to any movement to limit these chemical exposures, and the only way I see the White House and the Republican Party being able to offset this in time for the midterm elections is with a very real, very large movement to finally do something protective,” he said.

Among those possible measures to appease MAHA would be a ban on pre-harvest desiccation, a process in which herbicides are applied to crops before harvest to facilitate harvesting. He also urged the administration to overturn its support for Bayer-Monsanto in the Supreme Court and invest in regenerative agriculture.

It's less clear whether Republicans who have dominated farm districts for years are willing to take on MAHA where it stands.

“They've gone over the science, they'll continue to go over the science on this, and we have to get back to science, facts and common sense,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R.N.D., a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “Of course it has to be safe, and it's okay to always look at it, but let's make sure we're dealing with the science.”

“If you just disrupted the ability to use it, it would dramatically affect the food supply, and that's the reality,” Hoeven said.