Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated earlier this week that former President Donald Trump has “promised” him “management of the general public well being companies” ought to Trump win again the White Home in November.
Kennedy, who suspended his unbiased presidential marketing campaign in August and endorsed Trump, made the remarks on a Zoom name with supporters on Monday evening. The companies Kennedy would reportedly oversee in that case embody the federal Division of Well being and Human Providers and the Division of Agriculture.
“The important thing, which President Trump has promised me, is management of the general public well being companies, which is HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and some others. And in addition the USDA, which is, you already know, key to creating America wholesome, as a result of we have got to get off of seed oils and we have got to get off of pesticides … and we have to make that transition to regenerative agriculture,” Kennedy stated.
Kennedy has been anti-vaccine activist and based the Kids’s Well being Protection, a outstanding anti-vaccine nonprofit that has campaigned in opposition to immunizations and different public well being measures like water fluoridation. Medical consultants expressed issues a few rise in medical misinformation by means of Kennedy’s candidacy.
Kennedy’s remarks drew condemnation from Trump’s former Surgeon Normal Jerome Adams.
“If RFK has a major affect on the following administration, that might additional erode individuals’s willingness to rise up to this point with really useful vaccines, and I’m anxious in regards to the affect that might have on our nation’s well being, on our nation’s economic system, on our international safety,” Adams stated at a public well being convention, in keeping with The New York Occasions reporter Sheryl Homosexual Stolberg.
Former Republican presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump shake arms throughout a marketing campaign rally at Desert Diamond Enviornment on Aug. 23, 2024 in Glendale, Ariz.
Rebecca Noble/Getty Pictures, FILE
Trump has stated he’s dedicated to brining Kennedy into his administration. Final week, Trump touted Kennedy’s function in serving to him “straighten out our well being,” however joked that he is anxious about his sturdy stance on the atmosphere, saying he desires to maintain drilling.
“I do not know if I will have him working an excessive amount of on the atmosphere. I am a bit of involved about that with Bobby. I do not know if I need him enjoying round with our with our liquid gold underneath our toes,” Trump stated at a marketing campaign occasion in Las Vegas, Nevada, final Friday. “You already know, like I stated, Bobby will work on well being. He is nice.”
Trump first floated the concept of Kennedy main his administration’s well being efforts in the course of the Al Smith Dinner earlier this month. He stated Kennedy will “make us a more healthy place.”
“We’re gonna let him go wild for a short time, then I am gonna need to perhaps reign him again, as a result of he is acquired some fairly wild concepts, however most of them are actually good,” Trump stated on the dinner. “I feel he is a he is a very good man, and he believes, he believes the atmosphere, the wholesome individuals. He desires wholesome individuals, he desires wholesome meals. And he’ll do it. He’ll have an enormous likelihood to do it, as a result of we do want that.”
The Trump marketing campaign stated that whereas no formal selections have been made about his Cupboard ought to he win the election, the previous president will “work alongside” individuals like Kennedy in health-related roles.
“No formal selections about Cupboard and personnel have been made, nonetheless, President Trump has stated he’ll work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to Make America Wholesome Once more by offering households with secure meals and ending the persistent illness epidemic plaguing our youngsters,” Trump Marketing campaign Nationwide Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in a press release to ABC Information. “President Trump may also set up a particular Presidential Fee of unbiased minds and can cost them with investigating what’s inflicting the decades-long enhance in persistent diseases.”
ABC Information’ Kelsey Walsh, Soorin Kim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
