A lobbyist challenged Donald Trump to his face over one of the president’s executive orders during an Oval Office showdown witnesses described as nothing short of “shocking.”
Trump, 80, signed the order, titled “Advancing Regenerative Agriculture and Strengthening American Farm Resilience,” on June 25 before welcoming farmers to a Rose Garden dinner, Axios reports.
The Thursday sit-down pitted allies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 72, who want conventional pesticides reined in, against agriculture figures determined to keep them.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall, 70, pressed Trump not to put his name to the order, the farming lobbyist warning it could erode Trump’s backing across the farming industry.
Jonathan Lundgren—a onetime Department of Agriculture official, who now farms in South Dakota and was present at the meeting—told Axios Duvall’s readiness to take on the president was “shocking” and that Trump “wanted to understand why Zippy was so worried.”
Kennedy’s camp, opposing the farmers, arrived already rattled. Hours earlier, the Supreme Court had handed pesticide makers a legal win, making it tougher for plaintiffs to sue over alleged health harms. Kennedy argued the order—which tells agencies to study pesticide exposure and fast-track alternatives—could soften that blow, three people briefed on the exchange told the outlet.
Lundgren, from the farmers’ camp, urged Trump to sign, insisting the chemicals were sickening the people who work the land. “One of the take-home messages I really wanted [Trump] to understand is that the farmers were sick right now,” he recounted. “We’re literally killing our farmers with these food systems.”
The sharpest words came between farming lobbyist Duvall and Calley Means, a Kennedy deputy who accused the lobbyist of never having read the document. “It was intense in there,” Lundgren said. “They were arguing. It was back and forth.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, a defender of pesticides, pushed the president to sign. Trump did, and Duvall then pledged to get behind it. The farm representatives afterward sat down with Trump, Kennedy, and Rollins for a meal on the patio outside the Rose Garden.
The farm lobby’s spokesman Mike Tomko rejected any suggestion that Duvall opposed weighing alternatives, saying his objection was to the “insinuation that our food supply is not safe.” White House spokesman Kush Desai did not challenge Axios’s account, noting Trump “listens to a variety of opinions from many subject experts to inform his decision-making.”
The Agriculture Department told Axios, “We don’t comment on private meetings with the president, on or off the record. It’s unfortunate that others do.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, HHS, and the American Farm Bureau Federation for comment.
