Trump Is Losing the ‘MAHA Moms’

Summary

Podcast Summary: Big Take – “Trump Is Losing the ‘MAHA Moms’”

Host: Tim Stenovec (for Sarah Holder and David Gura)
Guest/Commentator: Bloomberg’s Dina Shanker and Maha Movement commentators
Date: May 8, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the growing tensions between President Trump and the “MAHA” movement—an influential coalition of vaccine skeptics, anti-pesticide advocates, and proponents of “real food,” largely led by activist mothers. The discussion examines why these so-called "MAHA Moms" (Make America Healthy Again) are disillusioned with Trump, the specific policy disagreements straining their alliance, and the implications for the upcoming midterm elections.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Composition of the MAHA Movement

• MAHA stands for “Make America Healthy Again.”
  • A coalition that emerged during the 2024 campaign, drawing in vaccine skeptics, anti-pesticide activists, and “real food” proponents.
  • Inspired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and later adopted by Trump as part of a broader realignment on health and food issues.
  • “It is the movement spurred by RFK Jr…Once he aligned himself with President Trump and he brought all his followers with him and they called themselves the Make America Healthy Again movement.” — Maha Movement Commentator [02:11]
• Role of motherhood in MAHA:
  • Many leaders are mothers advocating for children’s health—framing their cause in maternal language to broaden its appeal.
  • “Being a mom makes you more aware of, say, the toxicity of our environment or the problems with our food system...They’ve put a lot of it very much in the language of motherhood.” — Maha Movement Commentator [03:47]

2. The Political Shift: Republicans Embrace (Parts of) Healthy Food and Environment Causes

• The Republican Party, traditionally skeptical of nutritional regulations, rebranded elements of its platform to court MAHA voters—even after rolling back Obama-era school nutrition rules.
  • “Trump’s embrace of this movement really went against his priors.” — Maha Movement Commentator [07:23]

3. MAHA’s Key Leaders and Their Influence

• Vani Hari (“Food Babe”): Longtime food activist known for campaigns against chemical additives in food. Once a Democrat, she became a prominent MAHA figure after Kennedy and Trump support.
  • “She had an entire online campaign to get Subway to get the yoga mat chemical, quote unquote, the yoga mat chemical out of their bread.” — Maha Movement Commentator [05:02]
• Kelly Ryerson (“Glyphosate Girl”): Regenerative agriculture advocate, strongly anti-pesticide.
• Zen Honeycutt: Started Moms Across America, bridging food and vaccine issues.

4. Policy Betrayals: Widening the Trump-MAHA Rift

• Glyphosate (Weed Killer) Controversy:
  • Trump signed an executive order increasing glyphosate production, angering anti-pesticide MAHA members.
  • “You cannot tell Americans to eat real food while protecting the cancer causing chemicals sprayed on it.” — Maha Movement Commentator [08:53]
  • Trump’s DOJ also argued before the Supreme Court to shield Bayer/Monsanto from liability in glyphosate cancer cases.
• Surgeon General Nominee Withdrawn:
  • Trump pulled his nomination of Casey Means, a wellness influencer favored by MAHA.
  • “It was a real whirlwind of events for MAHA within like 48 hours.” — Maha Movement Commentator [10:11]
• Short-lived Farm Bill Win:
  • MAHA and allies succeeded in removing pro-pesticide industry protections from the farm bill—momentarily boosting morale—before being deflated by the Surgeon General news.

5. The Impending Impact on Midterms

• Erosion of Support:
  • MAHA leaders like Vani Hari are not rallying supporters for Republicans; some MAHA voters may abstain or even consider Democrats.
  • “She’s not exactly directing people to stay home, but she’s also not calling on them to show up for the Republican Party.” — Maha Movement Commentator [13:33]
  • Lack of grassroots motivation could translate into significant losses for Republicans in critical races.
• No Easy Path for GOP Reconciliation:
  • Key Trump officials, especially EPA head Lee Zeldin, are seen as antagonistic to MAHA’s goals, further alienating the movement.
  • “Lee Zeldin has been doing the opposite of regulating pesticides.” — Maha Movement Commentator [14:50]

6. Democrats’ Slow Response and Unrealized Opportunity

• Some Engagement:
  • Democrats like Rep. Chellie Pingree and Sen. Cory Booker spoke at a bipartisan anti-pesticide rally.
  • “Democrats have a real opening here.” — Maha Movement Commentator [16:21]
• Challenges:
  • Despite synergy on topics like food access and health, few Democrats have made MAHA’s agenda central to their platforms.

