Trump’s directive to increase glyphosate production faces MAHA backlash

President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to spur the domestic production of phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides by invoking the Defense Production Act, infuriating Make America Healthy Again advocates.

Glyphosate, the chemical in Bayer-Monsanto’s Roundup, is the most commonly used weedkiller for many U.S. crops. It has been featured in multimillion-dollar health lawsuits that claim it causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The company faces over 60,000 claims from plaintiffs who argue that long-term exposure to glyphosate caused their cancer.

A Monsanto spokesperson said the executive order “reinforces the critical need for U.S. farmers to have access to essential, domestically produced crop protection tools.”

“We will comply with this order to produce glyphosate and elemental phosphorus,” the company said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA supporters are not fans of the chemical.

Mr. Kennedy, a former environmental attorney, has been publicly against glyphosate, notably winning a landmark $289 million jury verdict against Monsanto after claiming the company knew the weedkiller caused cancer.

There is an ongoing scientific debate with differing conclusions from health and regulatory organizations about whether the chemical is a carcinogen. But the Food and Drug Administration has not correlated cancer with glyphosate.

A now-viral clip of the secretary saying “I believe that glyphosate causes cancer” on a podcast last month — before backing the president’s order — is calling his MAHA loyalty into question.

In a Wednesday statement following Mr. Trump’s directive, Mr. Kennedy said this move “puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply.”

He added, “We must safeguard America’s national security first, 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.”

His MAHA supporters are decrying the move.

Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a chemical watchdog that has supported Mr. Kennedy’s agenda, said in a statement that he “can’t envision a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mom than this.

“Elevating glyphosate to a national security priority is the exact opposite of what MAHA voters were promised. 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.”

In the order, the president declared glyphosate “critical to the national defense,” adding that a lack of access to such herbicides would “critically jeopardize agricultural productivity, adding pressure to the domestic food system.”

Mr. Trump added, “I find that ensuring robust domestic elemental phosphorus mining and United States-based production of glyphosate-based herbicides is central to American economic and national security. Without immediate Federal action, the United States remains inadequately equipped and vulnerable.”

A White House fact sheet said that a lack of either chemical could “leave our defense industrial base and food supply vulnerable to hostile foreign actors,” since there is only “one domestic producer of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides.”

Mr. Trump gave Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins authority to compel production of phosphorus and glyphosate “to ensure a continued and adequate supply.”