WASHINGTON - Minutes beforeRobert F. Kennedy Jr.was sworn in as the nation'sHHS Secretarylast year, PresidentDonald Trumpacknowledged the role his one-time challenger had played in getting him elected.
"He was a very tough competitor. I did not like it at all. I said, let's get him on my side," Trump said.
In April 2023, RFK Jr.launched a long-shot Democratic primary challengeagainst then-PresidentJoe Biden. Six months later, he was running for the White House as an independent before ultimately abandoning his campaign toendorse Trump, the Republican nominee.
"Bobby brought together a coalition of supporters across party lines," Trump continued during Kennedy's swearing-in ceremony."And I think a lot of that support came my way when we decided to do the merger."
More than a year into their working relationship, that merger is showing signs of unraveling as the midterm elections approach.
More:Democratic doctors run for Congress to challenge Trump, RFK Jr.
Robert Kennedy Jr. (R) speaks to the students at Pace University in New York Sept. 18, 2003, after endorsing Democratic Presidential hopeful John Kerry at a press conference. Kennedy endorsed Kerry citing his lifelong commitment and leadership to improve the environment." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
See Senators grill HHS Secretary RFK Jr. over vaccine rulings, CDC turmoil
Kennedy'sMake America Healthy Againmovement, modeled after Trump's Make America Great Again campaign, animated a bipartisan group of voters, primarily the so-called MAHA Moms, with its promise to combat chronic childhood diseases by reducing environmental toxins, ultra-processed foods and "overmedicalization."
From its early days, anti-vaccine activists represented one of the core groups of the movement. They already admired Kennedy, who had founded an anti-vaccine advocacy group.
But Trump's recent executive order to increase theproduction of glyphosate,a widely used weedkiller that the International Agency for Research on Cancer has deemed to be a probable carcinogen, might derail support,the movement's leaders say.
More:A popular weedkiller is part of Supreme Court's latest case. Here's why.
"I think President Trump is making a major mistake," said Del Bigtree, the former CEO of MAHA Action, the nonprofit group started in late 2024 to promote Kennedy's agenda. "I think the MAHA Moms feel burned by this. And I think it could be very, very bad for the midterm election for Donald Trump."
Michaela Bardossas, 28, is one such MAHA Mom from Asheville, North Carolina.
"I've been a fan of RFK Jr. for a really long time because he listens to mothers," she said. "He has been someone who's been at the forefront of this movement, talking about the dangers of Roundup. So when RFK Jr.came into the fold, he really created this bridge between the mothers and the government, and it was like we were finally being heard."
While Bardossas, who is registered as an independent, initially planned to vote for RFK Jr., she switched her vote to Republican when he dropped out and joined forces with Trump.
But the glyphosate executive order has changed things for her and her cohorts.
"It's a huge slap in the face to MAHA. I think Trump is greatly underestimating how much the MAHA moms moved the needle and got him elected," she said. "I know a lot of other MAHA moms, and they don't feel as motivated to vote at midterms," she said, adding she doesn't think they will be going "out of their way" to vote for Republicans.
Trump'sFeb. 18 executive orderpromoted the domestic production of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate,saying it was necessary for national security. The order provides limited immunity to domestic companies that make glyphosate (a cheap and effective herbicide popular with farmers) and phosphorus. The order says elemental phosphorus is critical to military technologies and a "critical precursor element" in producing glyphosate-based herbicides, a lack of which can "jeopardize" agricultural productivity.
Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, is the only domestic producer of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides in the United States. The company threatened to stop producing Roundup unless it obtained court protection against lawsuits blaming the pesticide for causing cancer.
In fact, in 2018, Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, helped win a $289 million judgment against Monsanto. He represented a groundskeeper who said he developed cancer after using Roundup.
On April 27, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments from Bayer that the company can not be held liable under state law for not disclosing cancer risks that the EPA has not deemed necessary to include on labels.
Bayer argues that because the federal Environmental Protection Agency has approved the pesticide and does not require a cancer warning label, the company cannot be held liable for state-level failure-to-warn lawsuits.
In an interview on "The Joe Rogan Experience"last month, Kennedy said he was "not particularly happy, to put it mildly," with Trump's executive order on glyphosate.
Kennedy said while he has "spent 40 years fighting pesticides" and considers them poison, he understood the president's position of not wanting to disrupt the agricultural sector.
According to theFertilizer Institute, over the last five years, the United States imported on average, 35% of its processed phosphate fertilizer. China and Russia produce 52% of global phosphate fertilizers.
'Disgusted' by immunity for glyphosate producers just before Bayer argues beforeSCOTUS
Zen Honeycutt, executive director of Moms Across America, one of the leading MAHA groups, said the mothers in her group - considered to be a key voting block by MAHA leaders - were "extremely disturbed" about the immunity the president had provided to producers of glyphosate - by default Bayer, which is the sole manufacturer in the U.S.- through his executive order.
"I'm disgusted. I'm literally sick to my stomach," she said. "We believe that this executive order, basically a love letter to glyphosate, was issued not just to do a business deal with Bayer to produce more glyphosate but as a signal to the Supreme Court and to the elected officials that this administration deems glyphosate to be very important for the U.S. economy and to sway the results of the Supreme Court decision."
Honeycutt noted that the executive order came just days before the House Agriculture Committee was considering a five-year farm bill that would shield manufacturers from litigation related to adverse health impacts when the chemicals are used in accordance with federal law. The Republican-led bill has since cleared the committee and is proceeding to a full House floor vote.
"It is a clear demonstration of corporate corruption within our administration,"Honeycutt said.''But it's not just this administration, it's an example of what's been happening for many administrations for many decades."
