# Executive Order 14387 **"Promoting the National Defense by Ensuring an Adequate Supply of Elemental Phosphorus and Glyphosate-Based Herbicides," signed February 18, 2026.** The order invoked the [[Defense Production Act]], a 1950 law written for wartime supply emergencies, on behalf of a weedkiller. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, the herbicide at the center of tens of thousands of cancer lawsuits against its maker, [[Bayer]]. ## What the order does - **Declares both materials critical to national defense.** The order finds that elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides are essential to defense and to food supply, and that the country has a single domestic producer that cannot meet demand. - **Hands the authority to the Agriculture Secretary.** [[Brooke Rollins]], working with the Defense Department, sets national priorities for production and may issue orders and rules to carry them out. - **Protects the producer.** Any rule issued under the order must not put "the corporate viability of any domestic producer" at risk. - **Confers immunity.** Producers that comply receive the legal immunity in section 707 of the Defense Production Act, which shields companies from liability for actions taken to comply with orders under the Act. Trade press and the company's own statements identify the single domestic producer as Bayer, through its Monsanto unit. It mines phosphorus in Idaho and makes glyphosate in Iowa and Louisiana. ## The timing - **February 17, 2026.** Bayer proposes a $7.25 billion class settlement of current and future Roundup cancer claims. - **February 18.** Trump signs the order. - **June 25.** The [[Supreme Court]] rules 7–2 in *Monsanto Co. v. Durnell* that federal pesticide law blocks state lawsuits claiming Roundup's label should have warned of cancer. How much the immunity clause protects Bayer in existing cancer litigation is disputed. Lawyers who reviewed the order noted that it applies to producers acting under government direction, and critics argued that an executive order cannot grant immunity Congress has not provided. ## The reaction The order split the President's coalition. Farm groups welcomed it. Supporters of [[MAHA]], the health movement led by [[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]], called it a betrayal: the movement had campaigned against glyphosate, and the order arrived months before the midterm elections. ## How it was made In November 2026, former Kennedy adviser [[Calley Means]] said the order was driven by chief of staff [[Susie Wiles]] and her deputies after Bayer paid the lobbying firm [[Ballard Partners]]. He said he was shown the text the day before it was signed and told it was not open to discussion. Wiles and the firm's founder, [[Brian Ballard]], deny it. Ballard says no one at the firm lobbied Wiles or anyone in the West Wing about the order. The lobbying record shows this much. Bayer hired Ballard Partners after the 2024 election and has paid it $660,000. Brian Ballard is personally named on the account. The firm's report for the first quarter of 2026, the quarter in which the order was signed, lists one contact: the White House Office. The form does not say who in the White House was contacted. The stated subject is the importance of "crop protection tools." The New Lede, which covers the Roundup litigation, reported at the time that Bayer did not respond when asked how involved it had been in the order. The full dispute is at [[MAGA vs. MAHA]]. ## See also - [[Bayer]] · [[Defense Production Act]] · [[Brooke Rollins]] - [[MAGA vs. MAHA]] · [[Calley Means]] · [[Ballard Partners]] - [[MAHA]] · [[Regulatory Capture]] · [[Lobbying]]