A ceremonial Oval Office signing turned combative when Donald Trump threw farmers and a top lobbyist into an impromptu debate over pesticide policy. The president delayed his own executive order on regenerative agriculture to watch both sides argue their case in front of him.
Donald Trump and farmers clash at Oval Office
The order on regenerative agriculture directs federal agencies to promote farming methods that restore soil naturally rather than relying on chemicals. It arrived at Donald Trump’s desk with broad backing from his health secretary, agriculture secretary and the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. Yet its fate hung in the balance until the final moments.
Farmers from Georgia, Indiana, and South Dakota entered the room expecting handshakes and a quick signature. Instead, they found Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, standing ready to oppose the measure.
Duvall represents more than five million farmers and reportedly carries sway with the president. He argued the order would cast doubt on pesticide safety and erode public trust in America’s food supply. Three attendees claimed Duvall warned he could not campaign for Trump among farmers if the president signed. Trump pushed back, questioning what specifically Duvall objected to. The latter conceded he had not yet read the full text. The president dismissed his concerns and sided with the farmers.
“I didn’t think that it was actually important that we had to convince the president to sign the executive order — and we did,” said Jonathan Lundgren, a former Department of Agriculture scientist who now runs a regenerative farm in South Dakota. He added that the Farm Bureau “tried tooth and nail to convince him not to sign that order.”
Will Harris, a fourth-generation Georgia farmer present at the meeting, described the experience as startling. “This was my first experience being this close to where policy was made, and it was really quite surprising,” he told Politico.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HHS senior adviser Calley Means and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins all backed the order during the roughly hour-long session. Their support ultimately helped get Trump’s signature.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
