There is so much flat-out bizarre about life under Donald Trump, it’s almost impossible to keep up with the weirdness. As you may have heard, we very well could be at war with Iran soon and the Secretary of Defense is a former weekend cable news host. Adrastos has more this morning about that whole Iran thing.

Tim Walz was right – shit over there is weird.

But that’s not what I am writing about here. Instead, a slice of Trumpian weirdness that I have been fascinated by for quite a while now: the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. The main practitioners, the evangelists, of this movement are health foodies, healthy living influencers, natural wellness promoters, etc.

MAHA is like so many other Trump things; if you tell others who are not aware, you sound crazy because what you are talking about is indeed crazy. The idea that granola-esque yoga enthusiasts who frequent health food stores would go full Trumper seems nutso, something that is just too silly or unbelievable to buy.

However, it’s real and has been reported on by reliable sources. The Guardian, for example, covered how this movement helped to elect Trump. The Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago had a piece recently looking at how progressive spiritualism and right-wing Christianity bonded over a mutual hatred of science. Fast Company reported on how, of course, there is money to be made off the MAHA movement. The Atlantic covered how holistic healing and natural health influencers with millions of followers promoted Worst Kennedy Ever Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Bobby Jr.), the patron saint of MAHA, and pushed this movement forward politically. The New York Times covered how this movement has its tentacles around the yutes. And New York magazine, in an alarming profile of one of the MAHA influencers, shines a light on how exactly the yoga moms and health food folks went full-on right-wing, with sometimes tragic consequences.

Now, to be clear, I am not saying that your favorite yoga instructor or the nice old hippie who owns the local food co-op is secretly a raging right-winger. Quite the contrary, there are a lot of sincere people who love to meditate, eat organic, and oh by the way, get a flu shot and go to the doctor. Chances are very good that if they are not an online influencer, they likely are normal. But beyond that, there is some crazy, dangerous shit going on in that world.

The BBC offers up another example of just how tragic the consequences can be, as two brothers speak up about how their mother’s MAHA beliefs infected the mind of their sister and led to her death.

There are so many kooky things beyond the tragic here that just do not make much sense. For starters, anything Bobby Jr. says. Just watch his congressional hearings. The man babbles, fumbles over his statements, and crumbles under the slightest of challenges. He even said under oath no one should listen to him, which might have been the smartest thing he’s said lately.

Some of what MAHA wants is perfectly reasonable. We shouldn’t have as much processed food in our diets. But a lot of it is dangerous bullshit, like anything antivax (congrats to Texas antivaxxers for bringing back measels, which, by the way, is still a problem for the U.S.).

You might be wondering what’s up with my headline, and what asbestos has to do with all of this. Well, a little problem for the MAHA crowd, Make America Healthy Again is just something that quacks like Bobby Jr likes to say and doesn’t really mean. Would an administration that is focused on a healthy, thriving America want to bring back one of the most notorious carcinogens? You got it, MAGA wants MAGA (Make Asbestos Great Again). It fits right in with the general Trump aesthetic, nothing makes a damn bit of sense.

I’ll end with that…take a little time to contemplate that not only is measles back, but potentially so will asbestos.

The last word goes to HAIM, who has a new album out that’s quite good.