# Trump Is Losing the ‘MAHA Moms’

An episode of [Big Take](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1578096201), 8 May 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/UVBrz8bN8aM2Xe47PEPu/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/825d4e29-b616-46f4-afd7-ae2b0013005c/0cdc9ba1-c6d4-4970-bed8-b4440153bf15/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=8b1dd624-a026-43e9-8b57-ae2b00130066

Supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement helped put President Trump in office for a second term. But just months ahead of the US midterm elections, key voices in the coalition say they feel betrayed. On today’s Big Take podcast, guest host Tim Stenovec and Bloomberg Businessweek’s Deena Shanker track MAHA’s growing frustrations with the White House, from the fallout over Trump’s decision to pull Casey Means as nominee for surgeon general to a contentious battle over weed killer — and what it could mean for Trump’s record-low approval ratings. Read more: Outrage Over Pesticides Is Alienating Some Trump Voters Further listening: Welch’s Fruit Snacks Get a MAHA-Friendly Makeover We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer. Hosted by Tim Stenovec; Produced by David Fox; Reported by Deena Shanker; Edited by Aaron Edwards and Nicole Beemsterboer. Fact-checking by Naomi Ng and Yang Yang; Engineering by Alex Sugiura. Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. When President Trump campaigned
[0:09] Speaker 1: for a second term in twenty twenty four, he aligned
[0:12] Speaker 1: himself with a broad coalition of voters united under one slogan.
[0:16] Speaker 2: Make America Healthy Again, Make America Healthy Again, and America
[0:20] Speaker 2: Healthy Day.
[0:23] Speaker 1: It's a relatively new movement comprised of vaccine skeptics, anti
[0:27] Speaker 1: pesticide activists, and proponents of so called real food.
[0:32] Speaker 2: It is the movement spurred by RFK Junior that he
[0:37] Speaker 2: named obviously after MAGA Make America Great Again. Once he
[0:42] Speaker 2: aligned himself with President Trump, and he brought all of
[0:46] Speaker 2: his followers with him, and they called themselves the Make
[0:49] Speaker 2: America Healthy Again Movement.
[0:51] Speaker 1: Bloomberg'stina Shanker has been reporting on the movement since its
[0:54] Speaker 1: early days.
[0:55] Speaker 2: The general consensus is that these voters were very much
[1:00] Speaker 2: a factor and Trump's win.
[1:02] Speaker 1: But lately, some in the MAHA movement have been speaking
[1:05] Speaker 1: out against recent moves by the Trump administration.
[1:07] Speaker 2: President Trump just signed an executive order to ramp up
[1:10] Speaker 2: the production of glifasi.
[1:11] Speaker 1: The controversial moves, they say, are antithetical to the MAHA
[1:14] Speaker 1: movement that helped get him elected. As an announcement for
[1:16] Speaker 1: the President following his decision to pull denomination of Casey Means.
[1:22] Speaker 1: And these tensions are flaring with a major test for
[1:25] Speaker 1: Trump's second term just around the corner midterm elections.
[1:29] Speaker 2: I've heard people say that they may not vote at all.
[1:33] Speaker 2: I heard one person who told me maybe Sho'll vote
[1:36] Speaker 2: for a Democrat. We don't know how they will vote,
[1:40] Speaker 2: but I can tell you that right now there's not
[1:43] Speaker 2: a ground swell of MAHA support.
[1:50] Speaker 1: I'm Tim Steneveek in for Sarah Holder and David Gera,
[1:52] Speaker 1: and this is the big take from Bloomberg News today
[1:55] Speaker 1: on the show, the straining ties between the MAHA movement
[1:58] Speaker 1: and the Trump administration and what that could mean for
[2:01] Speaker 1: Republican chances in November.
[2:08] Speaker 2: A lot of the leaders of this movement are women
[2:10] Speaker 2: who are also mothers, and for many of them, they
[2:14] Speaker 2: talk about the importance of healthy food of choice over vaccination.
