Trump Is Making Us Sick
Recalls are on the rise, while food inspections are at record lows
BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY
Turns out we Americans are taking an important part of our lives for granted. We’ve assumed for a long time that our groceries are safe, that food inspectors are on alert, and that it would be foolish, reckless, or just downright dumb to eliminate government workers whose job it is to keep us from eating contaminated or bacteria-laden food.
All those assumptions have gone the way of $5-a-pound hamburger meat.
The tentacles of Donald Trump’s dangerous ineptitude have reached a segment of American society that affects every man, woman, and child: the food supply.
For more than a century, the United States instituted rules and regulations to safeguard our food. That safety net is far from perfect, but most Americans can confidently go to their local grocery store without worrying that what they buy will make them sick.
Today, faith in American food safety is rightly being questioned.
Since January, hundreds of products have been recalled, but this summer has been especially troublesome. In August, 26 foods were recalled, a marked increase from 2024 (19 recalls) and 2025 (18 recalls). Some recalls were for small contaminations, caught before consumers were hurt. But a majority were for foodborne illness that caused thousands to get sick.
- Frozen berries – E.coli. The FDA issued a Class 1 risk level, the most serious classification.
- Eggs – salmonella. 19 million eggs were recalled because of the outbreak, which sickened 98 people across 17 states, including 26 hospitalizations.
- Jalapeños – salmonella. 431 people have become ill. Tainted jalapeños were used in guacamole, pico de gallo, and salsas, which also had to be recalled.
- Mangos and radishes – salmonella
- Alfalfa sprouts – E.coli and salmonella
- Baby formula – botulism. Four infants were hospitalized.
- Tomato soup and ricotta – listeria
The biggest and most worrisome recall was for iceberg lettuce. The lettuce, which was eventually determined to have been grown in Mexico, was contaminated with Cyclospora, a parasite that causes digestive distress too descriptive for these pages.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 17,180 official cases of cyclosporiasis in 48 states, a consequential increase over past years. There were just 1,180 cases last summer. And state agencies have reported as many as 30,000 cases. More than 1,000 people have been hospitalized, and two have died.
“It’s just absolutely crazy. It is completely overwhelming and insane that this happened,” Kalmia Kniel, an expert in microbial food safety at the University of Delaware, told The Atlantic.
It may be “insane” that this happened, but it is not surprising.
Our food safety net is a shell of what it once was before Elon Musk, DOGE, and Trump got their hands on it. Their cuts and mass layoffs have left more than one public health agency in shambles. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees and regulates food safety, lost 23% of its staff. The CDC, which tracks and responds to disease outbreaks, is down 28%.
Trump drastically cut FoodNet, an early warning surveillance system that used to track eight foodborne pathogens. It now tracks two. Cyclospora was one of the six that were dropped. He terminated the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods, which provided scientific advice on foodborne pathogens. And he killed a $5.78 billion grant to assist state health agencies dealing with infectious outbreaks.
“The real question isn’t simply why we’re recalling more food; it’s why contaminated food is making it far enough through the supply chain to require a recall,” environmental lawyer Vineet Dubey put to Fortune.
American grocery stores offer the most extensive options in the world. A bounty of fresh produce, regardless of the season, is the norm, along with selections of beef, pork, lamb, poultry, and seafood. For example, to offer ripe tomatoes in January or Chilean sea bass year-round, stores must import large portions of what they sell. Thirty-two percent of vegetables, 55% of fruit, and 94% of seafood come from 200 countries.
To ensure, as best as possible, that our food is safe to eat, U.S. officials travel to those countries for on-the-ground inspections. By law, they are supposed to perform 19,200 inspections annually. The FDA says that number is unrealistic. A 2025 report by the agency revealed that only 5% of inspections are occurring, and that was before Trump’s huge cuts.
“We had one hand tied behind our back before this administration happened, and now we have both hands tied,” Barbara Kowalcyk, the director of George Washington University’s Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security, told The Atlantic.
It is no wonder that Americans are losing confidence in the food supply. A new survey conducted by GS1 US, a non-profit organization that helps businesses manage supply chains, found that 94% of Americans are concerned about the frequency of food recalls, while fewer people believe those recalls are effective in protecting public health.
One product not on the recall list is American beef, but perhaps not for long. Trump has a new plan he thinks will bring beef prices down but could pose a huge risk. He wants to let farmers and ranchers process their own beef. The president got this potentially dangerous idea from far-right podcaster Glenn Beck during an interview last week.
Currently, all American-produced beef available for public sale must be slaughtered and processed in meatpacking plants inspected by the USDA. Eighty-five percent of all beef is processed by four companies. Trump, via Beck, thinks this is unfair to independent ranchers and wants to upend decades of safety regulations.
Two days after the Beck interview, Trump announced this latest scheme. Then Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins got to work by posting a seven-point plan to bring her boss’s idea to fruition, including “waiving red tape in processing.” Most Americans do not mind “red tape” if it keeps beef safe.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) agrees. While it is in favor of eliminating “unnecessary regulations,” the NCBA said that “weakening federal meat inspection & food safety standards isn’t the answer,” in a statement.
Jim Hertzog, who owns a small meat processor, is worried about the president’s plan. “We have the best and the safest beef in the world, and why in the world would you want to lift regulations to make it easier?” he asked in The New York Times.
Why, indeed. The president is fixated on bringing beef prices down, whether by allowing 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef into the supply chain or relaxing processing rules.
Neither will do a thing to fix the underlying problem, which is one of supply and demand. Years of drought and depressed prices have pushed cattle ranchers to reduce their herds. Now, there is not enough beef to meet demand, which is driving up prices.
It feels as if Trump is turning back the clock of progress. If we look back to the early 20th century, it was a journalist who raised the alarm about unsafe foods. Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” brought to light the horrific conditions inside Chicago’s meat processing plants. It led President Theodore Roosevelt to establish the FDA.
So why now, after more than a century of advancements in science and technology, do we have shoppers not only dealing with higher prices, but also searching product labels for information about recalls? You may need your reading glasses to find it, but the government requires “country of origin labels,” or COOL, on every piece of fresh fruit, vegetable, packaged nut, and seafood.
Going to the grocery store these days shouldn’t be an exercise in continuous safety and price checks, but it sure feels that way. You would think that food safety would be a high priority for any president. The record shows it is not for this one.
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Dan
NYA Thanks Dan Rather and Team Steady!