Bayer donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee,federal filings show.
Still, she had been hopeful about the prospects for chemical regulation.
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"We thought it would be different with this administration because Trump had the wisdom to bring in RFK Jr., who we all know sued Monsanto and won and is probably better well-versed on the harms of glyphosate than anybody," she said.
Honeycutt said the mothers in her group were excited when then Republican presidential nominee Trump co-opt Kennedy's message and acknowledge the connection between the pesticides in our food and their children's chronic childhood illnesses.
"And many of us, millions of us, I believe, switched from Democrat or independent to Republican and voted Republican for the first time in their lives," she said. "Unfortunately, over the past year, there has not been one restriction or ban on any pesticides, including the 86 pesticides that have been banned in other countries. This is unacceptable."
Honeycutt said she's heard from several mothers who are saying things like, "I guess I'm a Democrat now, or the Dems are the only ones that are pulling for us on this," she said.
"The Republicans who speak up and make health and safety a priority will be much more likely to be reelected in the midterms or, you know, elected in the first place," she said.
MAHA voters are paying attention.
Bardossas said she's been passionate about consuming organic food and reducing her family's exposure to chemicals for a long time.
Back in 2021, she started a petition and successfully lobbied her city to stop using Roundup in the local park.
"I was a teenager when I learned about the negative impacts pesticides have on our health," she said.
She's a mother of two sons, ages 4 and 1, neither of whom have been vaccinated. A former boss told her that her son had developed autism after receiving the MMR vaccine.
"He was meeting all of his milestones. He was walking, he was talking, he was making eye contact, he was very verbal," she said. "And then he got the MMR vaccine, and then he had a very high fever. He was lethargic. He went to sleep that night, and he woke up and she found him in his crib and he was, like, banging his head and non-verbal and not talking anymore. I heard the same story from so many mothers over the years."
The National Medical Association has said that decades of independent, global scientific inquiry has foundno associationbetween the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism spectrum disorder. Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under Kennedy's leadership, announced last year that it would conduct a large study into potential links between vaccines and autism.
Bardossas said the more she learned about what was being added to the food, besides the pesticides that are being sprayed on the crops, but also the additives, preservatives, dyes that are banned in Europe, she said, the more she started questioning vaccines and the American food system.
She said she was excited about several RFK Jr. wins as Health secretary, including the phasing out of artificial dyes, the members of the national vaccine panel being replaced (many of the new members have a history of vaccine skepticism) and efforts to eliminate the "Generally Recognized As Safe loophole" which allows food companies to self-certify new additives as safe without FDA approval. Bardossas said instead of boosting the production of glyphosate, the solution should be to switch to organic versions of pesticides or to regenerative farming, a practice that restores soil health while reducing or eliminating synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. (In December, the Trump administration announced a $700 million Regenerative Pilot Program to help American farmers adopt regenerative farming policies.)
Asked if pilot program on regenerative farming would sway MAHA voters in favor of Republicans, she said it hadn't changed her view.
"It feels like Bayer has infiltrated the administration," she said.
The Trump administration insists it's not backing off its MAHA moms agenda. White House spokesperson Kush Desai said Trump and his administration remain committed to the MAHA agenda with more announcements on sustainable agriculture practices and other policies to build on MAHA victories from the past year.
Desai said the executive order is not an endorsement of any product or practice, but about strengthening national security by ending foreign reliance on chemicals important to the agricultural and military sectors.
Bigtree, a vaccine opponent, who served as a communications director during Kennedy's 2024 presidential campaign, resigned from MAHA Action last year after Kennedy expressed his support for the measles vaccine.
"Secretary Kennedy had made statements that the measles vaccine was the best way to stop measles outbreaks," Bigtree said. "And I made a comment that it (MMR vaccine) is also the most cited vaccine that is causing autism for parents that have gone through that experience."
He said he decided it was best to maintain distance from the administration after Kennedy's comments on vaccines. He said it became clear to him that MAHA Action was going to have to "support Bobby and everything he was doing at HHS."
The recent glyphosate EO, he said, proved his decision to quit as CEO of MAHA Action last year was the right one.
"It was probably for moments like this where Bobby has to support the administration and stockpile glyphosate, a product that I believe poisons our nation, our children, our people," he said.
'MAHA Rentals' may stay home if GOP doesn't champion health-focused policies
Last month, a few days before Trump signed the order on glyphosate Tony Lyons, the new president of MAHA Action, sent a memo to GOP leadership sharing the results of new polling which showed that Democrats held a 5-point lead in the generic ballot, but a Republican who embraces core MAHA issues beats a generic Democrat nearly 2 to 1 among the "MAHA winnable middle," a bloc representing 14% of voters.
Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, a prominent GOP strategist and pollster favored by Trump, also identified a group of current GOP-leaning voters they called "MAHA Rentals" a bloc representing 10% of the electorate "who may stay home in November if Republicans fail to champion health-focused policies," Lyons wrote.
Vani Hari, a food advocate who has worked with the administration on MAHA-aligned policies, said if "MAHA is about restoring trust in public health, elevating glyphosate to a national security priority sends the opposite message."
Hari, a former Democrat who voted for Trump after Kennedy joined him, said she plans to organize the "biggest food movement rally America has ever seen" the day of the Bayer hearing before the Supreme Court in April.
"What happens on glyphosate will determine what happens at the 2026 midterms," she said. "Mark my words."
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY.You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Will RFK Jr. MAHA voters split from Republicans in midterm elections?
WASHINGTON - Minutes beforeRobert F. Kennedy Jr.was sworn in as the nation'sHHS Secretarylast year, PresidentDonald T...
