Yet another part of Donald Trump’s coalition — the Make America Healthy Again movement — is splintering. Chemical-fearing, organic food-loving Maha activists descended on Washington recently to protest against the Trump administration’s support for glyphosate, the weedkiller packaged as Monsanto’s Roundup. The product is the subject of a big liability case.
Bayer, Monsanto’s parent company, denies that Roundup causes cancer. But “Maha moms” are sceptical (like many others), as evidenced by their cries of “people versus poison” outside the Supreme Court last week.
It is noteworthy that the highest-profile speaker at the event was not vaccine-eschewing health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, but agribusiness sceptic Cory Booker, a Democratic US senator. For Maha moms, many of whom are as dubious of large corporate interests as any progressive Democrat, family health is more important than party loyalty. The protest also points to the way that Trump’s base is pulling away from him, as part of a larger realignment that could reshape partisan politics in America.