Trump Hits the DPA Ignition: Phosphorus, Glyphosate, and the Right to Make Things Here

I smelled it before I finished reading: fertilizer dust, factory heat, and that Midwest hum where diesel sounds like a hymn. That is what a real economy smells like. Not paperwork about an economy.

On Wednesday, February 18, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act (DPA) to secure the domestic supply of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides. The deep soy state heard the starter turn and started fainting into its oat milk.

What the order does (and why it matters)

The executive order is blunt: elemental phosphorus is tied to national defense supply chains, and glyphosate-based herbicides are tied to food security. If you cannot get inputs, you cannot make the stuff. If you cannot make the stuff, you do not have an economy. You have a subscription plan.

Trump delegates DPA authority to the Secretary of Agriculture to prioritize and allocate materials, services, and facilities related to these inputs, in consultation with the Secretary of War. That sentence is basically America remembering it has muscles.

• The order says there is only a single domestic producer of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides.
• It also says the United States imports more than 6,000,000 kilograms of elemental phosphorus annually.

One producer and millions of kilos imported is not resilience. That is a national security trust fall onto concrete.

The supply chain is the story

Elemental phosphorus is not boutique nonsense. The order ties it to smoke, illumination, and incendiary devices, and to manufacturing for semiconductors used in defense technologies like radar and sensors. It also flags modern lithium-ion battery chemistries as part of the picture. Politics comes and goes. Chemistry does not.

The order also references that phosphate was designated a critical mineral by the Department of the Interior in November 2025. Brick translation: America finally checked the parts list for modern life and realized it has been outsourcing the bolts.

Roundup lawsuits: the litigation machine revs too

One day earlier, on February 17, 2026, the Associated Press reported a proposed $7.25 billion settlement involving Bayer to resolve thousands of U.S. lawsuits alleging Roundup caused cancer and that users were not adequately warned. AP reported the settlement would cover certain exposures before February 17, 2026, and that it was filed in Missouri state court in St. Louis.

The science and liability questions are contested. AP notes Bayer disputes that glyphosate causes cancer, and the EPA has said glyphosate is unlikely to be carcinogenic to humans when used properly.

Still, farms need weed control tools, and the order says there is no direct one-for-one chemical alternative to glyphosate-based herbicides. It warns that a lack of access could jeopardize agricultural productivity and pressure the domestic food system.

The order also includes language about immunity under the DPA for compliance. If the government is going to order priorities, it cannot leave producers legally exposed for obeying those priorities.

My bar-stool conclusion

Make the inputs, make the nation. I would rather live in an America that produces than an America that litigates and imports until the flag looks like a customer service logo.