Washington D.C. – This week, Health Secretary RFK Jr and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin delivered the Trump administration’s latest finger in the eye of the MAHA movement they claim to be part of: a major rollback of Biden-era restrictions on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water. These chemicals, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), “have been linked to cancer, immune system problems and infertility.”
The deregulation plan is a major gift to Donald Trump’s big chemical industry mega donors, including DuPont, which was part of a $2 billion PFAS settlement last year and gave $250,000 to Trump’s campaign after the 2024 election.
The backlash from MAHA leaders was immediate, via the Washington Post: “If they really cared about regulating it, then they would keep those standards in place,” said Alex Clark, a prominent conservative wellness influencer and podcaster aligned with the MAHA movement. “I am tired of making excuses for dangerous chemicals to continue flooding our environment and harming our kids.”
“Over and over again, Donald Trump and RFK Jr. paid lip service to MAHA only to sell their interests out to Trump’s big polluter and poison-peddling corporate donors like makers of flavored vapes, glyphosate, and PFAS forever chemicals,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project. “The White House shouldn’t be surprised MAHA is getting real tired of being treated as disposable political pawns on top of Trump actively making matters worse on their #1 concern: health care affordability.”
The administration’s ‘forever chemical’ revitalization plan certainly wasn’t the first time Donald Trump put the profits of his corporate donors over MAHA wishes and likely won’t be the last – which helps explain the polls showing the movement’s growing “frustration and dissatisfaction with the Trump administration on health priorities”.
Like Lucy and Charlie Brown’s Football, Trump and RFK Jr. Playing Keep Away With The MAHA Agenda:
- Bringing Back Cancer-Linked Glyphosate: In February, over MAHA objections, Secretary Kennedy unequivocally endorsed Donald Trump’s executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to bring back production of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup herbicide that has been repeatedly linked to cancer.
- Fast-Tracking Poisonous Flavored Vapes for Kids: Earlier this month, RFK Jr. dutifully followed Donald Trump’s order to push out FDA Commissioner Marty Makary out the door for not moving ‘quickly enough’ to approve flavored vapes and nicotine products, a priority of Trump’s big tobacco and vape donors and major no-no for MAHA leaders.
- Gutting Pollution Protections: While MAHA leaders have spoken out about air and water pollutants, a new report from Climate Power and Protect Our Care details how Donald Trump has eliminated 31 pollution protections that, together, were set to deliver $275 billion in benefits per year and prevent 30,000 deaths annually. Repealing just nine of those protections could result in 220,000 premature deaths, 300,000 emergency room visits, up to 42 million missed school and work days, and 117 million asthma cases by 2055. Eight of them alone could trigger more than 10,000 asthma attacks per day.
- Atrazine Pesticide Rug Pull: A year ago, RFK Jr. made bold promises to MAHA moms to restrict the pesticide atrazine linked to cancer, birth defects and low sperm counts. A year later, the Trump U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a ‘review’ concluding atrazine does not pose an extinction risk to any threatened or endangered animals or plants, which “effectively paves the way for continued use,” and continued profits for Trump’s chemical industry donors.
- All Talk, No Action On Synthetic Food Dyes: In a nod to a major MAHA priority, RFK Jr. pledged to “phase out” artificial food dyes like Red 40 and Yellow 5 by the end of 2026. But as the Associated Press notes: “More than a year later, the FDA has not introduced any of the detailed, scientific regulatory documents needed to establish a safety issue with the half-dozen widely used dyes.”
###