MAHA Movement Calls Out Trump EPA for Protecting Cancer-Causing Weedkiller Glyphosate

The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, once hopeful about the Trump administration’s environmental stance, is now openly enraged at the EPA’s aggressive rollback of chemical safety regulations—especially its defense of glyphosate, the widely used weedkiller linked to cancer.

On Monday, MAHA activists, including wellness influencer Vani Hari (aka the Food Babe), rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court during arguments over whether Bayer, which owns Monsanto, can avoid tens of thousands of lawsuits claiming its glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup caused cancer. The Trump EPA’s decision to back Bayer, coupled with an executive order promoting glyphosate production, has sparked outrage among MAHA members who see this as a betrayal.

Glyphosate has long been controversial. The World Health Organization labeled it “probably carcinogenic” over a decade ago, but the EPA under Trump has repeatedly dismissed these findings. Just last month, top environmental health scientists issued a consensus statement affirming glyphosate’s cancer risks and calling for urgent action—claims Bayer continues to deny.

The rift over glyphosate reflects a wider contradiction in the Trump EPA’s approach. A recent letter from MAHA leaders to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin accuses the agency of “claiming to prioritize health” while approving and expanding exposure to toxic chemicals that undermine that goal. David Murphy, former finance director for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign and co-founder of regenerative agriculture group United We Eat, told NPR the administration’s stance is “pretty appalling,” especially given Kennedy’s environmental lawsuits against Monsanto and his endorsement of Trump.

Kelly Ryerson, known as Glyphosate Girl on social media, echoed this disappointment, noting that industry insiders have taken key EPA roles, leading to a flood of special interest influence. “It’s been a really frustrating moment,” she said.

Under Zeldin, the EPA has pursued a sweeping deregulatory agenda: rolling back drinking water protections for PFAS “forever chemicals,” weakening air pollution limits for mercury and arsenic, greenlighting pesticides with known health risks, and even proposing that safe exposure levels exist for formaldehyde, a human carcinogen. The agency has also cut millions in research funding on chemical health effects and refused to regulate endocrine disruptors in consumer products.

Betsy Southerland, an environmental scientist with the Environmental Protection Network, warns that these rollbacks affect virtually everything Americans eat, breathe, drink, and use daily.

Despite these moves, the EPA insists it remains “committed to transparency and rigorous gold-standard science” and claims to value dialogue with the MAHA community. MAHA leaders recently met with Trump and cabinet officials to press their concerns, but tensions remain high.

This showdown over glyphosate and chemical regulation exposes the Trump administration’s broader pattern of siding with corporate interests over public health and environmental safety. For the MAHA movement and its allies, the administration’s actions are a stark reminder that promises of reform mean little when the machinery of power protects poison instead of people.