7. Policy and Bureaucratic Gridlock

• Federal agencies (USDA, EPA, etc.) remain slow or resistant to implementing MAHA’s desired changes, deepening movement frustration.

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “It is the movement spurred by RFK Jr…Once he aligned himself with President Trump and he brought all of his followers with him and they called themselves the Make America Healthy Again movement.” — Maha Movement Commentator [02:11]
• “She had an entire online campaign to get Subway to get the yoga mat chemical, quote unquote, the yoga mat chemical out of their bread.” — Maha Movement Commentator [05:02]
• “Trump’s embrace of this movement really went against his priors.” — Maha Movement Commentator [07:23]
• “You cannot tell Americans to eat real food while protecting the cancer causing chemicals sprayed on it.” — Maha Movement Commentator [08:53]
• “She’s not exactly directing people to stay home, but she’s also not calling on them to show up for the Republican Party.” — Maha Movement Commentator [13:33]
• “Lee Zeldin has been doing the opposite of regulating pesticides.” — Maha Movement Commentator [14:50]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:45] — Introduction to the “Make America Healthy Again” movement
• [03:09] — Growing MAHA discontent and 2026 midterms implications
• [05:02] — Origins and online activism of MAHA leaders (Food Babe, Glyphosate Girl, Zen Honeycutt)
• [07:23] — Exploration of the Republican rebranding on health/food
• [08:27] — Recent betrayals: glyphosate policy and Supreme Court case
• [09:20] — Vani Hari’s public criticism of Trump
• [09:39] — MAHA’s farm bill victory and subsequent setback
• [13:16] — Trump’s approval rating hits a low; MAHA Moms’ impact on GOP turnout
• [14:50] — EPA’s role in deepening the divide
• [15:21] — Democrats’ response to the MAHA opportunity
• [16:34] — Policy contradictions and bureaucratic inertia

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Tone and Takeaway

The episode blends analysis, reported insight, and direct quotes from activists and policymakers for a nuanced look at a fractured political alliance. MAHA moms, once pivotal for Trump, are now openly expressing disappointment, threatening to withhold grassroots support. The future of “MAHA” as a Republican advantage is in jeopardy, while Democrats consider—but have yet to fully seize—an opportunity to win over these critical swing voters.

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For further reading and details, visit Bloomberg.com or listen to the full episode for the voices of MAHA leaders and their impact on 2026’s high-stakes midterms.

Transcript

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Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts

[Tim Stenovec]

Radio News When President Trump campaigned for a second term in 2024, he aligned himself with a broad coalition of voters united under one slogan.

[Chase Bank Representative]

Make America Healthy Again.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

Make America Healthy Again.

[Chase Bank Representative]

Make America Healthy Again.

[Tim Stenovec]

It's a relatively new movement comprised of vaccine skeptics, anti pesticide activists and proponents of so called real food.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

It is the movement spurred by RFK Jr that he named obviously after Mag Make America Great Again. Once he aligned himself with President Trump and he brought all of his followers with him and they called themselves the Make America Healthy Again movement.

[Tim Stenovec]

Bloomberg's Dina Shanker has been reporting on the movement since its early days.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

The general consensus is that these voters were very much a factor in Trump's win.

[Tim Stenovec]

But lately, some in the Maha movement have been speaking out against recent moves by the Trump administration.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

President Trump just signed an executive order

[Tim Stenovec]

to ramp up the production of glyphosate. The controversial moves, they say, are antithetical to the Maha movement that helped get him elected. An announcement from the president following his decision to pull the nomination of Casey Means. And these tensions are flaring with a major test for Trump's second term just around the corner, midterm elections.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

I've heard people say that they may not vote at all. I heard one person who told me maybe she'll vote for a Democrat. We don't know how they will vote, but I can tell you that right now there's not a groundswell of Maha support.

