Why Trump's Milk Memes Reveal America's Dairy Obsession

The internet went wild when the Trump administration started posting surreal milk content. President Trump illustrated as a 1950s milkman. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chugging whole milk in a dark nightclub. Kids chanting "drink whole milk" to ominous electronic music in a USDA video that could pass for a horror movie trailer.

But beneath the memes lies a more sobering reality: American taxpayers have been subsidizing Big Dairy for decades, regardless of which party holds power.

The Bipartisan Milk Machine

The milk posting blitz followed Trump's signing of the "Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act," which allows public schools to serve whole milk again after it was effectively banned in 2012. The administration also updated federal dietary guidelines to recommend full-fat dairy products.

Yet dairy promotion isn't a Republican phenomenon. Bill Clinton's health secretary appeared in Got Milk? ads. Barack Obama's agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack left government to earn $1 million as a dairy lobbyist, then returned under Biden to continue praising dairy's virtues.

"There is a reflexive deference to dairy at USDA and in federal food policy circles regardless of political affiliation," a former USDA official told reporters. "Dairy is treated as a cultural and political baseline, receiving more attention than almost all other US commodities."

The numbers reveal the extent of this support: In 2015, an estimated 71 percent of US dairy farmers' revenue depended on government assistance.

Following the Money

This support system operates through multiple channels. Taxpayers fund subsidized insurance for dairy producers, comprehensive USDA marketing programs, bailouts for disease outbreaks, and environmental exemptions that allow massive pollution.

But the crown jewel of dairy subsidies runs through America's schools. Since the 1940s, the National School Lunch Program has required or encouraged schools to serve milk to students. Today, 20 percent of public schools must serve milk, while 80 percent must offer it—even though kids throw away 41 percent of it.

This captive market accounts for roughly 8 percent of the entire US dairy industry's annual revenue. When some schools tried nudging students toward water to reduce waste, the USDA reprimanded them.

The Nutrition Myth That Won't Die

The dairy industry's political influence rests partly on outdated nutritional beliefs. The idea that milk is essential for health stems from concerns about calcium and bone strength, but decades of research have reached more nuanced conclusions.

High milk consumption in youth doesn't actually reduce hip fractures in old age, as calcium absorption is far more complex than once believed. Harvard's public health school recommends zero to two dairy servings daily, while federal guidelines still push three.

Meanwhile, plenty of other foods provide calcium: nuts, beans, tofu, sardines, dark leafy greens, and fortified plant-based products. Yet this evidence hasn't dented dairy's privileged position in American food policy.

Cultural and Political Calculations

The dairy industry's staying power reflects both electoral math and cultural symbolism. The top 10 dairy states span red, blue, and purple territories, creating bipartisan incentives to support the industry.

Dairy also spends millions on federal elections and lobbying. At least three of nine reviewers for the new federal dietary guidelines have financial ties to dairy groups—a revolving door that shapes the very recommendations Americans follow.

Culturally, milk symbolizes wholesomeness and "simpler times," particularly potent for MAGA and MAHA movements. The Trump-as-milkman meme taps into nostalgia for an imagined American past when farmers were heroes and food was "natural."

There's a darker element too: white supremacists have adopted milk as a symbol because lactose tolerance is more common among white people than people of color—adding racial undertones to what might seem like innocent food promotion.