\n<\/p>\n
Major US soft-drink and snack-food corporations are waging a coordinated campaign that aims to pit Donald Trump\u2019s Maga faithful against Robert F Kennedy Jr\u2019s Make America Healthy Again movement, a Guardian investigation in partnership with environmental watchdog Fieldnotes has found. Their goal is to stymie the Maha-led effort to curb Americans\u2019 consumption of soda and ultra-processed foods.<\/p>\n
To carry out the plan, the companies have turned to a partially formalized network of for-hire pollsters, strategists and political financiers with deep ties to the national Republican party \u2013 several of whom have taken steps that obscure their connection to the effort and to one another. In the process, the industry has also been aided less directly by a loose coalition of free-market ideologues who have previously worked to advance Trump\u2019s deregulatory agenda.<\/p>\n
The effort features Maga influencers hired by a firm that promotes \u201canti-woke\u201d movies; an obscure research group Lee Zeldin was working for when Donald Trump picked him to lead the US Environmental Protection Agency; and a media outlet backed by rightwing billionaires Leonard Leo and Charles Koch, among others.<\/p>\n
The ongoing influence campaign is being spearheaded by the American Beverage Association with help from the Consumer Brands Association, two prominent trade groups in the food industry. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Keurig Dr Pepper, the three largest soft-drink corporations in the United States, as well as packaged-food conglomerates like General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Mondel\u0113z and Nestl\u00e9, are among those that pay dues for the right to have a say in either or both of the trade groups\u2019 strategies.<\/p>\n
All three soda-makers identified the Maha efforts as significant threats to their bottom lines in their most recent annual reports, delivered to investors after Trump nominated Kennedy to be secretary of US Health and Human Services. Coke and Dr Pepper went as far as to suggest such risks would be compounded if unnamed \u201cgovernment officials\u201d were to voice health concerns about their products. <\/strong>The three soda makers did not respond to questions about the lobbying effort.<\/p>\n The companies\u2019 most pressing political concerns are two related RFK Jr-backed efforts: one to ban schools from serving foods with petroleum-based dyes, and the other to bar individuals receiving Snap benefits from using the federal nutrition assistance to purchase soft drinks.<\/p>\n Their not-so-subtle message to conservative lawmakers, delivered directly by lobbyists and indirectly via both an industry front group and paid social media influencers: oppose the Maha efforts or face a Maga backlash.<\/p>\n \u201cWorking-class families and individuals across America rose up to vote for President Trump on the promise of a new era that would lift them up, not leave them behind again,\u201d the beverage lobby declared earlier this year in an unsigned memo as some of the first Maha-themed nutrition efforts were gaining conservative support in places like Utah and Arkansas. Supporting the Snap restrictions, the group continued, \u201cwould betray those voters and that promise\u201d.<\/p>\n To date, the Maha nutrition efforts have largely stalled inside the Beltway but found far more success outside of it. A dozen states have already requested, and received, waivers from the US Department of Agriculture allowing them to restrict how Snap benefits can be used, and roughly a half dozen have passed legislation restricting food dyes in school meals.<\/p>\n The Utah state representative Kristen Chevrier, a Republican whose Snap and school-meals bills were signed into law by her governor in March, says that\u2019s likely because the industry\u2019s influence is concentrated in the nation\u2019s capital. \u201cIt\u2019s easier for the big food industries to control the federal government then it is for them to control a whole bunch of different states,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n Chevrier, who describes herself as \u201ca Maha mom before Maha was a thing\u201d, said the lobbyists who approached her focused far more on their own profits than any political backlash she might face. Their priority was \u201chow much money they were going to lose if people stopped buying soda with Snap dollars\u201d, she said. \u201cThe lobbyists were sitting there at the table with me and I said: \u2018Do you have any idea what this sounds like? That you\u2019re more concerned about the money you\u2019re going to lose than you are about the health of the vulnerable population that you\u2019re serving?\u201d<\/p>\n Communications obtained via a public records request confirm that industry lobbyists attempted to use the Maga-versus-Maha messaging in their bid to derail the nutrition bills at the state level. And they\u2019ve done so with veteran GOP strategists serving as middle operatives, creating the appearance of distance between the companies and their preferred narrative.