[Tim Stenovec]

I'm Tim Stenovec in for Sarah Holder and David Gura. And this is the big take from Bloomberg News today on the show, the straining ties between the Maha movement and the Trump administration and what that could mean for Republican chances in November.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

A lot of the leaders of this movement are women who are also mothers. And for many of them, they talk about the importance of healthy food of choice over vaccination. They talk about it from their position as mothers. And, you know, I will say that as a parent, as a mother, I both totally get that being a mom makes you more aware of, say, the toxicity of our environment or the problems with our food system, whether or not we can avoid them wanting to protect our kids. I will say that before there was such a thing as Maja, there were parents, including fathers, leading legislation that in many ways now mirrors a lot of what Maja does. So a lot of what Maja talks about is something that a lot of people agree with. Some of it, especially on the vaccine side, is not something that a lot of people agree with. But I think specifically on the food side, there's a lot of general consensus around a lot of what Maha is now taking ownership of. And what they have done, and I think really smartly is they've put a lot of it very much in the language of motherhood.

[Tim Stenovec]

Who are the ones that are leading the movement who are, you know, for lack of a better term, rallying the troops.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

So there's a couple of online food activists who have been around for a long time. One of them is Vani Hari. She's known as the food babe. Take a look at the ingredients in Subway's nine grain bread. I wrote about her like 10 years ago when she named a chemical that was common in baked goods, the yoga mat chemical. Keep the yoga mat out of your mouth and on the floor. Do you know friends and family? And she called it that because it was indeed a chemical that was found in yoga mats. And she had an entire online campaign to get Subway to get the yoga mat chemical, quote, unquote, the yoga mat chemical out of their bread. Subway is changing its bread recipe, removing

[Chase Bank Representative]

a chemical also used to make yoga mats. A food blogger recently launched a petition asking the world's biggest sandwich change to stop using the ingredient.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

The plastic based additive is legal in

[Chase Bank Representative]

the US but it is banned in Europe and Australia.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

She used to be a Democrat and then she became a Republican and a Maha mom. Republican and a leader when Kennedy took up her cause. There's also Kelly Ryerson, who goes online by the name Glyphosate Girl. Okay, time for a check in because this has been quite a week in the glyphosate world. She is a regenerative agriculture advocate. She is extremely anti pesticides and specifically glyphosate, as you can tell by her online moniker. And there's also Zen Honeycutt, who actually straddles both sides, the food and vaccine side of the Maha movement. Day 2 what am I doing to make America healthy again? Well, today I called a whole bunch of Georgia state senators. She started Moms Across America. And so there's a lot of people like this that have been beating these drums for a long time that really saw a lot of opportunity with Kennedy.

[Tim Stenovec]

When we think about health and kids and eating good food, some of the agenda, at least to me, sounds very similar to what first lady Michelle Obama tried to do promoting bringing healthy foods to kids. She planted this garden at the White House. She got people exercising with this let's move campaign. But but not so long ago, conservative voices decried those moves and some people argued that it was government overreach. How did the Republican Party under Trump pull off that rebrand?

[Maha Movement Commentator]

I think it really requires a little bit of political amnesia because after Michelle Obama instituted those school nutrition rules under the Obama administration, when the Trump administration came in, they actually rolled back some of those nutrition rules. The first Trump administration, along with the Republican Party, was generally anti regulation. And often what Maha is calling for is more regulation, more regulation of the food that we sell in supermarkets, more regulation of what we serve in schools, more regulation of pesticides, et cetera. And so Trump's embrace of this movement really went against his priors.

[Tim Stenovec]

I would say, broadly speaking, how would you characterize the state of MAHA supporters in the Trump administration right now?

[Maha Movement Commentator]

I would say from the ones that I've spoken with, disappointed, but they have not necessarily lost faith that some good can be done by this administration.

[Tim Stenovec]

But a flurry of activity in D.C. in recent weeks has put some strain on the already fragile alliance. First was at the Supreme Court, where the justices heard a case about glyphosate at issue was a $1.25 million jury verdict won by a Missouri man who blamed the weed killer roundup for his non Hodgkin lymphoma. Trump administration lawyers argued in favor of shielding Bayer, Monsanto's parent company from liability. It's a move some MAHA leaders saw as a betrayal.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

You cannot tell Americans to eat real food while protecting the cancer causing chemicals sprayed on it.

[Tim Stenovec]

MAHA leaders, including Vani Hari, held a rally outside the Supreme Court speaking out against the administration. Tahari it was a twisting of the knife. After the president signed an executive order earlier this year mandating that the U.S. maintain a, quote, adequate supply of glyphosate based herbicide.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

She actually very explicitly called out President Trump at a recent rally. She said, we wouldn't be here right now if President Trump didn't sign that executive order. So she's clearly telling people, telling her followers, her millions of followers, that President Trump has betrayed their cause.

