Since day one, President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have been laser-focused on delivering the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda that propelled them to office. From big food companies to chemical manufacturers to pharmaceutical companies, this White House will hold anybody accountable for their role in degrading American citizens’ health.
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But there’s another pillar of the Trump Administration’s America First mandate that overlaps with MAHA: just as some domestic big businesses have disrespected Americans’ health throughout the years, foreign countries are also guilty of attacking our people. Especially adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party and drug cartels. During both Trump Administrations, it’s always crystal clear to bad actors from outside our borders that their cheating, scheming, and undermining of our nation will never be tolerated.
A misguided effort by some GOP members of Congress is in direct violation of MAHA and America First. Under a California policy these members want to repeal, ships docking at the Golden State’s ports must use emissions capture technology that limits their pollution. Diesel exhaust from these massive ships while idling is a known carcinogen and cause of heart and lung disease. Before this policy, thousands of massive, foreign-flagged and operated cargo ships would dock each year to unload their goods with their engines still running — spewing pollution directly into the air and causing the very chronic health problems President Trump and RFK Jr. are fighting to fix.
For decades, these foreign cargo ships, many of them owned and operated by Chinese companies, faced no restrictions for the toxins they pumped into American air that made us sicker. That’s why California’s emissions requirement is important to leave in place, both for MAHA and America First. Thanks to the requirement, California requires these cargo ships to plug into shore power or use emissions-capture services at the dock. The tech to do it costs next to nothing, and the resulting emissions reduction cuts cancer risk in American communities by a projected 55% and avoids $2.44 billion in healthcare costs.
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The handful of Republicans who want to strike down one of the few decent ideas California has in place are only making America’s chronic illness problems worse. Picking a fight with Gavin Newsom and other radical politicians in California is a great way to grab headlines when they deserve it, but this is not such a moment. President Trump always deals with disloyal members of his own party who sabotage his agenda, and Making America Healthy Again includes California’s port communities who don’t deserve to breathe disgusting Chinese smog. By pushing the repeal of California’s port emissions standards, these Republican members of Congress are holding President Trump and RFK Jr. back from achieving their public health goals while giving foreign ships a free pass to pollute our air.
California’s smog is bad enough as it is. Congress shouldn’t needlessly let foreign ships increase toxins in the air we breathe. That’s no way to Make America Healthy Again.
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Image: Gage Skidmore