[2:20] Speaker 2: They talk about it from their position as mothers, and
[2:23] Speaker 2: I will say that as a parent, as a mother,
[2:26] Speaker 2: I both totally get that being a mom makes you
[2:30] Speaker 2: more aware of, say the toxicity of our environment or
[2:34] Speaker 2: the problems with our food system, whether or not we
[2:37] Speaker 2: can avoid them. Wanting to protect our kids. I will
[2:41] Speaker 2: say that before there was such a thing as MAHA,
[2:44] Speaker 2: there were parents, including fathers, leading legislation that in many
[2:50] Speaker 2: ways now mirrors a lot of what MAHA does. So
[2:53] Speaker 2: a lot of what MAHA talks about is something that
[2:56] Speaker 2: a lot of people agree with. Some of it, especially
[2:59] Speaker 2: on the vaccine side, is not something that a lot
[3:01] Speaker 2: of people agree with. But I think specifically on the
[3:03] Speaker 2: food side, there's a lot of general consensus around a
[3:07] Speaker 2: lot of what MAHA is now taking ownership of and
[3:10] Speaker 2: what they have done, and I think really smartly is
[3:13] Speaker 2: they've put a lot of it very much in the
[3:15] Speaker 2: language of motherhood.
[3:17] Speaker 1: Who are the ones that are that are leading the movement?
[3:19] Speaker 1: Who are you know, for lack of a better term,
[3:21] Speaker 1: rallying the troops.
[3:23] Speaker 2: So there's a couple of online food activists who have
[3:26] Speaker 2: been around for a long time. One of them is
[3:28] Speaker 2: Vonnie Harry. She's known as the food Babe. People will
[3:31] Speaker 2: take a look at the ingredients in subways nine grain.
[3:34] Speaker 2: Brit I wrote about her like ten years ago when
[3:37] Speaker 2: she named a chemical that was common in baked goods,
[3:42] Speaker 2: the yoga mat chemical. Keep the yoga mat out of
[3:45] Speaker 2: your mouth and on the floor. Do you know friends
[3:47] Speaker 2: and family, and she called it that because it was
[3:50] Speaker 2: indeed a chemical that was found in yoga mats, and
[3:53] Speaker 2: she had an entire online campaign to get Subway to
[3:56] Speaker 2: get the yoga mat chemical quote unquote, the yoga maat
[3:58] Speaker 2: chemical out of their bread.
[4:00] Speaker 3: Subway is changing its bread recipe removing a chemical also
[4:04] Speaker 3: used to make yoga mats. A food blogger recently launched
[4:09] Speaker 3: a petition asking the world's biggest sandwich change to stop
[4:12] Speaker 3: using the ingredient. The plastic based additive is legal in
[4:16] Speaker 3: the US, but it is banned in Europe and Australia.
[4:19] Speaker 2: She used to be a Democrat and then she became
[4:22] Speaker 2: a Republican and a Maha mom Republican and a leader
[4:25] Speaker 2: when Kennedy took up her cause. There's also Kelly Ryerson
[4:29] Speaker 2: who goes online by the name Glyfa sate Girl. Okay,
[4:32] Speaker 2: time for a check in, because this has been quite
[4:34] Speaker 2: a week in the glycasate world. She is a regenerative
[4:38] Speaker 2: agriculture advocate. She is extremely anti pesticides and specifically glyca sate,
[4:44] Speaker 2: as you can tell by her online moniker. And there's
[4:47] Speaker 2: also Zen Honeycott, who actually straddles both sides the food
[4:52] Speaker 2: and vaccine side of the MAHA movement. Day two, What
[4:55] Speaker 2: am I doing to make America healthy again? Well, today
[4:58] Speaker 2: I called a whole bunch of Georgia State senators. She
[5:01] Speaker 2: started Moms across America, and so there's a lot of
[5:05] Speaker 2: people like this that have been beating these drums for
[5:09] Speaker 2: a long time. That really saw a lot of opportunity
[5:12] Speaker 2: with Kennedy.
[5:14] Speaker 1: When we think about health and kids and eating good food,
[5:18] Speaker 1: some of the agenda, at least to me, sounds very
[5:20] Speaker 1: similar to what first Lady Michelle Obama tried to do
[5:24] Speaker 1: promoting bringing healthy foods to kids. She planted this garden
[5:26] Speaker 1: at the White House, she got people exercising with this
[5:30] Speaker 1: Let's Move campaign. But not so long ago, conservative voices
[5:34] Speaker 1: to cried those moves and some people argued that it
[5:38] Speaker 1: was government overreach. How did the Republican Party under Trump
[5:42] Speaker 1: pull off that rebrand?
