MAHA coalition fractures as Trump chooses pesticide industry over reform promises

The Make America Healthy Again coalition, led by RFK Jr. followers, has hit a wall. On February 18, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order citing national security to ramp up domestic production of glyphosate—a key herbicide in Roundup linked to cancer and other harms. The order, which invokes the Defense Production Act, does not block EPA rulemaking as some claimed—but it does commit the federal government to subsidize and accelerate supply of a chemical that Kennedy himself has long denounced as unsafe for children. HHS Secretary RFK Jr. has not publicly defended the order in the sources reviewed; the White House fact sheet and the order itself focus solely on supply assurance and defense readiness.

Meanwhile, the House-passed Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (H.R. 7567) includes no new restrictions on pesticide use. Health and environmental groups have called for striking the entire pesticide section, arguing it fails to preserve fundamental protections as adverse effects pile up in the scientific literature. The bill does not preempt state and local pesticide laws in the text available from Congress.gov—that specific claim is unsupported by the current bundle. The broader picture remains clear: campaign rhetoric about ‘draining the swamp’ has given way to industry-friendly deregulation, with no public health safeguards in sight. For families who believed Trump would deliver on cleaning up the food system, this is a painful reality check.