RFK Jr. poised for a major food, health role in potential Trump administration

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is poised to have significant control over health and food safety in a potential Trump administration, with discussions about some Cabinet and agency officials reporting to him, according to four people familiar with the planning process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations.

Kennedy has been privately meeting with Trump transition officials to help draw up an agenda for a new administration, which could involve the longtime anti-vaccine activist taking a role as a White House czar rather than attempting to win Senate confirmation to lead an agency, the people said. Kennedy and his advisers have also been drafting 30-, 60- and 90-day plans for what they would like to accomplish after Trump is inaugurated, according to one person familiar with the planning process.

“The president has asked me to clean up corruption and conflicts at the agencies and to end the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said in an interview Wednesday. “He wants measurable results in two years and to return those agencies to their long traditions of gold-standard evidence-based science and medicine.”

Trump advisers say that nothing will be firmly decided until after the election, in which polls show Trump is in a tight race against Vice President Kamala Harris. They warn, too, that Trump can be mercurial.

But Kennedy’s rising influence was reflected Wednesday night when Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the Trump transition team, made a startling admission during an appearance on CNN: He had come to doubt the power of vaccines, after a 2½-hour conversation with Kennedy.

“Why do you think vaccines are safe? … They’re not proven,” Lutnick said, repeating Kennedy’s debunked claims about vaccines’ link to autism and insufficient data on their harms. He added that Kennedy wants to study the data himself and make recommendations.

“I think it’ll be pretty cool to give him the data. Let’s see what he comes up with,” Lutnick said.

Lutnick’s remarks were immediately panned by public health experts, who said they threatened to undercut confidence in lifesaving vaccines.

The prospect of Kennedy holding any senior government role has increasingly alarmed public health leaders and federal workers who say that he should not be allowed anywhere near the nation’s public health infrastructure. As an anti-vaccine activist, Kennedy spent years lobbying lawmakers across the country and the world to reduce their use of vaccines - including leaders of Samoa in 2019, as the country reeled from a measles outbreak that left dozens of children dead.

Jerome M. Adams, who under Trump served as U.S. surgeon general - the nation’s top doctor - also warned his former boss against appointing Kennedy to a senior role, saying he could undermine vaccine confidence and help spark a resurgence of vaccine-preventable disease.

“Bottom line: It’s hard to implement your other political priorities if you’re busy dealing with a measles or polio outbreak,” Adams told The Post.

Kennedy’s representatives have previously denied to The Post that he is anti-vaccine. Kennedy, in previous comments, denied playing any role in Samoa’s measles outbreak.

The Trump campaign did not comment on Kennedy’s potential responsibilities in a future administration, including whether he would hold any role overseeing vaccines and whether he would take a job that would need to be confirmed by the Senate.

“The only thing President Trump and his campaign team are focused on is winning on Nov. 5,” Jason Miller, a campaign senior adviser, told The Post. “Everything after that is after that, and President Trump has made clear that Bobby Kennedy will play an important role.”

Kennedy has been working to identify possible personnel for a future Trump administration, a list that Trump advisers say includes Casey and Calley Means, siblings and health-care entrepreneurs who have become close advisers to Kennedy; Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins University physician who advised the Trump White House on health-care price transparency; and former Trump health officials such as former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield and former Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Michael Caputo.

The Means siblings, Makary, Redfield and Caputo have been working with Kennedy to roll out his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) platform, an initiative to tackle chronic disease and childhood illnesses - and a deliberate riff on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) slogan. None of them responded to questions about their potential roles in a future Trump administration, with several declining to comment.

Both Trump and Kennedy have publicly said that he has been promised an expansive role should Trump win back the White House. People close to Trump said the discussions have centered on food safety and vaccines. Those people and other Trump advisers spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

“I’m gonna let him go wild on health. I’m gonna let him go wild on the food. I’m gonna let him go wild on medicines,” Trump told supporters in New York City on Sunday.

