Taylor Farms Gave Trump Allies $2 Million Before Its Recall Call

Taylor Farms asked the White House last week to hold off announcing a recall linking its lettuce to a cyclospora outbreak that has sickened nearly 2,000 people. The request went to the president’s staff directly, not through the Food and Drug Administration’s usual channels. Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb called the move highly unusual on Sunday.

The company was not new to this White House. Taylor Farms spent 2025 funding a delay to federal produce tracing rules and giving at least $2 million to Trump-aligned political committees, months before it needed a favor of its own.

A Phone Call the FDA Didn’t Expect

The Wall Street Journal first reported the call. Representatives for Taylor Farms reached out to the White House as federal investigators prepared to publicly tie the company’s iceberg lettuce to an ongoing nine-state cyclospora investigation, according to the newspaper.

The White House asked Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials to join the call. On it, Taylor Farms argued investigators lacked a positive lab test connecting its products to the outbreak and said the government was overstating the company’s responsibility, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

It was not standard operating procedure. And it wasn’t standard operating procedure when I was at FDA.

Gottlieb, who ran the FDA from 2017 to 2019, said that on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. He added a second line just as pointed: “So it’s unusual.”

“I dealt with outbreaks in romaine lettuce and spinach as well, E. coli in spinach and romaine lettuce,” Gottlieb said. “I never heard from the White House on those things, other than to have discussions to inform them of what we were doing, so that they were properly briefed and could respond to questions that they were getting.”

Taylor Farms sought the meeting after executives felt they had not gotten enough clarity from the FDA about the evidence behind a potential recall and its scope, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Taylor Farms Says, Federal Officials Say

The recall itself has been a mess of contradictions for two weeks. Taylor Farms de Mexico voluntarily recalled iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico on July 17, tied to the outbreak through epidemiological and traceback evidence rather than a lab match.

Then the FDA muddied its own case. Last week the agency reported that a lettuce sample outside the recall’s boundaries had tested positive outside the recall’s original scope, then deleted that finding a day later and called it a false positive.

Taylor Farms pounced on the reversal. “Today, FDA apologized to us,” the company said in a statement posted to its newsroom statement on the outbreak, adding that “at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora.”

Federal officials disputed that framing. A Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson said the agency did not apologize and instead “simply sent Taylor Farms the facts and what was found following the study.”

A day after the apology dispute, Taylor Farms clarified its own statement again. The recall was still in effect, the company said, and it would not source iceberg lettuce from central Mexico for the rest of the growing season. The agency still standing behind its traceback findings said the erroneous test did not change the evidence supporting the recall.

Nine States, Nearly 2,000 Sick

The outbreak behind all this confusion is large. At least 1,947 people across nine states have been confirmed sick, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, with illness onset dates stretching from June 22 through July 20.

• At least 1,947 illnesses confirmed across nine states, per CDC figures.
• At least 98 hospitalizations, with no deaths reported so far.
• Illness onset dates ranging from June 22 to July 20, with new cases still being confirmed.
• States affected: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The CDC cautions the real number is almost certainly higher. Cyclospora infections can take up to six weeks to confirm, and many mild cases never reach a doctor at all, according to the agency’s outbreak investigation update.

The case count kept climbing right up to the White House call. The CDC reported the outbreak had expanded to four additional states in the days before Taylor Farms sought more time, adding pressure just as the company asked for room to breathe.

The Rule Taylor Farms Helped Delay

This was not Taylor Farms’s first transaction with Washington this cycle. In late 2024, the company paid the law firm Sidley Austin $380,000 to lobby Congress, its first recorded lobbying spend, according to the political spending tracker OpenSecrets.

1. October to December 2024: Taylor Foods pays Sidley Austin $380,000 to lobby Congress, a new line of spending for the company.
2. March 20, 2025: The FDA announces a 30 month delay to the Food Traceability Rule, pushing its compliance deadline from January 2026 to July 2028.
3. March 26, 2025: Taylor Farms donates $1 million to MAGA Inc, a super PAC aligned with President Trump.
4. Summer 2025: Taylor Farms gives another $1 million to a super PAC aligned with House Republicans.
5. November 2025: Congress passes H.R. 5371, enshrining the enforcement pause on the traceability rule through 2028.
6. June 22, 2026: The earliest illness later linked to the cyclospora outbreak begins, per CDC records.
7. July 17, 2026: Taylor Farms de Mexico recalls iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico.
8. Week of July 20, 2026: Taylor Farms contacts the White House asking to delay the recall’s public announcement, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The rule at the center of that spending, formally the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Section 204 Food Traceability Rule, would force growers and distributors of high-risk foods to keep shareable digital records at every step. That kind of record is exactly what speeds up an outbreak investigation like this one.

Taylor Farms has been through this before. The company’s history of repeat contamination outbreaks is part of why food safety researchers pushed for the tracing rule well before its new 2028 deadline.

Why Did the White House Pick Up the Phone?

Because Taylor Farms had already built the kind of relationship that lets a regulated company skip past career FDA staff and reach senior aides directly. Its 2025 spending bought exactly that access, months before it needed a favor during an active outbreak investigation.

Recalls in the United States are technically voluntary. Companies, not the FDA, choose whether and when to pull a product, though the agency can compel action under existing food safety law. That voluntary structure gives a well connected company room to negotiate timing directly with people who oversee its regulator.

Gottlieb’s own comparison shows what changed. Spinach and romaine recalls under his watch stayed inside the agency, briefings included. This one went through the West Wing first.

The Recall Stands, the Rule Delay Runs to 2028

The recall has survived every retraction and dispute so far. Taylor Farms says it will not buy iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico again this season, and the FDA says its traceback and epidemiological evidence still point to the company’s product regardless of the retracted lab test.

Taylor Farms spent 2025 helping build the runway for a slower tracing system, then spent this July asking for a little more room inside it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is cyclospora and how does it spread?

Cyclospora cayetanensis is a microscopic parasite that spreads through food or water contaminated with infected feces, often riding along on fresh produce like lettuce, herbs and berries. It causes watery diarrhea, cramping, fatigue and appetite loss that can last for weeks without treatment, with symptoms typically appearing about a week after exposure.

Is Taylor Farms lettuce still under recall?

Yes. The FDA says its traceback and epidemiological evidence still support the recall despite the retracted lab result, and Taylor Farms has said it will not source iceberg lettuce from central Mexico again this growing season. Shoppers unsure whether a lettuce product falls under the recall should check with their retailer or discard it, standard practice during an active FDA recall.

Which restaurants were affected by the tainted lettuce?

FDA and CDC traceback work connected the outbreak to salads served at Olive Garden and Red Lobster locations in at least two states, according to CBS News, showing how far a single lettuce supplier’s product traveled through the restaurant supply chain.

What foods does the delayed Food Traceability Rule actually cover?

FSMA 204 applies beyond lettuce to cucumbers, tomatoes, tropical tree fruits, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables and ready-to-eat salads, the same category of high-risk foods behind past E. coli and listeria outbreaks. Its enforcement is paused until July 2028 under H.R. 5371.

Did any Taylor Farms product actually test positive for cyclospora?

The FDA’s one positive lab result was retracted as a false positive, but officials say that does not clear the company. Outbreak investigators often rely on epidemiological patterns and supply chain tracing rather than a single lab match, and both continued to point to Taylor Farms’s central Mexico lettuce as the source.