By Kristina Peterson, Josh Dawsey and Laura Cooper
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calls it “poison.” President Trump has multiple cans of it every day. Welcome to the 2025 soda wars.
At both state and federal levels, the Kennedy-led Make America Healthy Again movement is backing efforts to prevent people from spending food-aid benefits on sugary, carbonated beverages. Now, they are gaining momentum with an administration led by a man who enjoys soda so much that he had a red button installed on his desk for a valet to bring him a Diet Coke.
Beverage companies are nervous about the push and preparing a counterpunch of their own.
Liberal-leaning states including New York and Minnesota have tried in the past to strip soda from state food-aid programs, saying it would boost their nutritional impact. But the U.S. Agriculture Department, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has rejected the requests for more than 20 years, saying it would be too complicated to implement. This year, deep-red Arkansas might be the first to get a different answer.
The state is preparing to ask the USDA if it can restrict some less-healthy items, including potentially soda, candy and desserts, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in an interview Friday.
Arkansas plans to ask the USDA if it can restrict some less-healthy items like soda from food aid, said Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. PHOTO: GREG NASH/PRESS POOL
“Nobody is anti-Diet Coke. Nobody is anti-soft drink. I like a soft drink, too. It’s whether or not the government should be paying for it,” said Sanders, who was Trump’s press secretary in his first term.
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