Outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, visible figures from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) coalition protested the Trump administration’s decision to side with a pesticide maker in a high-profile glyphosate case. Inside, justices heard arguments over whether Bayer — which now owns Monsanto — can be shielded from state lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn consumers that the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup can cause cancer.
At the “People Versus Poison” rally, wellness influencer Vani Hari, known as the “Food Babe” and a self-described MAHA mom, denounced the administration’s stance: “You cannot claim to care about health while protecting poison. You cannot tell Americans to eat real food while protecting the cancer-causing chemicals sprayed on it.” Many speakers at the event are longtime allies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who brought supporters into the MAGA fold when he endorsed Donald Trump.
The protest reflects broader anger in MAHA over the administration’s chemical and regulatory policies. The Justice Department’s support for Bayer and a recent executive order backing the expansion of domestic glyphosate production have particularly rankled advocates who once saw Kennedy as a foe of Monsanto. A decade ago, the World Health Organization classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic”; the Environmental Protection Agency disagreed. Last month, a group of environmental health scientists issued a consensus statement asserting glyphosate can cause cancer — a conclusion Bayer disputes.
MAHA activists have framed the administration’s approach as a “profound contradiction.” In a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, they wrote that while the administration claims to prioritize health, it continues to approve, expand, and normalize chemical exposures that undermine that goal. The letter was signed by figures including David Murphy, a former finance director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign and co-founder of United We Eat. Murphy told NPR he and others had expected the administration would not take actions favoring the chemical industry given Kennedy’s record suing Monsanto.
Kelly Ryerson, who posts as “Glyphosate Girl,” said her optimism about the administration has faded as officials with ties to the chemical industry have assumed key EPA positions. “Once things fell into place, all the special interests poured in,” she said. “I don’t think it’s game over yet, but it’s been a really frustrating moment.”
Critics point to a sweeping deregulatory agenda under Zeldin. The EPA has invited companies to request exemptions from air pollution standards, moved to roll back drinking water limits for PFAS (“forever chemicals”), and weakened protections against air pollutants such as mercury, arsenic and ethylene oxide. It has reapproved pesticides and insecticides with known health risks, floated a proposal that implies a “safe” level of exposure to the carcinogen formaldehyde, and declined to regulate endocrine-disrupting phthalates in consumer products. The agency also canceled millions in research grants on health effects of chemicals and pollutants.
Betsy Southerland, an environmental scientist with the Environmental Protection Network — a volunteer group of former EPA employees — said the administration’s actions affect “pretty much everything we eat, breathe, drink and use in our homes.” The EPA told NPR it is “committed to transparency and rigorous gold-standard science,” values public communication with the MAHA community, and takes the coalition’s concerns seriously.
Some MAHA figures say they have received public-facing attention but not substantive protections. Alexandra Muñoz, a toxicologist who advocates on pesticides with MAHA groups, argued EPA actions “do not align with MAHA and a regulatory approach that’s needed to stop harmful chemical exposures now.” She described recent moves as “PR stunts” aimed at appeasing advocates while delivering little concrete change.
An example cited by critics is the EPA’s joint announcement with Kennedy that it added microplastics and pharmaceuticals to the Contaminant Candidate List for drinking water — a necessary step for potential future regulation but not a guarantee of action. Chris Frey, an environmental engineering professor at North Carolina State University, likened the list to “the waiting room where contaminants go to be ignored,” noting many listed substances never see regulatory follow-through.
Observers also warn the agency has undermined its own scientific capacity. The EPA has dismantled the office responsible for independent research on toxic chemicals and lost hundreds of scientists, a development Frey said has “basically cut [the agency] down at the knees.” Environmental groups are suing the administration over many of these rollbacks, from PFAS standards to other chemical protections.
MAHA figures recently met with Trump and administration officials at the White House to press their concerns. Kennedy has faced intense questioning on Capitol Hill about the administration’s defenses of the pesticide industry and rollbacks on mercury protections — issues he previously championed as an environmental lawyer. In one hearing exchange, when pressed about those stances, Kennedy responded, “It’s not my agency.”
Sarah Vogel of the Environmental Defense Fund said the administration seems to be trying to placate a grassroots base without genuinely engaging the issues. “What I see is an administration scrambling to try to give this grassroots base a bone, and I don’t think they’re buying it because they’re actually following these issues,” she said. With legal fights underway and activists increasingly disillusioned, the rift between MAHA advocates and an administration that includes some of their political allies appears to be widening.