The Trump administration is determined to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Next week, it’s expected to release recommendations to improve diets and take other steps to improve our health. It follows a White House report from May concluding that poor diets, environmental toxins, lack of physical activity and other factors have created a health crisis for America’s children.
Whether the recommendations will support healthy diets and reduce exposures to harmful toxins in our air and water remains to be seen.
What’s clear is that, so far, the administration’s actions have made it harder to build more nutritious diets. Its deregulatory agenda has increased, not reduced, exposure to environmental toxins, at odds with the “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, pledges from President Donald Trump and his team.
Campaigning for president, Trump said he wanted “really clean air.” Yet his Environmental Protection Agency has weakened air pollution standards, including power plant and vehicle rules designed to reduce airborne toxins. It even created a system where polluters can email the agency asking it to help them evade air pollution limits.
Trump also campaigned on a promise to deliver “really clean water.” But the EPA is moving to weaken long-sought drinking water standards for the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.
The Trump EPA has also delayed tackling Americans’ exposure to dozens of other toxic chemicals, including known carcinogens such as trichloroethylene and benzene. It also plans to weaken limits on mercury pollution, which is known to harm the human brain.
The executive’s food policy actions so far don’t appear to be making America healthy again, either.
The May MAHA report highlights the benefits of replacing ultra-processed food with whole food. But Trump’s Agriculture Department has cut funds used to provide locally grown fruit and vegetables to food banks and schools.
What’s more, the Republican budget reconciliation law championed by Trump cut anti-hunger assistance programs. The lower budget will not only increase hunger but also make it harder for hungry people to build healthy diets.
The president’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year, starting October 1, proposed to cut funding for the benefits program known as WIC, which provides a package of healthy foods to pregnant people, new parents and children.
Trump’s team has fired or censored thousands of government health experts, including an entire EPA division dedicated to documenting the harms of environmental toxins. The White House has also removed thousands of government websites dedicated to providing consumers with health-related information.
Beyond these examples, the administration is also pursuing deep cuts to government programs that provide health care to millions, reversing Trump’s earlier plan to ban menthol cigarettes.
All of this while Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – who started the MAHA movement – sows doubts about life-saving vaccines.
America isn’t healthier
Has the president, now seven months into his second term, made us healthier?
So far, his actions have made it harder to build healthy diets, increased our exposure to environmental toxins, and made it more difficult for sick people to recover their good health.
Trump and Kennedy have pledged to tackle toxic food chemicals, but so far the administration has failed to ban a single food chemical of concern. The White House has also failed to stand up to pending efforts in Congress to block state laws aimed at getting harmful chemicals out of food.
Kennedy also pledged to tackle toxic pesticides banned by other nations, yet Trump’s EPA hasn’t banned a single pesticide of concern. Kennedy also recently reversed his earlier statements raising health concerns about glyphosate, a controversial herbicide.
The health secretary has also stood by silently while House Republicans seek to block justice for people harmed by toxic pesticides and bar states from setting tougher pesticide use standards near schools.
Having it both ways
Trump 2.0 wants to have it both ways: pledging to support better dietary habits diets and reduce exposures to environmental toxins. But it’s actually making it harder to eat healthy, and it’s increasing pollution.
While some in the administration may have identified the risks posed by unhealthy diets and toxic exposures, the executive’s actions are making Americans, especially our children, less healthy.
With the release of the MAHA recommendations looming, we’ll know soon enough whether the White House will provide the right prescription for what ails us.