Kennedy told his own supporters in a Zoom call Monday that Trump has promised him “control of the public health agencies,” singling out the Department of Health and Human Services and its subagencies, and also naming the Department of Agriculture. The agencies are collectively responsible for implementing food and public health regulations; approving vaccines, medications and health-care devices; enforcing safety measures in food-processing facilities; steering billions of dollars in federal research initiatives; and overseeing Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, among many other responsibilities.

“Nobody would hire him in a health job in the real world,” said Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, who added that Kennedy has “no credibility” after years of questioning the safety of vaccines. “Can you imagine RFK coordinating the H5N1 [bird flu] response? The anthrax letters? … Why would anyone follow him?”

From anti-vaccine advocate to key Trump ally

Trump advisers and campaign surrogates have downplayed the possibility of Kennedy being involved with vaccine oversight, worried about provoking a backlash from large majorities of voters who trust vaccines to provide necessary protection against potentially lethal diseases. About 90 percent of Americans say that the benefits of childhood vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella outweigh the risks, according to a Pew Research poll released in May 2023.

But recent polls also show rising distrust in vaccine safety, and Trump and Kennedy have found common ground in discussing their shared concerns about vaccines. The former president - who oversaw the nation’s largest-ever vaccine push by championing the rapid development of coronavirus vaccines - also has falsely linked childhood vaccinations to autism and has threatened to withhold money from schools with vaccine mandates.

Kennedy has made clear to Trump advisers that he is passionate about addressing vaccine issues as they discuss jobs in a potential administration, according to two people familiar with those conversations.

The rapid ascent of Kennedy in Trump’s orbit - from third-party presidential rival to key figure in Trump’s second-term plans - also reflects Trump’s own amorphous, often transactional approach to developing policy. The former Democrat has never held a senior government role, has warned against the safety of the coronavirus vaccines developed under the Trump administration and previously predicted that Trump’s “despicable” moves to loosen environmental safety restrictions as president would harm Americans’ health.

Yet both men have identified an opportunity in the other: Trump wants Kennedy’s coalition of independent supporters, which could make a difference in what is expected to be a narrow race against Harris for the presidency, while Kennedy sees a path to accomplishing his long-held goal of reshaping federal food and health regulations.

The alliance came after a hurried courtship that began on July 13 - with a phone conversation arranged hours after Trump was shot while speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania - and continued with a private meeting two days later, with Kennedy sneaking into Trump’s hotel as the Republican National Convention got underway in Milwaukee.

Trump wanted Kennedy to abandon his third-party bid for the presidency, which had siphoned some of Trump’s voters. In exchange, Kennedy wanted the guarantee of a specific job in a potential Trump administration and a speaking slot at that week’s convention - a deal Trump did not make.

But as Kennedy’s campaign continued to fade, he agreed to endorse Trump on Aug. 23 and campaign for him.

“He wanted to know he would have a meaningful opportunity at the end of it,” a Trump adviser said.

The rapid realignment of the two men has reshaped the priorities and personnel of a potential Trump administration. Sid Miller, the Texas agriculture commissioner, told The Post that he had submitted more than a dozen names to the Trump transition team - drawing from the narrow universe of people supportive of both Trump and Kennedy’s MAHA agenda.

“They have to be 110 percent loyal to Donald Trump, and they have to buy into Making America Healthy Again,” said Miller, who has said he is being considered for agriculture secretary under Trump.

Kennedy has not ruled out taking a job as Cabinet secretary or as a top agency official, which would give him more direct control of policies and day-to-day operations, according to people familiar with the planning process.

But some Trump advisers have predicted that Kennedy would not want to undergo a Senate confirmation fight to lead an agency, pointing to his acknowledgment of personal “skeletons” - and news reports of Kennedy’s extramarital affairs and other entanglements - that tend to be unearthed in grueling battles to win senior government roles.

“He’s not getting a job for HHS,” Lutnick said Wednesday night on CNN.

Instead, advisers envision Kennedy probably would hold a role reporting directly to Trump, overseeing a cross-government collection of agencies and initiatives.

Some Trump advisers speculate that Kennedy could be tapped to lead a panel examining the safety of vaccines - a priority he first urged Trump to pursue before he was sworn in as president. Trump was subsequently talked out of it by philanthropist Bill Gates and health-care experts.

