Taylor Farms Backtracks After Trying to Hide Role in Diarrhea Outbreak

Taylor Farms must be very sorry to have ever claimed that the Food and Drug Administration apologized to them.

The pro-Trump produce supplier deleted all mentions on social media of the aforementioned penitence following a false positive by the FDA that incorrectly identified some of Taylor Farms’ products as a source of the cyclospora outbreak that has caused explosive diarrhea across the country.

In statements since scrubbed from social platforms, the vegetable company said Monday that the FDA had “apologized” for the error.

That set off the federal government, which initiated a typhoon of P.R. damage control that has since been described by agriculture journalists as a “public health communications nightmare.”

On Monday, the FDA denied that it had offered the company any such apology. And in its own since-deleted post, the Department of Health and Human Services asserted that Taylor Farms’ statement “DOES NOT change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms.”

“Epidemiological evidence and traceback analysis provide strong, actionable public health evidence,” HHS shared Tuesday afternoon, responding to a CNN report that Mexico denied its regional cases had anything to do with the current outbreak in the U.S. “By looking at the supply chain—from point of sale to distributors, processors, and growers—the data gathered from the 5-state outbreak converged on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms locations in Mexico.”

Taylor Farms is one of the largest fresh-produce suppliers in the country, providing products to Walmart, Sam’s Club, Kroger, SYSCO, Aldi, Target, and Dollar General. It also sells food for private-label brands, such as Whole Foods’ “365” line, and offers assembly-line products for a slew of fast-food chains, including McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, and more.

Taylor Farms said that it had recalled all of the shredded iceberg lettuce that was grown and processed in central Mexico out of an “abundance of caution.”

“While the FDA traceback is indicating a specific independent farm, which represents less than 1% of the U.S.’s iceberg lettuce supply, as the potential source of the outbreak, we have removed all iceberg lettuce from the region indefinitely,” the company said Friday in a statement.

Yet somehow, sending Americans rushing to the lavatory isn’t the only scandal plaguing Taylor Farms. The supplier’s parent company, Taylor Fresh Foods Inc., reportedly donated $1 million to Make America Great Again Inc.—a super PAC affiliated with the president—in March 2025.

Company executives also met with White House officials and FDA representatives last week, just before Taylor Farms issued a voluntary recall of its Central Mexico lettuce supply, reported the Daily Beast Tuesday.

Since the beginning of May, the CDC has confirmed 1,645 cases of cyclosporiasis and is investigating 5,100 more, though the agency noted that most cases have likely gone unreported. Still, both totals are substantially higher than normal: This time last year, just 249 cases had been reported. So far, 141 cases have resulted in hospitalization, and no one has died from the disease.

Texas Attorney General and Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton was given an opportunity to address two major scandals that stand to derail his chances against Democrat James Talarico in November. Instead of acknowledging them, he ended the press conference and left the room.

“General, I wanted to give you a chance to respond to state Representative Talarico and his campaign,” a reporter asked Paxton while flanked by over a dozen law officers in cowboy hats during a Tuesday press conference. “They’ve made a lot about the reports that have come out, one in The New York Times about you acquiring properties worth—”

“So Jack, can we keep this to law enforcement today?” Paxton interrupted.

“Well, I’m giving you the opportunity to answer the question.”

“We’re here with the sheriffs, I’d like to keep today to law enforcement, so that’s what I’m gonna answer, questions about law enforcement,” Paxton replied.

Paxton was then pressed on a separate scandal just seconds after.

“Will you answer a question about why you voted in Collin County? Clear that up?” the reporter asked, only to be shut down by a staffer immediately while Paxton began to leave, looking visibly uncomfortable.

Paxton refused to answer the questions even as he spoke at a podium with Talarico’s face plastered on it, alongside the caption “Talarico: Handcuffed to his record.”

A Times report last week detailed how Paxton—who has been Texas attorney general since 2015—has acquired 15 properties worth $9 million in states like Utah, Hawaii, Florida, and Oklahoma, all on a government salary while in the midst of both a Senate run and a divorce.

Another ProPublica report from earlier this month found that Paxton, who has echoed Trump’s concern with voter fraud, voted using an address he didn’t reside at in six elections in two years. Paxton didn’t really address those allegations at the time of those reports, and he certainly didn’t do so on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump’s advisers aren’t so sure that another round of tariffs is a good idea.

According to a report Tuesday by the Financial Times, Trump is preparing to let loose a “barrage” of fresh tariffs on dozens of countries this week, just before his temporary 10 percent global tariff expires on Friday. More tariffs, on top of energy prices already skyrocketing in response to the Iran war, risk “inflaming voter frustration over the high cost of living,” the Times reports.

Trump’s seemingly endless tariff campaign is unpopular with voters across the political spectrum. A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll puts Trump’s overall approval rating at just 37 percent, dragged down by his handling of the economy and the war in Iran. Two-thirds of Americans now disapprove of how Trump is handling affordability. Republicans, staring down the fast-approaching midterm elections in November, are shaking in their boots.

Trump, on the other hand, either hasn’t noticed or doesn’t care—just Monday, he announced new 50 percent tariffs against Canada. These tariffs are potentially retaliation for the wildfire smoke that drifted across America’s northern border last week.

