Thread by @allenanalysis

Bayer is a German chemical company. They make Roundup. Roundup gives people non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Bayer has paid over $11 billion in cancer lawsuits.

This week, Congress is going to vote on a bill that gives Bayer permanent immunity from being sued by Americans who get cancer from their product.

Here is how it happened. 🧵

In February, President Trump signed an executive order. The order declared that glyphosate — the active ingredient in Roundup — is critical to national defense. He invoked the Defense Production Act of 1950. The same law used in wartime to make companies build tanks and bombers.

The executive order does one thing that matters. It shields the manufacturer from being sued.

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky said it plain on the House floor: "All three branches of this government are under siege by lobbyists and lawyers from a German company named Bayer. They spent over nine million dollars lobbying the executive branch and the legislative branch so that they don't have to be liable for any damages that their herbicide causes."

Massie also named the connection.

Attorney General Pam Bondi previously worked for a lobbying firm called Ballard Partners. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles also previously worked for Ballard Partners. Ballard Partners registered to lobby for Bayer in December 2024. Ballard Partners gave fifty million dollars to the Trump campaign in 2024.

Now, here is what is happening on Monday, April 27.

The United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Monsanto versus Durnell. The case is about whether Bayer can be sued by an American man named John Durnell who got non-Hodgkin lymphoma from Roundup. The Trump Justice Department has filed a brief with the Supreme Court. The brief sides with Bayer. Against Durnell.

Congress is also considering language in the new farm bill that would give Bayer the same immunity through legislation.

Both the executive branch and the judicial branch are working in coordination with the legislative branch to give a German company permanent protection from American cancer victims.

Bayer has spent nine million dollars lobbying for this.

Bayer has paid eleven billion dollars in cancer settlements.

Bayer just proposed a seven-point-two-five billion dollar class settlement to wipe out current claims.

After that settlement, every future American who gets non-Hodgkin lymphoma from Roundup loses the right to sue.

Now here is the part I want you to sit with.

Robert F. Kennedy Junior built his political identity on a movement called Make America Healthy Again. He spent decades suing chemical companies. He told voters that pesticides were poisoning American children. He told voters he would hold these companies accountable.

He is now the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration.

He has not stopped this.

The MAHA movement that brought millions of voters to the Trump coalition is being asked to swallow a permanent legal shield for the foreign company at the center of every concern they ever raised.

Massie is a Republican. Massie is sounding the alarm. Massie has introduced a bill called the No Immunity for Glyphosate Act with Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine.

The cosponsors include Lauren Boebert and Ro Khanna. Republican and Democrat. MAHA and progressive.

The split is not left versus right. The split is the American people versus a German chemical company that spent nine million dollars to make sure cancer patients cannot sue.

Here is what to watch for.

The farm bill vote.

The Supreme Court arguments tomorrow.

The lobbyists you used to work for now running the Justice Department and the White House.

Bayer is one signature away from being permanently protected from the Americans they have already paid eleven billion dollars to settle with.

Tomorrow tells us whether the system is still functioning.

Never stop connecting the dots.