Trump advisers have also privately said Kennedy’s future vaccine oversight efforts could focus on newer vaccines, such as those developed to fight the coronavirus, rather than more established vaccines to prevent polio and measles, mumps and rubella. (Kennedy has publicly raised doubts about those childhood vaccines, too.)

Kennedy also has vowed to clean house at federal agencies, warning Food and Drug Administration officials on social media last week to “preserve your records” and “pack your bags.”

Some Trump allies and advisers are skeptical that Kennedy will receive the expansive portfolio he has been promised, noting that Trump made a flurry of campaign pledges in 2016 that ultimately did not pan out when he became president.

One former health official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their relationship with the former president, warned that nothing is settled until Trump clarifies Kennedy’s role - and that Trump typically grows weary of subordinates who seek the spotlight.

“The fact that Kennedy’s out there talking before Trump’s opined on it is premature,” the official said. “Playing it out in the press? The president hates that.”

A new health agenda

Trump campaign officials told The Post they have been thrilled with Kennedy’s appearances at their fundraisers and events since he endorsed Trump, contending that he has drawn voters, often in large crowds, who did not plan to vote for Trump or may not have planned to vote at all. Kennedy had “wildly exceeded all expectations” and is viewed as the campaign’s top surrogate, one key Trump adviser said.

Much of Kennedy’s work on behalf of Trump has centered on their Make America Healthy Again initiative, which has focused on ideas such as removing chemicals from food production, eliminating conflicts of interest in medical research, combating the causes of chronic illness and other priorities that have bipartisan appeal but have been frequently overlooked by politicians.

Republicans have said the Kennedy-led agenda is providing a necessary corrective after years of national debates over health insurance coverage and not on the root causes of disease. “It is refreshing that someone is talking about how to improve health care that doesn’t involve just shoveling more money to the medical-industrial complex,” said Theo Merkel, a former Trump White House health official.

But some public health experts who insist they agree with the message say they can’t bring themselves to support the messengers, noting Kennedy’s and Trump’s past criticism of vaccines and Trump’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

And inside the federal government, staffers are increasingly alarmed by Kennedy’s rhetoric, such as a social media post last week criticizing the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of an array of medicines and substances, many of which the agency has either warned against or refused to approve.

Some Republicans have pushed the Trump transition team to consider more traditional options to lead federal health agencies, saying that Trump’s agenda was sometimes stymied as president because he relied on allies with little or no prior government experience.

Trump advisers have discussed a list of potential HHS secretaries that includes Bobby Jindal, the former governor of Louisiana and a former Bush health official; former Trump health officials Eric Hargan and Seema Verma; and former housing and urban development secretary Ben Carson, among other names, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential process.

Hargan said he “would be honored” if he is considered for a role under Trump. The others did not comment or directed questions to the Trump campaign, which said it would not comment on potential personnel.

While Kennedy lacks government experience, he has been frequently accompanied by two people who held high-level health jobs under Trump: Redfield and Caputo, who played significant roles in the response to the coronavirus. Both men ended those government stints amid controversies: Redfield, who ran the CDC, faced complaints from former agency leaders who accused him of bowing to political pressure and allowing the White House to shape elements of CDC guidance as the virus raged. Redfield did not respond to requests for comment.

Caputo, who served as the top spokesman at the federal health department, took medical leave for cancer treatment in September 2020, three days after urging Trump’s supporters to prepare for an armed insurrection. “When Joe Biden loses, they will try to steal it,” Caputo said at the time. “He will refuse to concede. … And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin.”

Caputo also accused scientists in his own agency of “sedition” for allegedly working to undermine Trump ahead of that year’s election. He declined to comment for this story.

Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethicist and physician who worked in the Obama administration to craft the Affordable Care Act and other government health initiatives, predicted that Kennedy would struggle to accomplish his sweeping agenda, comparing him to other would-be reformers who have been stymied by the regulations shaping the nation’s sprawling, interconnected food and health systems.

“I don’t think he understands the American health system,” Emanuel said. “We’ve seen those people muck about, not very successfully.”