Trump Picks RFK Jr. to Lead Dept. of Health and Human Services
In a move that was rumored for weeks and not particularly unexpected, President-elect Donald Trump said he has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), to include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Kennedy posted to social media that he would work to end chronic disease, clean up corruption and provide Americans with data in order to let them make informed decisions — and modified Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan to match his role to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Kennedy, who had run for president against Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as an independent candidate until he dropped out of the race in August, is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Sr., and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy Jr.
He has been outspoken over the years about health and food, and has made controversial statements denying the efficacy and/or safety of vaccines, though he has walked some of that anti-vaccine stance back since his name came up as a candidate for this position. Trump stated that under Kennedy’s watch, the HHS would help ensure Americans were protected from “harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives” that he blamed for “the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country.”
Reaction to Kennedy being named to this position was mixed across health and medical groups, some excited that Kennedy will bring a new perspective to battling against large corporations whom they believe unfairly control the market, with others concerned that some of his stances on drugs and alternative treatments could play a negative role in people’s health.
On the food side of the equation, Kennedy could make enormous changes, having already suggested that he would come in like a wrecking ball, telling FDA employees in a social media post last month that those who “are part of this corrupt system” to preserve their records and “pack your bags.” The corrupt system referred to his prior statement that “FDA’s war on public health is about to end.”
He also has criticized big pharmaceutical and big food companies for leaning on weight loss drugs to solve the obesity crisis instead of “fixing the food system and addressing the obesity crisis at its root.”
How the Trump administration would affect the FDA’s relatively new Human Foods Program structure — with or without Kennedy overseeing HHS and the FDA — is to be determined, especially if he follows through with Trump’s promise that Kennedy would “go wild” on food and health policy.
