President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act of 1950 to expand domestic production of glyphosate, the controversial weedkiller at the center of more than 60,000 cancer lawsuits against Bayer. The move sparked outrage from MAHA activists and health advocates who said it puts corporate interests ahead of public health.

President Donald Trump late Wednesday signed an executive order intended to boost domestic production of glyphosate.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in June 2018, is facing tens of thousands of lawsuits from people alleging Roundup caused them to develop cancer.

Trump's order also grants legal immunity to domestic manufacturers of products containing glyphosate when manufacturers are ordered, under the Defense Production Act of 1950, to produce the products.

The Defense Production Act is used in national emergencies to compel the production of materials or supplies necessary for national security.

Bayer is the only company producing glyphosate in the U.S. However, U.S. farmers also import the chemical from China, Reuters reported.

The executive order also applies to elemental phosphorus, used in weapons production, electronics and batteries. Elemental phosphorus is also used to make glyphosate.

Trump said elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides are scarce materials critical to national defense, and that inadequate domestic production poses an imminent threat to military readiness and food security.

"Glyphosate-based herbicides are a cornerstone of this Nation's agricultural productivity and rural economy," he said.

The order directs U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to create rules for increasing the supply of phosphorus and glyphosate.

Trump's order riles groups opposed to pesticide use

Trump's executive order outraged MAHA activists, many of whom have been fighting the use of Roundup and other glyphosate-based weedkillers for decades.

"The implications of this executive order are irreversible," Zen Honeycutt, executive director of Moms Across America, told The Defender.

She added:

"Not only has Trump gone back on his word to go after pesticides, destroying the delicate trust that was being built by the MAHA movement with the government, but he paved the path for glyphosate to continue destroying farmland, fertility, and our families' health for generations to come.

"That is not a dramatic statement. It's what the independent science has been telling us for decades."

Toxicologist Alexandra Muñoz, Ph.D., denounced the decision on X. "The executive branch has just endorsed a carcinogen and enshrined it. This is outrageous and unacceptable. Glyphosate is a carcinogen — and the idea that promoting a carcinogen will make us stronger as a country is deeply misguided!!"