On February 19, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act — a wartime law — to mandate domestic production of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller. The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015. Studies have also linked it to reproductive harm. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto and is the only domestic supplier of glyphosate, proposed paying $7.25 billion to settle cancer lawsuits just one day before Trump signed the order. Bayer also donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee.
The hypocrisy is staggering. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary and the face of the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement — once won a $289 million verdict against Monsanto for a man who developed cancer from Roundup. Kennedy built his political brand on fighting exactly this chemical. Now he's defending Trump's order to produce more of it, claiming it “puts America first.”
Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said: “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.” He added: “I can't envision a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mom than this.” Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America, who had supported MAHA, expressed disgust.
If anyone still wondered whether “Make America Healthy Again” was a genuine commitment to public health or a scam to rally health-conscious voters in 2024, this answers the question. The man who promised to make food safe is using wartime powers to mandate production of a probable carcinogen — the day after the manufacturer offered billions to settle cancer lawsuits, and after that same manufacturer donated a million dollars to his inauguration.