Has Trump kept his promises to the MAHA movement? | Boise State Public Radio

Just over two years after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump formed an alliance promising to overhaul American public health, critics and grassroots advocates are sparring over whether the administration has delivered on its core MAHA objectives. Boise State Public Radio reported on the state of the movement, detailing how a platform built on reducing chronic disease, reforming food systems, and curbing toxic chemicals faces heavy scrutiny from its own original supporters.

New Dietary Guidelines and Evolving Food Policies

The administration’s track record carries distinct contradictions when measured against the Make America Healthy Again rubric. On one hand, officials rolled out a fresh set of dietary guidelines that marked a clear departure from past iterations. These updated recommendations encourage individuals to consume more saturated fat—though the established limits remained unchanged—while actively steering people away from processed foods and boosting daily protein targets.

Yet critics argue those dietary adjustments stand in stark contrast to the administration’s broader management of environmental toxins affecting water and air quality. Kelly Ryerson, a pesticide activist and executive director of the nonprofit American Regeneration, offered a blunt assessment of federal oversight during an interview featured in reporting from NPR and Red River Radio.

I cannot think of a single good thing that the EPA has done during this administration. Instead, they’ve rolled back protections – drinking water from forever chemicals. They’ve approved pesticides that have no business being approved.
— Kelly Ryerson, American Regeneration

What makes these rollbacks particularly jarring for activists is that several chemicals flagged in the Trump administration’s own internal reports as potential hazards for children’s health are the exact substances facing weakened environmental protections.

The Glyphosate Battle and Corporate Influence

Nowhere is the friction between administration policy and grassroots goals more visible than in the regulatory and legal trajectory surrounding glyphosate, the primary active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup. MAHA supporters entered the alliance expecting aggressive action against the chemical due to mounting cancer concerns. Instead, the federal government intervened on the opposite side of the legal battle.

The Trump administration formally backed the corporate manufacturer of Roundup during a high-profile Supreme Court case that the company ultimately won. Furthermore, President Trump signed an executive order intended to boost domestic production of the pesticide. That move alienated a significant portion of the movement’s base, who had anticipated a systemic curb on agricultural chemicals.

Tensions have similarly surfaced regarding who actually speaks for the coalition. A recent high-performance MAHA summit held in Washington, D.C., drew sharp rebukes from activists who felt sidelined by the heavy presence of corporate figures. Ryerson voiced open dismay over the shift, noting that she barely recognized the current iteration of a movement originally organized to push corporate interests out of public health policy.

Unmet Chronic Disease Goals and Public Health Concerns

Reducing the national prevalence of chronic disease stood as the foundational justification for the entire MAHA enterprise. Immediately following the November 2024 election, Kennedy asserted on NPR that Trump anticipated measurable progress in driving down chronic illness rates within a two-year window.

To evaluate that benchmark, Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health, analyzed the administration’s trajectory.

They’ve raised a lot of important issues – pesticides, about ultra-processed foods. They’ve also done a number of things which are terribly dangerous. They’ve really unleashed a group of people in this country that will not get vaccinated. We’ve seen major measles outbreaks.
— Barry Popkin, UNC Gillings School of Public Health

Popkin also pointed to recurring, large-scale foodborne illness outbreaks that have sickened thousands of Americans over the past two years, complicating claims of a safer food supply. As the country looks toward the midterms, activists acknowledge that the MAHA brand may face an inevitable identity crisis or structural evolution by 2027 as internal factions vie for control of its future.