RFK Jr is the worst traitor to the environmental movement ever. With Trump on glyphosate.

[Eric J in MN]

NYT:

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, which has been the target of tens of thousands of lawsuits that claim it causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In 2018, as a plaintiff’s lawyer, Mr. Kennedy helped win a landmark $289 million jury verdict against Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, in a case contending the company knew the weedkiller caused cancer.

But in a statement issued through a spokesman Wednesday night, the health secretary (RFK Jr) said he supported the president.

...Mr. Trump’s order invoked the Defense Production Act, a 1950s-era law typically used in national emergencies to compel companies to produce certain materials or supplies that the president deems necessary for national security. Mr. Trump declared both glyphosate and phosphorus, used to manufacture the weedkiller, “critical to the national defense.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/us/politics/trump-boost-weedkiller.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NVA.hT4l.PYHieDMLMdoj&smid=url-share]

[Ocelot II]

1. How is glyphosate critical to the national defense?

Are our enemies going to attack us with crabgrass and creeping charlie?

[Red Mountain]

2. An army marches on its stomach

would, I think, be their rationale.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. MaddowBlog-Trump executive order on a weed killer chemical didn't do RFK Jr. any favors

The “Make America Healthy Again” agenda is riddled with a series of overlapping contradictions, which are becoming even more common.

When RFK Jr. was on the campaign trail in 2024, he vowed that if he joined Trump’s team, he would “ban the worst agricultural chemicals.”

I have some bad news for the voters who actually believed he'd follow through on this.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-19T18:25:23.000Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-executive-order-on-a-weed-killer-chemical-didnt-do-rfk-jr-any-favors

About a year later, in November 2025, the Republican administration advanced a plan to approve agricultural pesticides containing “forever chemicals” as an active ingredient, despite concerns raised by some scientists and environmental activists. Kennedy, in his capacity as Trump’s health and human services secretary, bit his tongue.

This year, the underlying dynamic has reached a new level. The New York Times reported:

President Trump issued an executive order late Wednesday aimed at spurring the domestic production of glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller that has figured in health lawsuits.

The move immediately set off alarms among supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement, and appeared to put Mr. Kennedy in an awkward position.

As the report explains, glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, which has been the target of tens of thousands of lawsuits that claim it causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma......

This has been an ongoing issue for months. In June, MS NOW’s Catherine Rampell wrote a memorable Washington Post column along these lines, noting that Kennedy’s MAHA agenda is rooted in part in the idea that Americans’ health would greatly improve through better nutrition and exposure to fewer environmental toxins.

Kennedy, Rampell added, is nevertheless playing a leading role in an administration that’s “expanding use of environmental toxins.”

If Kennedy and Team Trump wanted to admit that the MAHA agenda was largely focused on undermining vaccines, it would be impolitic, but it would also be far closer to the truth.