February 19, 2026 – President Donald Trump issued an executive order late Wednesday directing the Secretary of Agriculture to boost the domestic supply of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, in the name of national security.
The order emphasizes increasing domestic production of elemental phosphorus, which is created by mining phosphate, to make glyphosate. Bayer currently imports most of its phosphate; its domestic supply comes from a long-running mine in Idaho that is nearly tapped out. But in October, Trump’s Bureau of Land Management approved the company’s proposal to build a new mine nearby, which will cover more than 1,800 acres of public and private land.
It’s not clear exactly what Wednesday’s executive order will mean for Bayer, but it essentially promises federal support for expanding glyphosate production.
“As the most widely used crop protection tools in United States agriculture, glyphosate-based herbicides are a cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy, allowing United States farmers and ranchers to maintain high yields and low production costs,” Trump said in the order.
The directive was met with dismay among prominent supporters of Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). On X, toxicologist Alexandra Muñoz called it “outrageous and unacceptable” and anti-glyphosate advocate Kelly Ryerson said glyphosate is the pesticide “MAHA cares about most.”
Kennedy told The New York Times he supported the president’s decision.
The order, signed Wednesday night, comes at a fraught moment in the debate over the most widely used weedkiller in history.
This week, Bayer proposed a $7.25 billion settlement to resolve thousands of lawsuits in which individuals claim using its product gave them non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The company has worked to change state and federal laws to prevent future lawsuits. House Republicans included an immunity clause in a draft farm bill last week, and the Trump administration has sided with Bayer in a case the Supreme Court will hear in April.
The new order directs the Agriculture Secretary to consult with the Secretary of War to determine the materials, services, and facilities needed nationwide “to ensure a continued and adequate supply of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides.”
It also waives the liability of companies complying with the order and says that the Secretary of Agriculture will ensure “that any order, rule, or regulation issued under this section does not place the corporate viability of any domestic producer of elemental phosphorus or glyphosate-based herbicides at risk.”
House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) put out a statement calling the order a “vital step forward” in ensuring glyphosate remains available to farmers. But environmental groups and MAHA supporters expressed anger, and some said the order showed the Trump administration is not serious about improving Americans’ health.
“If anyone still wondered whether ‘Make America Healthy Again’ was a genuine commitment to protecting public health or a scam concocted by President Trump and RFK Jr. to rally health-conscious voters in 2024, today’s decision answers that question,” Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook said in a statement. (Link to this post.)
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