[5:44] Speaker 2: I think it really requires a little bit of political amnesia,
[5:48] Speaker 2: because after Michelle Obama instituted those school nutrition rules the
[5:56] Speaker 2: under the Obama administration, when the Trump administration came in,
[5:59] Speaker 2: they actually rolled back some of those nutrition rules. The
[6:03] Speaker 2: first Trump administration, along with the Republican Party, was generally
[6:07] Speaker 2: anti regulation, and often what MAHA is calling for is
[6:12] Speaker 2: more regulation, more regulation of the food that we sell
[6:15] Speaker 2: in supermarkets, more regulation of what we serve in schools,
[6:18] Speaker 2: more regulation of pesticides, et cetera. And so Trump's embrace
[6:23] Speaker 2: of this movement really went against his priors.
[6:29] Speaker 1: I would say, broadly speaking, how would you characterize the
[6:32] Speaker 1: state of MAHA supporters in the Trump administration right now?
[6:36] Speaker 2: I would say, from the ones that I've spoken with, disappointed,
[6:41] Speaker 2: but they have not necessarily lost faith that some good
[6:45] Speaker 2: can be done by this administration.
[6:47] Speaker 1: But a flurry of activity in DC in recent weeks
[6:50] Speaker 1: has put some strain on the already fragile alliance. First
[6:53] Speaker 1: was at the Supreme Court, where the justices heard a
[6:55] Speaker 1: case about glyph estate. That issue was a one point
[6:58] Speaker 1: twenty five million dollars jerry verdict won by a Missouri
[7:01] Speaker 1: man who blamed the weed killer roundup for his non
[7:03] Speaker 1: Hodgkin lymphoma. Trump administration lawyers argued in favor of shielding
[7:07] Speaker 1: Bayer Monsanto's parent company from liability. It's a move some
[7:11] Speaker 1: MAHA leaders saw as a betrayal.
[7:14] Speaker 2: You cannot tell Americans to eat real food while protecting
[7:18] Speaker 2: that cancer causing chemical spray on it.
[7:22] Speaker 1: MAHA leaders, including Vonnie Harry, held a rally outside the
[7:26] Speaker 1: Supreme Court speaking out against the administration. To Harry, it
[7:30] Speaker 1: was a twisting of the knife. After the President signed
[7:33] Speaker 1: an executive order earlier this year mandating that the US
[7:36] Speaker 1: maintain a quote adequate supply of glif ysate based herbicide.
[7:40] Speaker 2: She actually very explicitly called out President Trump at a
[7:45] Speaker 2: recent rally. She said, we wouldn't be here right now
[7:48] Speaker 2: if President Trump didn't sign that executive order. So she's
[7:52] Speaker 2: clearly telling people, telling her followers, her millions of followers,
[7:56] Speaker 2: that President Trump has betrayed their cause.
[8:00] Speaker 1: And over on the Hill, the Maha movement scored a
[8:02] Speaker 1: win when a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Maha Republicans
[8:06] Speaker 1: succeeded in stripping out provisions from the Farm Bill that
[8:09] Speaker 1: critics of the language say would have shielded pesticide companies
[8:12] Speaker 1: from liability.
[8:13] Speaker 2: Those efforts worked, they got what they needed that language
[8:17] Speaker 2: was taken out of the Farm Bill.
[8:19] Speaker 1: But less than two hours later, Trump delivered another blow
[8:22] Speaker 1: to the movement by withdrawing his nomination for MAHA's preferred
[8:25] Speaker 1: candidate for Surgeon General, Doctor Casey Means a wellness influencer
[8:29] Speaker 1: who doesn't have an active license to treat patients.
[8:32] Speaker 2: So it was a real whirlwind of events for Maha
[8:35] Speaker 2: within like forty eight hours.
[8:39] Speaker 1: So what could all of this mean for the midterms?
[8:42] Speaker 1: That's next. President Trump's approval rating is the lowest it's
[8:55] Speaker 1: been during either of his terms. This is according to
[8:57] Speaker 1: a Washington Post ABC News ipsos Dina. What are you
[9:01] Speaker 1: hearing from Maha moms Maha supporters right now heading into
[9:05] Speaker 1: the midterms? Are there indications that they'll abandon the Republican
[9:08] Speaker 1: Party at the ballot box?
