Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveiled a sweeping expansion of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda on Tuesday, laying out a national campaign to remove petroleum-based food dyes and harmful additives from the American diet.
Joined by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Kennedy announced that the administration will begin revoking authorization for a group of synthetic dyes long linked to developmental disorders and chronic illness—starting with two immediately, and six more by the end of next year.
“These ingredients are poisoning our children,” Kennedy declared. “And they are doing it without our knowledge or consent.”
The FDA will begin by phasing out citrus red #2 and orange B, followed by red #40, yellow #5, yellow #6, blue #1, blue #2, and green #3—all of which are petroleum-derived dyes found in popular candies, cereals, and snack foods.
Kennedy said the campaign is not only a regulatory overhaul—it’s a moral obligation to confront what he described as a national epidemic. “Sixty percent of American children now suffer from chronic disease,” he warned. “In the 1960s, that number was three percent.”
He pointed to the financial toll as well. “We spend $1.8 trillion a year treating chronic disease. How are we going to maintain our global leadership with such a sick population?”
The initiative, Kennedy said, is made possible because food companies are finally coming to the table—pressured by MAHA Moms, state-level bans, and new leverage from the administration. “When I met with food companies about these petroleum-based dyes, I told them: If people want to eat petroleum, let them add it at home.”
West Virginia’s ban on seven dyes, signed by Gov. Patrick Morrisey in March, helped break the corporate resistance. Twenty-eight other states are considering similar actions, giving Kennedy and Trump’s team the national momentum they needed.
NIH Director Bhattacharya is also now leading a federal task force to investigate food additives, discourage medication-first disease management, and promote real dietary reform.
Kennedy also ripped the media and scientific establishment for shielding the truth. “There is a media malpractice, a mass psychosis,” he said. “Too much money flows from Big Food and Big Pharma to the media—and it silences their skepticism. Americans don’t know what they’re eating or the consequences of it.”
The Secretary praised MAHA Moms—grassroots activists who have fought for transparency and cleaner food for years. “The only reason we’ve made it this far is because of you,” Kennedy told them. “You gave us the political firepower to go after these companies. You made them afraid of a patchwork of regulations, and that gave us the leverage.”
Kennedy said this next phase will also include public awareness campaigns about ingredients that cannot yet be banned. “We’re going to start telling Americans what they’re eating—loudly and clearly,” he said, promising to take on “America’s sugar addiction” and calling refined sugar “a poison.”
He emphasized that this battle is about restoring American health, strength, and sovereignty.
“President Trump often says he wants to Make America Great Again. But he knows we can’t do that if our people are weak, sick, and medicated,” Kennedy said. “A healthy person has a thousand dreams. A sick person only has one—to get through the day.”
Kennedy’s remarks closed with a firm commitment to science that serves the public—not industry. “We’re bringing back gold-standard, replicated science. No more junk studies paid for by companies to justify their toxic ingredients.”
With a mandate from Trump, a mobilized base of parents, and an energized FDA and NIH behind him, Kennedy made clear: “We have them on the run. And four years from now, these chemicals will be gone or clearly labeled.”
MAHA, Kennedy said, is no longer a movement. “It’s a revolution.”