<\/p>\n In late February, for instance, as two Maha bills were moving through the Arizona legislature, soda lobbyist Michael Gardner reached out to lawmakers to make his client\u2019s case against the Snap legislation, which was ultimately vetoed by the governor. He closed by directing the elected officials\u2019 attention to a then-recent article headlined \u201cTrump voters want SNAP users to be able to buy soda\u201d. The underlying source for that claim was a poll paid for by the American Beverage Association itself.<\/p>\n The firm hired to conduct the survey, Public Opinion Strategies, is owned by Glen Bolger, who previously worked for the National Republican congressional committee, the House GOP\u2019s main campaign arm. The American Beverage Association paid Bolger\u2019s firm nearly $2m in 2023, the most recent year for which the trade group\u2019s tax filings are publicly available.<\/p>\n Bolger and his firm are also part of a larger, formal network of political shops run by Phil Cox, who was once a top executive <\/strong>at Americans for Prosperity, the Koch family\u2019s primary dark-money group, and who is currently on the board of the Senate Leadership Fund and WinRed. Cox\u2019s network, GP3 Partners, includes more than a dozen other firms and boasts online of its \u201cproven ability to play with lethal precision at scale\u201d.<\/p>\n Completing this particular lobbying spin-cycle \u2013 from industry-funded poll to news coverage the industry\u2019s lobbyists could use to pressure lawmakers \u2013 was the outlet in which the article about the survey appeared, the Center Square. Despite claiming to be a provider of \u201chigh-quality statehouse and statewide news\u201d, it has been identified by journalism experts at Columbia University as a purveyor of \u201cpink slime\u201d, meaning, partisan talking points presented as objective journalism. The Center Square is run by the Franklin News Foundation, a conservative non-profit that has received substantial funding from Donors Trust, Leonard Leo\u2019s primary dark-money vehicle, and that is part of the State Policy Network of rightwing thinktanks backed by Leo and the Koch family. (Chris Krug, the publisher of the Center Square, said in an email: \u201cThe Center Square maintains editorial independence, free from any external influence.\u201d)<\/p>\n As Gardner was working to derail Arizona\u2019s Snap bill on behalf of the soda makers, a second industry lobbyist, the Consumer Brands Association\u2019s Erin Raden, was waging a similar, albeit more convoluted, effort in opposition to the state\u2019s school-meal bill, the records show.<\/p>\n In a March email to one of the bill\u2019s sponsors, Raden argued against the legislation and then, much as Gardner had, closed by pointing to an article posted by a rightwing news outlet that suggested Trump voters wanted such decisions left to the president. \u201cI know you are hosting a town hall tomorrow and thought it might come up,\u201d Raden wrote to the Republican senator Janae Shamp, who had introduced the bill in Arizona\u2019s upper chamber.<\/p>\n This time, the underlying poll on which the article was based was conducted by the Tyson Group on behalf of Plymouth Union Public Research. Unlike Public Opinion Strategies, which is well-known within certain Washington DC circles and publicly discloses its ties to GP3, Tyson Group has a far smaller and less transparent public presence. Its website lists just five employees. However, the firm doesn\u2019t disclose publicly that all five of those individuals also work at P2 Public Affairs, a much larger and more prominent conservative consulting firm \u2013 one that, like Public Opinion Strategies, is also part of Cox\u2019s GP3 umbrella organization.<\/p>\n The metadata on an internal memo for subsequent Tyson polling likewise shows that document was created by Katherine Swetman, who is not listed on Tyson\u2019s site as an employee but is listed on P2\u2019s as a marketing manager specializing in \u201ctargeted messaging\u201d. (P2 and Tyson did not respond to questions about their structure or involvement in the campaign. The Consumer Brands Association said in a statement that it did not pay for the poll but believes \u201cmost voters across the country\u201d would prefer a national standard for food additives.)<\/p>\n Plymouth Union Public Research is even more opaque. The group, also known as PUP Research, describes itself online as a 501(c)6 non-profit, but there is currently no record of it in the Internal Revenue Service database of such tax-exempt organizations. The group did not respond to questions about its leadership and staff. The firm does, however, show up in the ethics paperwork Zeldin filed in January as part of his confirmation process. In that filing, Zeldin disclosed serving as a director at the research firm from October 2024 to the time he filed the report on 11 January 2025.<\/p>\n While PUP Research doesn\u2019t disclose its leadership or employees, an apparent sister organization known as Plymouth Union Public Advocacy, or PUP Advocacy, does. The advocacy firm\u2019s website suggests it launched earlier this year with a seven-figure paid campaign in support of Trump\u2019s agenda, and that it is led by a trio of GOP veterans.