[9:10] Speaker 2: Yes, there are indications that point in that direction. What
[9:14] Speaker 2: we are hearing right now we have Sayvanni Hari food
[9:19] Speaker 2: Babe saying that when people are not pleased, they will
[9:24] Speaker 2: just stay home. So she's not exactly directing people to
[9:28] Speaker 2: stay home, but she's also not calling on them to
[9:31] Speaker 2: show up for the Republican Party. Now, I've heard from
[9:36] Speaker 2: Maha voters that they're going to vote Republican because they
[9:40] Speaker 2: will always vote Republican. But they're not going to say
[9:43] Speaker 2: go knock on doors. They're not going to be organizing,
[9:46] Speaker 2: they're not going to be putting out the signs for
[9:49] Speaker 2: Republicans I've heard people say that they may not vote
[9:53] Speaker 2: at all. I heard one person who told me, maybe
[9:57] Speaker 2: show vote for a Democrat. We don't know know how
[10:00] Speaker 2: they will vote, but I can tell you that right
[10:03] Speaker 2: now there's not a ground swell of Maha support for
[10:06] Speaker 2: the Republican Party.
[10:07] Speaker 1: What is the Trump administration doing? What are Republicans doing
[10:11] Speaker 1: to try to make amends right now?
[10:13] Speaker 2: I know these voters have talked about, you know, options
[10:17] Speaker 2: for the White House, like or for the administration, other ways.
[10:21] Speaker 2: They could regulate pesticides, but that comes down to the.
[10:24] Speaker 1: EPA and the head of that agency, leez Elden.
[10:27] Speaker 2: Leez Elden has been doing the opposite of regulating pesticides.
[10:33] Speaker 2: He is giving a lot more room for pesticide use.
[10:36] Speaker 2: He is, you know, pulling back regulations that were already
[10:41] Speaker 2: on the books. So I am not sure how successful
[10:46] Speaker 2: this administration will be in bringing these voters back.
[10:50] Speaker 1: Are Democrats doing anything to seize on this fracture and
[10:54] Speaker 1: use it as an opening to make inroads with members
[10:57] Speaker 1: of Maha.
[10:58] Speaker 2: So at that rally in front of the Supreme Court,
[11:00] Speaker 2: it was notably a bipartisan lineup. So there was Congresswoman
[11:06] Speaker 2: Shelley Pingree from Maine. I have been an organic farmer
[11:09] Speaker 2: remained since the nineteen seventies who has long advocated on
[11:14] Speaker 2: food issues, and no one can tell me or the
[11:17] Speaker 2: other farmers here today that we can't grow food without
[11:21] Speaker 2: all of these toxic Senator Corey Booker also spoke at
[11:26] Speaker 2: that rally. He has long been an advocate for better
[11:32] Speaker 2: farming practices, better food, and so these issues have been
[11:38] Speaker 2: talked about by Democrats, but I don't know how many
[11:41] Speaker 2: of them, if any, have ever really put them at
[11:44] Speaker 2: the forefront of their platforms, of their campaigns. And it's
[11:50] Speaker 2: interesting because Democrats talk so much about healthcare and healthcare coverage,
[11:54] Speaker 2: and obviously that is extremely important to a lot of Americans.
[11:59] Speaker 2: How we eat and our access to healthy food is
[12:04] Speaker 2: just the other side of the same coin as healthcare.
[12:07] Speaker 2: So Democrats have a real opening here.
[12:11] Speaker 1: In a kind of Maha catch twenty two, the USDA
[12:14] Speaker 1: has introduced new requirements to make school lunches more nutritious
[12:17] Speaker 1: and more often cooked from scratch, at the same time
[12:20] Speaker 1: as the Trump administration has cut funding that would help
[12:23] Speaker 1: schools pay for and prepare the kind of food the
[12:25] Speaker 1: agencies require. And when it comes to Glyphysate. The head
[12:29] Speaker 1: of the PA, Lee Zelden, is broadly disinterested in upping
[12:32] Speaker 1: pesticide and herbicide regulations.
[12:34] Speaker 2: There's a lot of issues tied up in Maha and
[12:39] Speaker 2: a lot of government agencies that would have to get
[12:42] Speaker 2: on board for Maha to get what they want, and
[12:46] Speaker 2: so far we haven't seen much of that, and we'll
[12:49] Speaker 2: see if that changes.
[12:59] Speaker 1: This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Tim
[13:02] Speaker 1: Staneveeck in for David Gura and Sarah Holder. The show
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[13:33] Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday.

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