Trump Picks Pesticide Insider for EPA Role, Breaking MAHA Promises

WASHINGTON– In a move that starkly contradicts campaign pledges to crack down on toxic pesticides, President Donald Trump has appointed longtime agriculture lobbyist Kyle Kunkler to serve as the nation’s top pesticide regulator at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a report in E&E News.

Kunkler is a former lobbyist for the American Soybean Association and the Biotech Innovation Organization. He will now lead the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, despite years of advocating against restrictions on farm chemicals such as glyphosate and atrazine. 

These are the very pesticides singled out in Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s, “Make America Healthy Again” report for their potential links to chronic illness in children.

“The appointment of Kyle Kunkler sends a loud, clear message: Industry influence is back in charge at the EPA,” said EWG President Ken Cook. “It’s a stunning reversal of the campaign promises Trump and RFK, Jr., made to their MAHA followers – that they’d stand up to chemical giants and protect children from dangerous pesticides.

“To those who genuinely believed the MAHA movement would lead to meaningful change on toxic exposures: We understand the hope,” he said. “But hope doesn’t regulate pesticides. People with power do. And this pick all but guarantees the status quo will remain untouched.

“This is but the latest example of the Trump administration’s sweeping betrayal of environmental protection and public health,” added Cook. 

The MAHA Commission, chaired by Kennedy and at least rhetorically supported by Trump, warned just weeks ago about the risks of chemical industry capture. The commission called for more independent science on pesticide safety. 

Yet Kunkler, who proudly defended pesticides in response to that report, will now oversee the agency’s decisions about whether those same chemicals remain in use. 

On Friday, the CEO of CropLife America, the leading trade and lobbying group for the pesticide industry, sent a letter to Kennedy, obtained first by Politico. The letter urged him and the MAHA Commission to abandon their stance against crop chemicals like glyphosate and instead champion the use of toxic herbicides and pesticides in conventional agriculture. 

The industry letter comes a little more than a month before the commission is expected to release its final report and policy recommendations, on August 12.  

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The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.