How do we eat healthy in the Trump era?
First, toss your salad. So far in 2026, there’ve been nearly 30,000 suspected cases of cyclospora — the explosive diarrhea parasite — with two fatalities. It’s been linked to produce from Taylor Farms, which supplies grocery stores and restaurants across the country, often under alternative brand names.
Next, throw out jalapeños, dips, and eggs because of salmonella recalls.
Get rid of your blueberries because ofE. coli.
Ditch those popsicles that might contain glass.
Chuck bread that might have nails in it.
And dump 30,000 pounds of beef recalled because Trump’s USDA failed to inspect it.
Trump claims grocery prices are coming down. I guess one way to bring them down is to leave us with nothing safe to buy.
All these recalls and illnesses aren’t a coincidence. They’re the result of incompetence and corruption within the Trump regime — and unchecked corporate power.
We saw the incompetence with funding cuts and the massive layoffs of public servants overseeing food safety.
Turns out Trump’s so-called “deep state” was protecting us from diarrhea and keeping our food safe.
Trump, RFK Jr., and Elon Musk cut the FDA’s staff by 20 percent and the CDC and USDA’s by 25 percent.
They dissolved a USDA advisory committee that existed to help prevent outbreaks like the ones we’re suffering. The USDA even CUT several cyclospora research projects — after the outbreak had already spread.
Under RFK Jr., the CDC’s FoodNet program is no longer required to monitor the cyclospora parasite and five other pathogens.
Most of the CDC labor researching and responding was let go as part of the DOGE cuts.
And they canceled more than $11 billion in state health grants, which could have helped address these crises.
The Trump team was too stupid to realize that cutting food safety programs and firing thousands of public servants would have consequences.
Then there’s the possible corruption.
Rather than protect the public from cyclospora, Trump met with Taylor Farms executives at the White House as they sought to delay the FDA’s announcement linking their lettuce to the outbreak. Since then, the FDA sent mixed messages on its initial findings even as cyclospora cases continued to rise. Why?
Perhaps because Taylor Farms’ parent company has donated more than $2 million to Republican PACs this election cycle, with nearly half of that going to Trump’s MAGA Inc.
The donation to MAGA Inc. came within a week of Trump’s FDA delaying a new food tracing requirement that could have helped prevent this summer’s outbreaks.
When excessive corporate power meets an incompetent and corrupt government, the result is a literal shitshow.
Now, if you’ll excuse me … I’ve got to run.
- Robert Reich is an emeritus professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/. His new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org
The post Trump has only himself to blame for his explosive diarrhea problem appeared first on Raw Story.
