View: The fight for MAHA’s soul

Transparent, global reporting by Semafor journalists on politics, policy, business, finance, technology, climate, energy, media, entertainment, world affairs, China, Asia, Europe, Africa for US and international readers. President Donald Trump’s alliance with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. helped deliver Make America Healthy Again voters. But the movement Trump spent years cultivating is showing signs of splintering. Now the question is whether Kennedy could reconsolidate the same voters if he launches a new bid for the presidency. He’s lost battles over pesticides, failed to codify food safety efforts into durable regulations, and faced legal hurdles in his bid to reshape federal vaccine policy. “This administration has screwed over MAHA numerous times,” a former HHS official who worked on MAHA issues told me. “MAHA folks have started to become independent again, if you will, and they will no longer vote by party, but by whoever they think will advocate the most for them.” Vocal MAHA activists cried foul when the Trump administration advanced a directive on an herbicide that they said was too industry-friendly. Others say Kennedy hasn’t done enough to codify his work on fo