Robert F Kennedy Jr has promised to Make America Healthy Again. If all goes to plan, he will become President Donald Trump’s health secretary and oversee the world’s biggest public health agency. Kennedy is facing some roadblocks, however. The President’s cabinet nominations must receive majority approval from the Senate, but Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed concern over Kennedy’s history of pushing vaccine conspiracies and flip-flopping on abortion rights. More than 15,000 US doctors signed an open letter opposing his nomination. While the Senate has waved through most of Trump’s cabinet nominees, Kennedy’s hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Kennedy has promised to “ignite a health revolution in America” and, with the 80,000 staffers and $1.7 trillion budget of the Department of Health and Human Services at his disposal, his firepower would be huge. He is difficult to pigeonhole. Until 2023 he was a Democrat, like his uncle John F Kennedy. He then ran as an independent in the 2024 presidential campaign before dropping out and backing Trump. He had a long career as an environmental lawyer but is more notable nowadays as a conspiracy theorist. Many would see the ideas he promotes around health and eating as woo-woo: he backs “alternative and holistic approaches”, rails against vaccines, and wants to increase access to weed and psychedelics. Yet many of his policies seem common sense, from encouraging sustainable, organic farming to fighting corporate greed.
FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 25, 2024
As health secretary, Kennedy would oversee 11 smaller agencies. One of his main interests is in reforming the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for regulating medication and ensuring food safety. Just before the election, Kennedy wrote on X that “FDA’s war on public health is about to end”. He believes its ties to the pharmaceutical industry are too close, prompting the “aggressive suppression” of some of his wellness hacks, including psychedelics, peptides, raw milk and hyperbaric therapies.
America’s Jamie Oliver?
Scientific studies have found a link between excessive consumption of ultra-processed food and an increased risk of obesity and chronic disease. Two of Kennedy’s pet hates are staple ingredients in processed foods: high fructose corn syrup, a cheaper alternative to cane sugar, and seed oils such as sunflower and rapeseed oil, which he has claimed Americans are being “unknowingly poisoned” by. Kennedy prefers animal fats. On Thanksgiving he posted a video where he deep fried a turkey in a vat of bubbling beef tallow. “This is how we cook the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) way,” he said. He believes seed oils increase inflammation, which can cause health issues from diabetes to colon cancer. However, the latest research suggests there is no issue with them.
Happy Thanksgiving 🦃 pic.twitter.com/Hlqk7U2zq3
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 28, 2024
One of MAHA’s policies is to promote regenerative agriculture, which includes improving soil health and reducing chemical usage. While Trump has had an adversarial relationship with the EU, Kennedy wants to take a leaf out of its book. “As of 2019, the US allowed 72 pesticides that the European Union bans. We also allow chemicals in food and skincare that the bloc doesn’t,” he wrote in an article for the Wall Street Journal article last September, where he promised to reassess US policy.
Like America’s answer to Jamie Oliver, Kennedy wants to remove processed foods from school lunches and eliminate harmful food dyes from children’s cereals. For adults with diabetes or obesity, he proposes holistic solutions. “For half the price of Ozempic, we could purchase regeneratively raised, organic food for every American, three meals a day and a gym membership, for every obese American,” he said in September.
Health warning
While many of his policies have an earth mother bent to them, others could harm health. Last year, Kennedy promised that “On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water.” This didn’t happen — the President was busy pardoning January 6 rioters — but it has not been ruled out. The US has added fluoride to its water supply since the Forties, as it helps to strengthen teeth and prevent decay. But Kennedy claimed the mineral was “associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease”. While excessive doses can be harmful, studies have shown fluoride is safe and beneficial in small amounts. Public water fluoridation is supported by the World Health Organisation.
Throughout the Covid pandemic and as recently as November last year, Kennedy promoted the use of prescription drugs such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as cures, despite leading medical organisations finding them to be ineffective at treating the virus.
During the pandemic Kennedy also gained notoriety for his vaccine scepticism. A non-profit he founded called Children’s Health Defense petitioned the FDA to halt the use of the Covid vaccine, which he falsely described in 2021 as “the deadliest vaccine ever made”. Despite this, he has denied being an anti-vaxxer and claims his six children are vaccinated. He told NPR in November that vaccines would not be taken away, but he wanted to make sure they were “as safe as possible”.
Trump has offered his full support of Kennedy’s agenda, but would they come to blows? Trump was an advocate for left-of-field Covid treatments, like injecting bleach, so the pair have that in common. Yet he has already withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement — again — and has called climate change a “hoax”. Kennedy was once named one of Time Magazine’s “heroes of the planet” but recently said he is trying to craft a climate policy that “makes sense to sceptics and activists alike”.
Perhaps most pertinently, the President is a famous fast food enthusiast and is medically obese. He may bristle when his health secretary recommends a gym membership and an organic diet.