Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s supporters are furious after he sided with his boss over the movement that helped put him in power.
The Make America Healthy Again movement erupted in anger after President Donald Trump, 79, issued an executive order Wednesday night promoting the use of glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller. MAHA supporters have long argued that the chemical is dangerous and have backed thousands of lawsuits involving Roundup, an herbicide originally manufactured by Monsanto.
Health Secretary Kennedy previously argued that Monsanto knew glyphosate caused cancer—and helped secure a $289 million jury verdict against the company in 2018, according to the New York Times.
“The herbicide Glyphosate is one of the likely culprits in America’s chronic disease epidemic. Much more widely used here than in Europe,” Kennedy wrote on X in June 2024, while he was campaigning for president.
“Shockingly, much of our exposure comes from its use as a desiccant on wheat, not as an herbicide,” he continued. “From there it goes straight into our bodies. My USDA will ban that practice.”
Despite those strong words, Kennedy, 72, was notably compliant following the president’s order.
“Donald Trump’s executive order puts America first where it matters most—our defense readiness and our food supply,” Kennedy said in a statement to the Times on Wednesday night.
Kennedy’s switch-up was, understandably, a blow to his supporters.
“I can’t envision a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mom than this,” Ken Cook, a MAHA advocate and co-founder of Environmental Working Group, told the Times.
One X user, who identified herself as Susan, said Trump’s order was their breaking point with the president.
“MAHA was a big part of the reason I voted for Trump,” Susan wrote Thursday morning. “I have to say, ‘Promises made, promises BROKEN’. Also no amount of ‘It’s the economy, stupid” will win back my support.”
Vani Hari, a health advocate and MAHA supporter, told the Times the order was “a direct assault on MAHA” and “a gift to pesticide and chemical industry lobbies at the expense of human health.”
“MAHA voters were promised health reform, not chemical entrenchment,” Hari said.
Another so-called MAHA mom said Trump had failed to deliver on his promises.
“MAHA Moms helped him get in. We wanted RFK Jr., that is the opposite of wanting glyphosate protected, the opposite of protecting pedophiles, the opposite of sons and daughters going to war unwarranted. He is hemorrhaging supporters,” wrote X user Nicole Mendes.
Trump’s order comes just days after Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, proposed a $7.25 billion settlement to resolve lawsuits alleging its weedkiller caused cancer, CNBC reported.
In his executive order, Trump wrote that phosphorus is “critical to national defense and security.”
“Our Nation’s inadequate elemental phosphorus production, which must sustain both defense manufacturing and our significant agricultural needs, and the threat of increased domestic scarcity leave us vulnerable to hostile foreign actors and pose an imminent threat to military readiness,” he said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.
It’s not the first time Kennedy has appeared to contradict the health-focused principles central to the MAHA movement. In November, The Atlantic reported that the former environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine crusader uses Zyn nicotine pouches throughout the day and frequently uses spray tanning.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cautioned that nicotine pouches are “highly addictive,” and that artificial tanning devices are associated with an increased risk of skin cancer.
