Trump signs executive order to promote the production of weedkiller that's hated by MAHA

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US President Donald Trump speaks during a Black History Month event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on Feb. 18, 2026.

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to promote the domestic production of phosphorus and the weedkiller glyphosate, which he said is critical to both defense and food security.

Glyphosate is often targeted by supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement as a harmful chemical. Trump aligned with the MAHA movement after Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the 2024 election.

“I find that ensuring robust domestic elemental phosphorus mining and United States-based production of glyphosate-based herbicides is central to American economic and national security,” Trump said in the order. “Without immediate Federal action, the United States remains inadequately equipped and vulnerable.”

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Glyphosate has long been used in U.S. agriculture and has been the subject of controversy over alleged links to cancer. Bayer, the company that makes the glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup, recently proposed paying $7.25 billion to settle lawsuits claiming the chemical causes cancer.

Roundup products are seen for sale at a store in San Rafael, California.

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Phosphorus, which is also covered in the order, is a precursor to the production of glyphosate and is also used in the manufacturing of certain military equipment.

The order will require Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to issue orders and regulations to implement the increased supply of phosphorus and glyphosate.

A White House Fact sheet on the executive order said Trump signed it to “ensure domestic production of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides, the loss of which would cripple critical supply chains.”

A lack of either chemical, the fact sheet said, could “leave our defense industrial base and food supply vulnerable to hostile foreign actors,” since there is only “one domestic producer of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides.”

Kennedy once won a nearly $290 million case against Roundup producer Monsanto, which has since been bought by Bayer, for a man who alleged he developed cancer from using the weedkiller.

Since being nominated as Trump’s HHS chief, however, he has softened his tone on the chemical.

“We cannot take any step that will put a single farmer in this country out of business,” he said during a hearing last year. “There’s a million farmers who rely on glyphosate.”

CNBC has reached out to HHS for comment.

Monsanto said in a statement to CNBC that the executive order “reinforces the critical need for U.S. farmers to have access to essential, domestically produced crop protection tools such as glyphosate.”

“We will comply with this order to produce glyphosate and elemental phosphorus,” the company said.