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein,” the president wrote on Truth Social Friday. “This is Willful Negligence … which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying.” A senior administration official has since denied any relation between the wildfires and the new tariffs.

Even if Trump can’t see it, White House insiders know that another round of tariffs is a bad look.

“Behind the scenes, senior officials have been counseling the president to maintain stability with trading partners and honor the deals that Washington struck with them to reduce their tariffs … according to two people familiar with the matter,” the Financial Times reports.

“If candidates are not talking about the economy, if candidates are not talking about affordability, if they’re not talking about how they’re going to make people’s lives at home cheaper and less expensive, then they’re not talking about the issues that voters care about,” Paul Shumaker, a veteran Republican strategist told The Washington Post Monday.

Republicans know that resurrecting Trump’s trade war, not only with Canada but with the rest of the world, is a recipe for disaster. The question is: Do they have the guts to stop it?

Right-wing, Islamophobic conspiracy theorist and commentator Laura Loomer is on a P.R. tour of Ukraine in a complete departure from her historically pro-Russian, anti-Ukranian rhetoric.

Loomer touched down in Ukraine on Monday, posting herself eating McDonald’s near a destroyed building and heaping praise and defense on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Loomer acknowledged that she previously fell for Russian propaganda. In another post on X Monday, she wrote:

I did say these things about Ukraine and Zelensky and I am not deleting my posts because I’ve realized, I was wrong. I was living in a media echo chamber and I was propagandized by Russian media on social media to believe those things. So I came to Ukraine to see the country for myself. I am going to try to find evidence for the propaganda I’ve been fed, and if I don’t find it, I will let everyone know so they too can come to see the light. On day one, I’ve already seen photos of dead priests in Bucha murdered by Russia and I saw the mass grave where the bodies of murdered Christians were placed after Russia sent forces from Chechnya to massacre innocent people. I spoke with officials who rescue POWs and they showed me photos of Ukrainian POWs who had swastikas engraved into their forehead by Russians.

She noted that she had been lied to about who the real Nazis were. (There are real Nazis everywhere, including in Ukraine, for what it’s worth.)

“Just experienced my first air raid in Ukraine. Sirens blaring. This is everyday for every Ukrainian,” Loomer said in another post Tuesday. “I feel like such an asshole for minimizing the struggle of Ukrainians for the last 5 years. I often said I don’t care. Looking back, that wasn’t very nice of me to say. There are people in Ukraine who have to run to a bomb shelter everyday and some of us had the audacity to say Russia wasn’t wrong because we believed the lie that Ukraine is a country full of Nazi sympathizers. We have been so propagandized by Russia and we don’t even realize it.”

Zelenskiy welcomed Loomer’s visit. “It is really important that [LauraLoomer] is in Ukraine and sees things with her own eyes as they are,” his office wrote on X. “There is no better way to get informed opinion than through personal experience which allows to deal with Russian propaganda.”

This is a radical departure for Loomer, who has spent years attacking Ukraine, and even wrote a few columns for the Kremlin-sponsored Russia Today.

“Zelensky shaking hands with an Islamic terrorist who has murderer US soldiers is another reason to have disdain for [Zelenskiy]. I don’t want any more of my tax dollars going to Ukraine. Ukraine is a country full of Nazi apologists and now it’s clearly a country led by a Jihadi apologist,” Loomer said in a post last year following Zelenskiy’s meeting with Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa, whom she referred to by his nom de guerre, Julani. “Julani is a cold blooded killer. He was wanted by the US for $10 million up until May. He’s a very bad guy who wants a global Islamic caliphate. This is going to backfire spectacularly on everyone who is shaking hands with Julani.”

In another post from 2023, Loomer accused former President Joe Biden of “funding Nazi death squads in Ukraine with US taxpayer dollars.”

“Look forward to your balanced coverage from ‘Kyiv,’” RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan wrote Monday. “To Ms Loomer’s credit, we did enjoy her columns for RT back in the day.”

It’s unclear why Loomer has changed her tune so suddenly, but as an influencer who unfortunately has a direct line of communication to Trump, this may have wider ramifications.

The Trump administration announced that it’s pausing $1 billion in Medicare and Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota, accusing the states of widespread fraud. 

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz made the announcement in a press conference Tuesday, accusing recipients of the programs in the two states of “suspected fraud and noncompliance.” 

“If those ​states want that money they need to provide ​documentation that these payments are legitimate,” Kennedy said. 

But as Reuters reported, neither Kennedy nor Oz offered new evidence of fraud. 

President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and multiple administration officials have attacked Democratic-run states in the last few months, accusing them of engaging in widespread fraud when it comes to public services. In May, the White House blocked $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements for California, claiming that the state was not tackling fraud in its home and hospice health agencies. 

Last month, Trump reportedly directed federal agencies to look into how they could block funding for the state of California, and the Federal Emergency Management Association was caught holding up disaster aid to blue states earlier this year. Less than a week ago, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened not only to block federal grants but also to jail state officials in Democratic states that refuse to hand over voter registration to the Trump administration. 

In the past, states have appealed these cuts in court and won. Minnesota and California will likely sue to get their funding back, and they’ll have plenty of evidence that the White House is targeting them for vindictive reasons.