[Tim Stenovec]

Then over on the Hill, the MAHA movement scored a win when a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and MAHA Republicans succeeded in stripping out provisions from the farm bill that critics of the language say would have shielded pesticide companies from liability.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

Those efforts worked. They got what they needed. That language was taken out of the farm bill.

[Tim Stenovec]

But less than two hours later, Trump delivered another blow to the movement by withdrawing his nomination for Maha's preferred candidate for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer who doesn't have an active license to treat patients.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

So it was a real whirlwind of events for MAHA within like 48 hours.

[Tim Stenovec]

So what could all of this mean for the midterms? That's next.

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[Tim Stenovec]

President Trump's approval rating is the lowest it's been during either of his terms. This is according to a Washington Post ABC News Ipsos News poll. Dina, what are you hearing from Maha Moms Maha supporters right now? Heading into the midterms? Are there indications that they'll abandon the Republican Party at the ballot box?

[Maha Movement Commentator]

Yes, there are indications that point in that direction. What we are hearing right now we have say Vani Hari food babe saying that when people are not pleased, they will just stay home. So she's not exactly directing people to stay home, but she's also not calling on them to show up for the Republican Party. Now I've heard from Maha voters that they're going to vote Republican because they will always vote Republican, but they're not going to say go Knock on doors. They're not going to be organizing. They're not going to be putting out the signs for Republicans. I've heard people say that they may not vote at all. I heard one person who told me maybe she'll vote for a Democrat. We don't know how they will vote. But I can tell you that right now there is not a groundswell of MAHA support for the Republican Party.

[Tim Stenovec]

What is the Trump administration doing? What are Republicans doing to try to make amends right now?

[Maha Movement Commentator]

I know these voters have talked about, you know, options for the White House like or for the administration, other ways they could regulate pesticides, but that comes down to the EPA and the head

[Tim Stenovec]

of that agency, Lee Zeldin.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

Lee Zeldin has been doing the opposite of regulating pesticides. He is giving a lot more room for pesticide use. He is, you know, pulling back regulations that were already on the books. So I am not sure how successful this administration will be in bringing these voters back.

[Tim Stenovec]

Are Democrats doing anything to seize on this fracture and use it as an opening to make inroads with members of maha?

[Maha Movement Commentator]

So at that rally in front of the Supreme Court, it was notably a bipartisan lineup. So there was Congresswoman Shelly Pingree from Maine. I have been an organic farmer in Maine since the 1970s who has long advocated on food issues. And no one can tell me or the other farmers here today that we can't grow food without all of these toxic chemicals. Senator Cory Booker also spoke at that rally. He has long been an advocate for better farming practices, better food. And so these issues have been talked about by Democrats. But I don't know how many of them, if any, have ever really put them at the forefront, forefront of their, of their platforms, of their campaigns. And it's interesting because Democrats talk so much about health care and healthcare coverage, and obviously that is extremely important to a lot of Americans. How we eat and our access to healthy food is just the other side of the same coin as healthcare. So Democrats have a real opening here.

[Tim Stenovec]

In a kind of MAHA Catch 22, the USDA has introduced new requirements to make school lunches more nutritious and more often cooked from scratch. At the same time as the Trump administration has cut funding that would help schools pay for and repair the kind of food the agencies require. And when it comes to glyphosate, the head of the epa, Lee Zeldin, is broadly disinterested in upping pesticide and herbicide regulations.

[Maha Movement Commentator]

There's a lot of issues tied up in MAHA and a lot of government agencies that would have to get on board for Maha to get what they want and so far we haven't seen much of that and we'll see if if that changes.

[Tim Stenovec]

This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Tim Stanvak in for David Gura and Sarah Holder. The show is hosted by David Gura, Sarah Holder and Juan Ha. The show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Jeff Grocott, Patty Hirsch, Rachel Lewis Christie, Katie McMurran, Naomi Ng, Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson, Naomi Shaven, Alex Segura, Julia Weaver, Yang Yang and Taka Yasuzawa. There's Much more on Bloomberg.com, get unlimited access to all of our coverage at a special rate for listening [e-mail] podcastoffer thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday.

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