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This week, President Trump signed an executive order that aims to promote the use of glyphosate, a move that has sparked criticism from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.
The executive order, released on Wednesday, describes glyphosate— the primary component of the widely used and litigated weedkiller Roundup— as “a cornerstone of this nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy.”
“Ensuring an adequate supply of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides is crucial for national security and defense, including the security of our food supply, which is essential for protecting the health and safety of Americans,” President Trump stated in the order.
In response to the order, GOP Representative Thomas Massie has expressed intentions to counteract the president’s pro-glyphosate stance.
The order calls on the Secretary of Agriculture to ensure that the supply of glyphosate-based herbicides remains sufficient. It also suggests that producers of these chemicals should be granted “immunity” under the Defense Production Act.
He directed the Agriculture secretary to ensure an adequate supply of glyphosate-based herbicides and also said that producers of such chemicals should have “immunity” under the Defense Production Act.
The move was met with backlash from the Republican-aligned MAHA movement, which criticizes the use of pesticides and is also skeptical of vaccines. The movement is linked to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“This move betrays the very MAHA voters who put this administration in power. It stands in direct opposition to the President’s original promise to address the contribution of pesticides to chronic disease,” said a written statement from Kelly Ryerson, an activist who goes by the moniker of “glyphosate girl” online.
MAHA wasn’t alone in its criticism.
“This is a sickening love letter from Trump to the largest pesticide companies in the world,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a written statement. “It’s more proof that Trump doesn’t care at all about Americans’ health. While he’s pandering to chemical companies the rest of the country, especially those who’ve been poisoned by pesticides, is rightfully asking ‘what about us?’”
Meanwhile, David Murphy, former finance director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign, said that the GOP’s broader embrace of pesticides could have consequences with MAHA voters in the midterm elections predicting it could cost them between 10 and 20 House seats.
“They should be s—ting their pants,” Murphy said of Republicans. “MAHA is what put them over the top in the 2024 election…This will end Republicans’ control of [the] House,” he said.
While Kennedy has been critical of glyphosate in the past, he defended Trump’s order in a written statement shared with The Hill.
“Donald Trump’s Executive Order puts America first where it matters most our defense readiness and our food supply,” Kennedy said. “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.”
The Democratic Party’s X account called out Kennedy’s past statements, quote-posting it with a a quizzical emoji and the title of Trump’s order.
Thousands of lawsuits have alleged that glyphosate is linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Earlier this week, Bayer, which owns Roundup-maker Monsanto, announced a more than $7 billion settlement agreement with people suing over the alleged health impact.
The company has maintained that glyphosate does not cause cancer and has pointed to research like the federal government’s Agricultural Health Study. A 2018 publication under that project found no association between glyphosate and tumors overall, though it did find some evidence of increased risk of acute myeloid leukemia in people with high exposure levels.
A separate 2025 study found glyphosate caused various cancers in rats.
Philip Landrigan, one of the authors of that study and the director of Boston College’s Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, told The Hill earlier this year that he’s “comfortable saying” glyphosate causes cancer.
In 2020, the first Trump administration reapproved the use of glyphosate, citing “insufficient evidence to conclude that glyphosate plays a role in any human diseases.” The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting an updated review of the chemical’s safety.
In response to the latest EO, Monsanto said in a written statement that it “will comply with this order to produce glyphosate and elemental phosphorus.”
This is not the first time tensions have flared between Republicans and MAHA over pesticides and specifically glyphosate.
Last year, the Trump administration backed Bayer’s bid to have the Supreme Court review whether federal laws preempt state-level failure-to-warn suits. The court took up the case, and arguments are expected in April.
Meanwhile, House Republicans have proposed similar liability protections for pesticides in their draft of the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill move comes after a similar GOP effort did not ultimately make it into an appropriations measure.