Dem
47
GOP
53
Axios has a scoop about a huge fight that erupted in the Oval Office last week. It had MAHA, backed by Secretary of HHS Robert Kennedy Jr. on one side, and farm lobbyists on the other. MAHA sees pesticides as making America sick (MASA?). Farmers see them as essential. Both sides see this fight as existential.
Kennedy was already on edge due to a Supreme Court ruling last week in favor of glyphosate (Roundup), a carcinogenic weed killer that does not have a warning on the label. Roundup is made by Monsanto, which is owned by Bayer, a giant German chemical company. Kennedy and his MAHA moms saw that as a giant setback. They wanted Trump to sign an XO to discourage the use of Roundup and encourage alternatives, including improving soil health and other organic means to control pests. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins was on Kennedy's side on this one.
Zippy Duvall, who is head of the American Farm Bureau Federation, a farmers' lobbying group, was dead set against the XO. His group represents 5 million farmers. He said the XO would cost farmers billions and they would turn against him if he signed it. The discussion got extremely heated. Trump does not want to lose MAHA moms but he also does not want to lose farmers, and the two groups are very adamant, paying close attention, and are opposing each other.
In the end, Trump went with Kennedy and Rollins and signed the XO. When asked about the meeting, everyone involved refused to comment.
Trump will now probably do what he usually does when one of his actions (e.g., tariffs) hits farmers hard: Bail them out with tens of billions of federal dollars. He doesn't bother to ask Congress, though. He just orders the Treasury to pay up and lets Congress figure it out later. In practice, Trump often refuses to spend money Congress has ordered him to spend (see above) and spends money Congress has not appropriated. This is not how the appropriations process is supposed to work. Congress is supposed to have the power of the purse. How quaint. (V)