MAHA Splits With Trump Admin Over Key Issues
The Trump administration has been clashing with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and those aligned with his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ (MAHA) campaign over a number of key issues in recent weeks, causing tension and infighting in the GOP, threatening its future agenda.
From pesticide regulation, not only regarding measures in the recently passed Farm Bill, but also wider policies on the chemicals, to the new surgeon general nomination, MAHA-aligned lawmakers and supporters have been outraged by some of the latest policymaking, resulting in a heated divide in the Republican Party as the U.S. midterms draw closer.
While the health secretary has said he supports the president’s actions, he has conceded that some policies-particularly those relating to pesticides-have not left him “particularly happy,” as certain “America-first” initiatives adopted by the administration go against the health-first approach Kennedy wants, leaving him caught between his supporters and his president in a MAHA vs ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) clash.
Newsweek has contacted HHS and the White House outside of regular working hours via email for comment.
Casey Means Replaced With Nicole Saphier As Surgeon General Nominee
On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that radiologist and former Fox News contributor Nicole Saphier would be replacing Casey Means as the White House’s nominee for surgeon general.
The nomination appears to have switched as Means did not secure enough Republican support to secure Senate confirmation-with both Kennedy and Trump pointing the finger at Senator Bill Cassidy, who was vocal about his concerns regarding Means’ views on vaccinations.
Kennedy said on X that Means “stands as one of the MAHA movement's most powerful evangelists,” and that Cassidy “did the dirty work for entrenched interests seeking to stall the MAHA movement and protect the very status quo that has made America the sickest nation on earth.”
Though while Trump and the MAHA campaign were united in their frustration of Means not gaining enough support, the MAGA-MAHA alliance split over Trump’s following announcement that Saphier would be Means’ replacement.
Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that Saphier was a “star physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments.”
He also deemed her an “incredible communicator who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans.”
However, influential MAHA activist Alex Clark, who hosts a podcast for the conservative political group Turning Point USA, wrote on X: “Dr. Saphier would be a catastrophic mistake on messaging and communicating with MAHA at a time where the coalition is very fragile,” and that it “will be perceived as the admin breaking another promise to them.”
Vani Hari, another leading MAHA activist, wrote on the platform: “DOGE the Surgeon General!!! We want medical freedom!!!! If not Casey-we take no one!”
White House spokesman Kush Desai has defended Saphier’s nomination, saying in a statement to Politico that Saphier “will be a powerful asset for President Trump and work tirelessly to deliver on every facet of his MAHA agenda.”
The Farm Bill
The Farm Bill, known as H.R.7567 or the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, is a sweeping package aimed at supporting farmers that was passed in the House last week following a procedural vote.
The bill set out to help farmers by increasing statutory reference prices for certain commodities, reducing crop insurance premiums, and formally integrating precision agriculture into federal programs to boost efficiency, though a number of its measures became key points of contention within the GOP.
The Farm Bill's provisions on conservation and pesticide regulations, as well as its changes to the food assistance program SNAP resulted in heated debate about the bill, and Republican lawmakers filed a series of amendments, particularly in relation to pesticide regulation.
Florida’s GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna led the opposition to provisions in the bill that would have protected pesticide makers from liability, warning in posts on X that pesticides “are giving kids cancer” and questioning why Congress would “protect” manufacturers.
Even Democrats have commented on how the measures go against the MAGA-MAHA alliance-Jim McGovern of Massachusetts called the bill a “betrayal to MAHA.”
Debate around the provisions were so heated among the GOP, that conversations turned “nasty,” Luna said on X, telling her followers she had been “accosted” for her amendments by unnamed Republican lawmakers.
Though the amendments were passed along with the bill last week, the debate around pesticide regulation is not entirely settled. Tensions remain following the administration’s earlier policies in regard to the chemicals, and over a Supreme Court case.
The Roundup Case And Concerns About Glyphosate
Trump signed an executive order earlier this year calling for an increase in the supply of glyphosate-based herbicides, which he said play a “critical role” in America's agricultural landscape, adding that a lack of access to the chemicals would “critically jeopardize agricultural productivity” and the country’s food system.
The move was another to support farmers who are currently facing financial pressure due to a combination of falling crop prices, high fertilizer and fuel costs, elevated interest rates, and rising debt levels. They rely heavily on glyphosate‑based herbicides because they are a low‑cost, highly effective way to control weeds across major crops like corn and soybeans.
Trump’s order was a firm “America-first” initiative, though went completely against calls among the MAHA fanbase to reduce the use of the chemical, as well as Kennedy’s own agenda to scale back the use of certain chemicals that he has argued are contributing to chronic disease rates in the country.
HHS previously told Newsweek, echoing a statement from Kennedy, that “Donald Trump's Executive Order puts America first where it matters most-our defense readiness and our food supply. We must safeguard America's national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it.” Though Kennedy has also said the order was “not something I was particularly happy with-to put it mildly.”
Kennedy has been previously vocal with his views on the chemical. In 2024, he wrote on X that glyphosate is “one of the likely culprits in America's chronic disease epidemic,” and previously said in an interview with Joe Rogan that use of the chemical “is something every American should be concerned about.”
While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that there are “no risks of concern to human health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label,” the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has labeled it as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
Following the implementation of the order, the chemical is now once again in the spotlight, as the Supreme Court heard last week arguments in the Roundup weedkiller case, where tens of thousands of lawsuits have been brought against the German multinational manufacturer Bayer, with accusations that exposure to the chemical left claimants with cancer. The Roundup herbicide contains glyphosate.
The case was picked up by the court earlier this year, after Monsanto, the original producer of the glyphosate-infused herbicide requested to overturn the results of a lawsuit that forced it to pay over $1 million to a claimant who alleged that he developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma because of exposure to Roundup. Bayer AG acquired Monsanto in 2018.
The outcome of the case could widen the gap between MAGA and MAHA as pesticide regulation becomes an increasingly divisive issue and Trump’s “America-first”-and therefore industry first-initiatives clash with Kennedy’s bid to put America’s health first, and reduce chemicals in the environment.
With the U.S. midterms getting closer, the weakening alliance could leave the door open for the Democratic Party. Democrats have already been leaning on criticism of the chemical industry and MAHA-aligned views on pesticides, in what could provoke greater instability within the GOP at a crucial time in Trump’s presidency.
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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 5:52 AM.