A petition demanding the removal of Lee Zeldin from his role as head of Environmental Protection Agency circulated on social media highlights a rift between the conservative health-focused bloc behind the Make America Healthy Again movement, or MAHA, and the mission of the Trump administration when it comes to deregulatory priorities.
The petition, written in the form of a letter to President Trump, criticizes Zeldin for prioritizing the “interests of chemical corporations over the well-being of American families and children,” warning “this approach will inevitably lead to higher rates of chronic disease, greater medical costs, and tremendous strain on our healthcare system.”
Organizers of the petition include Alex Clark, a wellness podcast host that partners with Turning Point USA, and Zen Honeycutt, the founder and executive director of Moms Across America, a group that focuses on food safety, pesticides and vaccine standards.
Also on the petition is Moms Clean Air Force, an advocacy group of U.S. mothers seeking to protect children from the effects of air pollution and climate change.
“With every proposed deregulation, he’s allowing families and children to be exposed to more soot, more mercury, more methane, more toxic chemicals, more tailpipe pollution, and more climate pollution," said MCAF founder and director Dominique Browning. "Lee Zeldin must go.”
Zeldin’s EPA recently rolled out new pesticide approvals, and a rollback of chemical safeguards, directly contradicting MAHA’s focus on public health. Policy around PFAS chemicals, known as “forever chemicals” that are tied to severe health issues, appear to have spurred the call for action online and underscores growing tensions within President Trump’s political base over the chemicals in the nation’s air, water, and food.
An active ingredient in newly approved pesticides, isocycloseram, is slated to be used on agricultural crops, turf, and potentially around homes and commercial sites.
Around the same time, the agency moved to roll back drinking water protections for several PFAS compounds.
The changes come just about a year after then President elect Donald Trump tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his Health and Human Services Secretary. At the time he explained that Kennedy would "play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming health crisis in this country."
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While HHS and EPA are separate agencies, frustration from the MAHA organizers has lead to the call for an EPA “leader who will genuinely defend public health and truly put America First.”
An EPA spokesperson wrote in part to Scripps News that every decision under Trump's EPA "is grounded in rigorous, transparent, gold standard science. We are simultaneously protecting human health, safeguarding the environment, and driving economic growth. Those who claim this is impossible are either uninformed or dishonest.”
HHS did not respond to Scripps News’ request for comment.
The petition, and the pushback from the entity it criticizes, highlights a widening fracture within conservative and MAGA-era political alliances, as traditional industry-friendly Republicans who back deregulation and point to economic benefits face the growing popularity of a section of the party who say they prioritize health and chemical safety.
Zeldin appears to still have the support of President Trump.
At a recent White House roundtable discussing the $12 billion aid package for farmers and his plan to roll back environmental regulations on farm equipment, President Trump said Zeldin “is doing a fantastic job.”
