Trump Seems to Be Trying His Best to Give Us All Cancer

How can the Make America Healthy Again crowd put up with all this? They can’t. Amid the hypocrites and toadies who make up much of Trump’s base, MAHA—which supported Trump in part because they believed his health secretary, RFK Jr., would reduce toxins in our environment and food supply, and in part because they agreed with him on the dangers of vaccines—now stands out as a rare example of a group sticking to its values. “MAHA Moms” have rightly lost patience with the Trump administration’s coddling of chemical companies, The New York Times reported this weekend.

Some are now circulating a petition to fire EPA chief Lee Zeldin, who has allowed chemical industry insiders to relax restrictions on harmful chemicals. One of the groups circulating it, Moms Across America, is calling EPA the “Everyone Poisoned Agency.” MAHA also takes issue—rightly—with Zeldin’s approval of new pesticides, including two that contain PFAS, a.k.a. “forever chemicals,” which have been a major target of the MAHA movement. Some MAHA activists and influencers told the Times that Zeldin’s willingness to allow chemical companies to make policy is unacceptable to their base and could become an election problem for the Republicans.

Even before Trump took office, cancer was a horrific killer. About two million Americans are diagnosed with cancer per year. More than 600,000 die of cancer, making it our second-highest cause of death (after heart disease). Though other threats like gun violence and drug overdoses loom larger in our public conversation, cancer is much more likely to touch each of us personally—and to kill us.