<\/p>\n The Trump administration at times pushes back on the idea that Maha\u2019s nutrition agenda is an affront to its base. Earlier this year, after the Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders applied for one of the Snap waivers, the American Beverage Association labeled Sanders and the head of the USDA, Brooke Rollins, as the \u201cfood police\u201d on X. (The American Beverage Association\u2019s CEO, Kevin Keane, has undertaken a tour of conservative podcasts and conferences, pushing a similar line that the government shouldn\u2019t be \u201cmaking decisions for people\u201d when it comes to nutrition.)<\/p>\n The post drew a swift rebuke from Rollins\u2019s X account. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing that the American Beverage Association\u2019s leadership dragged its entire membership\u2013and the patriotic American workers and their families they employ and represent\u2013into direct conflict with this Administration\u2019s priorities for American health, well-being, and taxpayer protection,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThese priorities\u2013which those same American workers voted to endorse\u2013will prevail.\u201d She tagged Kennedy in her response.<\/p>\n As industry lobbyists were making their case to lawmakers directly, an industry-funded front group, Americans for Food and Beverage Choice, was running a small-dollar Facebook ad campaign featuring the industry\u2019s Snap-related polling in at least nine states, according to the Meta ad library database. The non-profit bills itself as a grassroots organization, but according to its 2023 tax filing, the most recent available, each of the four individuals who served as either a director or officer of the organization that year also was employed at the American Beverage Association, including Keane himself.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a group of Maga-aligned influencers were taking the same pro-soda message nationwide by posting client-approved talking points on Elon Musk\u2019s X \u2013 all while not disclosing they were being paid to do so. \u201cWe cannot allow \u2018Make America Healthy Again\u2019 messaging to be used to force needy Americans into not buying certain things,\u201d tweeted conservative influencer Eric Daugherty, adding: \u201cPresident Trump literally has a Diet Coke button in his Oval Office.\u201d<\/p>\n The paid-influencer campaign was first documented by Nick Sortor, a conservative journalist and podcaster, who obtained internal documents from the social media marketing agency behind the effort, Influenceable LLC.<\/p>\n \u201cThis campaign highlights the dangers of government overregulation, with a specific focus on current efforts to restrict soda purchases through food-aid programs,\u201d the company\u2019s instructions to the influencers read. \u201cThe narrative emphasizes how such regulation is an overreach that unfairly targets consumer choice, especially considering the president himself is a Diet Coke enthusiast.\u201d For good measure, the influencers were also encouraged to share a photo of Trump drinking a soda while riding in a golf cart.<\/p>\n After being called out by Sortor, Daugherty and at least one other influencer deleted their posts. \u201cYeah, that was dumb of me,\u201d Daugherty posted. \u201cMassive egg on my face. In all seriousness, it won\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n Influenceable LLC is run by Camron and Liam Rafizadeh, brothers who have made a name for themselves by trafficking in anti-LGBTQ+ memes and pro-Trump talking points online. In 2019, the pair founded Today Is America Inc, which describes itself as \u201cthe fastest-growing pro-America Gen Z, Anti-woke company\u201d.<\/p>\n While Influenceable\u2019s website does not list any specific political campaigns it has worked on, IRS filings show that it was paid $110,000 in 2023 by the Center for Renewing America, a Christian-nationalist organization founded by Russell Vought, Trump\u2019s current director of the office of management and budget.<\/p>\n Keane has denied that the American Beverage Association was behind the Influenceable campaign. Nonetheless, the proposed talking points strongly echo the industry\u2019s \u2013 including one that appears to cite the very poll the group paid for and then used to lobby state officials in Arizona and cited in the Facebook campaign run by the front group that Keane leads. \u201cPolling shows,\u201d the final talking point given to the influencers reads, \u201ca majority of Trump voters oppose restrictions on soda purchases through SNAP.\u201d<\/p>\n Josh Voorhees is an investigative editor at Fieldnotes, a watchdog organization focused on the oil and gas industry<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Major US soft-drink and snack-food corporations are waging a coordinated campaign that aims to pit Donald Trump\u2019s Maga faithful against Robert F Kennedy Jr\u2019s Make America Healthy Again movement, a Guardian investigation in partnership with environmental watchdog Fieldnotes has found. Their goal is to stymie the Maha-led effort to curb Americans\u2019 consumption of soda and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1532,1285,4014,2002,2461,17264,959,4627,17263],"class_list":{"0":"post-29174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bid","9":"tag-big","10":"tag-maga","11":"tag-maha","12":"tag-network","13":"tag-pit","14":"tag-republican","15":"tag-republicans","16":"tag-sodas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Mystery firms and \u2018lethal precision\u2019<\/h2>\n
Paid Maga influencers<\/h2>\n