The Defense Production Act was designed to compel production during genuine emergencies such as wartime materiel, pandemic ventilators.
Trump just inverted it, by declaring the public his enemy: instead of protecting people from a threat, it’s protecting the threat from people.
His unitary-executive order directs Rollins and Hegseth to ensure no rules place “the corporate viability of any domestic producer” at risk. That’s a corporate corruption immunity grant dressed in national security language. It pre-empts the state-level tort claims that were the last remaining accountability mechanism after captured federal regulators sided with pesticide maker profits against public health.
Bayer settles for $7.25 billion on Tuesday the 17th, this order drops Wednesday the 18th, and the Supreme Court pre-emption case is already pending.
When you declare a carcinogen a national defense priority, you’re making mass exposure to harm a policy objective. And for what? Are ICE detention centers going to start dumping pesticides on inmates?
The Defense Production Act doesn’t just permit production, it can compel it. So the state is actively mandating the production and distribution of harm, while granting immunity to the companies harming the public.
The man who built his political identity on pesticide harm, RFK Jr is now providing the cover for pesticide immunity. It reveals what MAHA always was: an empty brand, a sell-out ruse for grabbing power, and never any actual policy commitment.