What Trump 2.0 Could Mean for Animal Rights

Last year, RFK Jr. shared a photo of himself eating a dog. He sent his friend a text message with a photo of a barbecued body on a spit. While metadata apparently showed the image was taken in Korea, where dogs have historically been killed and eaten by the millions, RFK Jr. later claimed the animal was actually a goat in Patagonia. What’s not in dispute, however, is that RFK Jr. thought it was funny to send his friend, an apparent animal lover, a photo of him joyfully biting into a nearly-intact corpse.

The dog-eating incident is just one example of a broader fear that many have about Trump 2.0 and MAGA: they are coming for the vegans.

In the latest episode of the podcast, I talk about four ways Trump 2.0 could have impacts on animal rights.

In a separate post recently on X, formerly Twitter, RFK Jr. claimed that Americans were being “poisoned” by plant-based seed oils and that fries should be fried in tallow (i.e., beef fat) instead. MAGA Republicans have banned cultivated meat in Florida, and supported laws that prohibit using the word “milk” for soy milk. And when Trump was last in office, his administration described nonviolent environmental protests as “terrorism” – and sought to send eco-activists to prison for decades. (Full disclosure: I was the subject of one such investigation by the FBI, which sent a caravan of agents after two sick piglets I rescued from a factory farm.)

Worst of all, Trump can’t even pronounce the word vegan.

So it may surprise you to hear this: Trump 2.0 also has a chance at being the most vegan-friendly administration in history. Two senior members of the incoming administration – National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and DOGE co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy – are committed vegetarians. Vice President JD Vance’s wife Usha is also vegetarian, and Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter in law, is a noted animal advocate. She once described puppy mills as “sweatshops for dogs.” And what about the possibly-dog-eating RFK, Jr? Well, it turns out he’s secretly an animal rights advocate. He’s described animal agriculture as a “soulless industry” that is engaged in “unspeakable and systematic animal cruelty.” This is the man who will soon be overseeing the nation’s food system.

There are, of course, bad people in Trump’s orbit, too. Most notably, the new Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, is widely seen as a shill for Big Ag. Homeland Security pick Kristi Noem literally shot her dog Cricket in the face and bragged about killing the dog in her memoir.

So what should we make of it all? Is MAGA coming for the vegans, or will Trump 2.0 bring about a pro-vegan future? Here are four areas where MAGA may make a difference for animals – for better or worse.

The culture war around plant-based meats. The notion that Dems are trying to take people’s meat away has been a common attack by MAGA against liberals. Back in 2021, Rep. Lauren Boebert warned that progressives were planning to ration red meat and said the government should “stay out of my kitchen.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) accused Joe Biden of trying to take people’s burgers away and anointed him “The Hamburglar.”

None of that was true, but the culture war has scared politicians (even vegan ones) away from animal rights. This is a threat to the movement and, it may already be having an impact. Plant-based products are in crisis partly because they’re losing the culture war.

Subsidies for animal cruelty. Counter-balancing the culture war is the fact that Trump wants to cut waste – and there’s nothing more wasteful than funding animal cruelty. Elon Musk and the vegetarian Ramaswamy have promised to cut trillions of dollars from the federal budget, under the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). And they and their DOGE pals have already come hard against subsidies for animal testing. Musk’s pal and podcaster Joe Rogan mocked the millions of dollars the federal government spent injecting hamsters with cocaine and steroids in order to induce them to fight. And Elon called a federal study where alcoholic rats were sprayed with urine “outright evil.” Scientists are already speculating that there will be massive cuts on federal funding for animal experiments. Subsidies for factory farming might be next.

That would be a big shift. Trump 1.0 increased direct aid to farmers by tens of billions of dollars, and even subsidized farmers for roasting animals alive.

But the vegetarian Ramaswamy has stated that it’s “wrong to kill sentient animals for culinary pleasure,” and the conservative Heritage foundation has condemned farm subsidies as “America’s largest corporate welfare program.” If Trump 2.0 merely reduces these corporate subsidies by 10%, it could be the financially biggest victory in animal rights history.

Targeting dissidents. Trump 1.0 pushed a number of laws that made it legal for state actors – and even ordinary citizens – to use violence against peaceful protest. He tried to use the military to shoot Black Lives Matter activists, and he even personally directed that protesters be physically assaulted at his rallies. That doesn’t bode well for those who are dissidents, including vegans and eco-activists. Ironically, the thing that might help us most here is Trump’s distrust of the deep state. It’s hard to effectively crush dissidents when you hate the agencies, like the FBI, who will do the crushing.

The fight against animal testing. But perhaps the single-most promising pro-vegan issue for Trump 2.0 is the new administration’s approach to animal testing. Trump campaigned in part on a deep skepticism of mainstream science; he’s sown doubt on vaccines, climate change, and even breastfeeding. The silver lining on this is that Trump 2.0 will help the vegan movement in cases where mainstream science has it wrong. And animal testing is #1 on that list. Trump and MAGA’s attacks on Fauci focused on his use of beagles in experiments. And Trump 1.0 was the first administration to issue a new EPA policy phasing out animal tests — only to have Biden reverse course. Trump 2.0 may take us back on the path of getting animals out of lab cages.

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Trump’s inauguration is just a few days away. There has been a lot of hand-wringing about what went wrong (or celebration about what went right). But regardless of how one feels about the incoming administration, there will be crucial opportunities in the years to come. My list is not complete, or necessarily even accurate. Trump is a symptom of a broader destabilization in our society.

But that makes it even more important that we seize the opportunities to come for the sentient beings who need us most. I hope you’ll join me in doing that.

What’s up this week?

• Speaking of opportunities, a crucial court ruling in Wisconsin will give us an chance to save 3000 dogs from Ridglan Farms. As I wrote on Twitter/X, it has been 7 years of battles and smears and threats of incarceration by the biomedical industry, which accused me of terrorism for trying to save tortured dogs from their cages. But last week, a court finally saw the truth: The only terrorism in this case is what's happening to the dogs. Here’s a video describing what happened.

• We’re organizing a summit in Washington, DC from March 14-16 to challenge the biggest funder of animal abuse in the world: the US government. From roasting animals alive to forcing puppies to inhale plutonium gas, the federal government, under both administrations, has contributed immensely to animal cruelty. A new open rescue and investigation will spell out the deep and disturbing ties between one of the biggest beneficiaries of this abuse, a little-known company called Mountaire, and give participants an opportunity to take action. I’ll have much more to say about this summit, but registration is discounted until January 31. Stay tuned for more!

• An appellate court denied my appeal in the Diestel case, in which I was held liable after the judge forgot to give me a trial. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not. As I said in a video around Thanksgiving, the Dietel case shows that our legal system is broken. And that only makes it even more important for us to take direct action.

That’s all for the week!