COLUMN: When Trump Poisons America in the Name of His Health

March 2025: The Day Everything Changed

In March 2025, Lee Zeldin announced his plan. He presented it as a way to unleash America’s energy potential. In reality, it was the systematic dismantling of dozens of the nation’s most important environmental regulations. Standards on mercury and air toxins—those that limit emissions of mercury, acid gases, and other deadly pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants—were targeted for repeal. Limits on carbon emissions from power plants were eliminated. Compliance deadlines for methane pollution limits were pushed back indefinitely, allowing the oil and gas industry to continue polluting unchecked.

Do you understand what this means? It means that children will breathe in more mercury. That their little lungs will inhale more fine particulate matter. That their developing brains will be exposed to heavy metals that cause brain damage. And all of this, while we tell them we want to protect them. It’s an act of unimaginable cruelty.

More than 565,000 children in the danger zone

The report from the Center for American Progress is damning. The EPA has invited polluting facilities to apply for exemptions from air emissions regulations—a sort of free pass to continue polluting without restriction. As a result, 170 power plants, chemical and petrochemical plants, and other industrial facilities have received two-year waivers. More than 565,000 children under the age of 18 live within 5 kilometers of a polluting facility that has received an exemption. More than 2 million live near facilities still eligible for these exemptions. These children will be exposed to increased levels of fine particulate matter that triggers asthma, heavy metals linked to brain damage, and toxic chemicals like benzene, which is associated with an increased risk of early-onset autism.

565,000 children. Let that number sink in. These aren’t just statistics. They are first names, faces, laughter, dreams. These are kids who will develop asthma because a chemical plant was allowed to spew its filth into the air they breathe. Kids whose IQs will drop because of the mercury accumulating in their bodies. And they have the nerve to call this “Make America Healthy Again”?

When MAHA Meets MAGA, Children Lose

Cathleen Kelly, a senior researcher at the Center for American Progress and co-author of the report, doesn’t mince words: “The administration is trying to deceive Americans by claiming that it cares about our health, that it cares about children’s health, when in reality, it is acting so aggressively to eliminate dozens of protections. ” The EPA’s actions will make children more vulnerable to many of the chronic diseases that the MAHA agenda claims to want to eradicate: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, autism, and attention disorders. The Trump administration is also dismantling public health programs that support asthma prevention and pediatric care. As kids get sick, they’ll have less access to essential treatments and health services.

The hypocrisy has reached dizzying heights. They talk about health while they poison us. They talk about protection while they expose us to danger. They talk about the future while they’re mortgaging the future of an entire generation. And the worst part is that some people still believe it. Some truly think that Trump and Kennedy are going to save their children. Yet every day, every decision, every exemption granted to industry is another nail in the coffin of their health.

When Supporters Turn Against Zeldin

In December 2025, leaders of the MAHA movement launched a petition calling on Trump to fire Lee Zeldin. Zen Honeycutt, Kelly Ryerson, and Vani Hari—influential figures in the movement—publicly denounced the EPA administrator’s actions. “Rather than supporting your initiative to make America healthy again—which millions of Republicans and independents have embraced—Administrator Zeldin has prioritized the interests of the chemical industry over the well-being of American families and children,” the petition reads. The EPA has proposed scaling back the review of new and existing chemicals. Four executives from the chemical industry have been appointed to key positions in the agency’s Office of Chemicals. The EPA has announced that it will continue to authorize the use of dicamba, a toxic pesticide banned in many countries.

There is something tragically beautiful about this revolt. These people who believed, who hoped, who voted for this change—they are waking up. They see the betrayal. They realize they’ve been duped. But will it be enough? Will it be enough to reverse the infernal machine that has been set in motion? I want to believe so, but doubt gnaws at me.

When the EPA Approves the Unacceptable

The EPA recently announced that it would approve and propose more PFAS “forever chemicals” for use in pesticides. These substances, called “forever chemicals” because they never break down in the environment, are linked to fertility issues, cancers, and developmental disorders. Meanwhile, the administration and industry are working to roll back some of the limits on PFAS in drinking water put in place under Joe Biden. Vani Hari, a MAHA influencer, said that Zeldin could “put an end to all of this” by reversing a Biden-era EPA decision that changed the way the agency defines PFAS. “If Zeldin truly believes in MAHA, then he would reverse this rule immediately and show the country that he’s on the side of families, not corporations.”

PFAS. Those three letters that should terrify every parent. These molecules that accumulate in our bodies, in our children’s bodies, and stay there forever. Literally. Forever. And we keep approving new ones. We keep putting them in pesticides that end up in our food. In the water our kids drink. It’s sheer madness disguised as energy policy.

When Industry Writes the Rules

The MAHA report claims to aim to tackle “regulatory capture”—a situation in which companies control the agencies supposed to regulate them. But the EPA’s actions raise serious concerns about former chemical industry executives who now lead the agency’s chemical safety efforts. The record-breaking donations made by oil and petrochemical companies to Trump’s campaign—$445 million—cast a shadow over the EPA’s independence. Cathleen Kelly is scathing: “Administrator Zeldin could give a master class on corporate capture and how to rig the system to benefit the oil and gas industry, chemical companies, gas- and coal-fired power plants, and other industrial interests.”

$445 million. That’s the price of our children’s health. That’s what it took to buy an entire administration. To turn an environmental protection agency into a public relations office for the chemical industry. And they expect us to still believe in their empty promises? To trust people who have sold their souls—and our kids’ health—for a few hundred million?

When Science Is Denied to Serve Industry

In what may be its boldest move yet, the EPA announced its intention to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding—the legal basis for all federal climate regulations. This determination, which asserts that greenhouse gases pose a danger to public health, is the foundation of decades of environmental protections. Its repeal had reportedly been postponed due to concerns that the proposal was too weak to withstand a legal challenge. Adam Finkel, a former member of the EPA’s scientific advisory board, is “sympathetic” to the concerns of MAHA supporters: “MAHA has put its finger on a real problem: we have a dysfunctional healthcare system; we have the lowest life expectancy among wealthy nations.” But he notes that the administration’s actions are “completely inconsistent” with efforts to improve health outcomes.

Denying science. That’s where we’re at. Denying that greenhouse gases are dangerous to public health, even though thousands of studies prove it. Denying that pollution kills, even though the morgues are full. Denying that our children are suffering, even though asthma rates are skyrocketing. This is more than incompetence—it’s criminal. And I choose my words carefully.

It’s time to choose a side

February 2026. The report is here, in black and white. The evidence is piling up. The contradictions are coming to light. The Trump administration, under the guise of making America healthy, is methodically poisoning it. More than 565,000 children exposed to toxic pollutants. Mercury regulations dismantled. Dangerous pesticides authorized. Persistent chemicals in our water. And meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to parade around with his MAHA slogan, as if nothing were wrong. As if our children’s health were nothing more than a marketing slogan. An EPA spokesperson called the Center for American Progress report “fake news,” claiming that the agency is “in perfect sync” with MAHA and the entire Trump administration. But the numbers don’t lie. Scientific studies don’t lie. Children developing asthma don’t lie.

So here’s where we stand. Faced with a choice. To keep believing the empty promises while our kids breathe in poison. Or to open our eyes, face reality head-on, and demand accountability. Because frankly, I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to put up with this charade. How many children will have to get sick before we stop lying to ourselves? How many more reports, studies, and pieces of evidence will it take before we admit that we’ve been duped? That MAHA was just another lie. An empty promise. A hollow slogan to win votes. And now, our children are paying the price. Every day. With every breath.

Signed, Jacques Provost