Trump allies rage over new executive order dubbed 'middle finger' to MAHA

U.S. President Donald Trump holds the hand of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., January 29, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a controversial new executive order, with some of his key supporters telling the New York Times it was a "middle finger" to the "Make America Healthy Again" movement.

The new order called for increasing domestic production of the prominent weedkiller, glyphosate. Troublingly for Trump's supporters, that compound is one of the active ingredients in Roundup, a popular herbicide product that, according to the Times, "has been the target of tens of thousands of lawsuits that claim it causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma." In fact, Trump's own Health & Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., served as a lawyer for the plaintiffs in a "landmark" $289 million civil case against Monsanto, the previous makers of Roundup, in which a jury ruled that the company was aware of the product's cancer-causing potential.

Now, however, the secretary appears to be singing a different tune, more in line with Trump's official stance.

“Donald Trump’s executive order puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply,” Kennedy said in his own statement. “We must safeguard America’s national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it.”

"Lack of access to glyphosate-based herbicides would critically jeopardize agricultural productivity, adding pressure to the domestic food system," Trump said in a statement about the executive order.

Speaking to the Times about the new order and Kennedy's involvement with it, various figures in the "MAHA" movement cried foul.

"I can’t envision a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mom than this," Ken Cook, president and co-founder of Environmental Working Group, told the Times. Cook's group has, in the past, supported portions of Kennedy's broader agenda as the head of HHS.

“MAHA voters were promised health reform, not chemical entrenchment,” Vani Hari, a Kennedy ally and "healthy eating advocate," said. She also trashed Trump's new order as “a direct assault on MAHA” and “a gift to pesticide and chemical industry lobbies at the expense of human health.”

Just last year, a commission led by Kennedy released a report on the potential causes of chronic disease, which singled out glyphosate and other herbicidal materials as potentially harmful to children. The Times also noted that MAHA movement activists were among the coalition that fought against a government funding bill provision that would have protected Bayer, the current producers of Roundup, and other similar companies from having to pay plaintiffs.

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