Trump nominates RFK Jr. to head Department of Health and Human Services, tapping the vaccine skeptic to end the ‘chronic disease epidemic’
President-elect Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services Thursday, charging the noted vaccine skeptic, sex maniac and animal corpse-dumper with ending the “chronic disease epidemic.”
Brain worm-sufferer Kennedy, 70, has been a staunch supporter of Trump since suspending his independent presidential bid in August, and the president-elect had teased that he would let RFK Jr. “go wild” should the Republican nominee win the Nov. 5 election.
Despite his well-known opposition to vaccination of children, Kennedy insisted the day after Trump, 78, became the 47th president-elect that he was not going to “take away” anyone’s vaccines.
“If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away. People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information,” he told NBC News Nov. 6. “So I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”
Another Kennedy bugaboo, the practice of putting fluoride in local water supplies, is regulated by state and local municipalities, making it unlikely that he will have any say in that matter, either
If confirmed as head of HHS, RFK Jr. will oversee 80,000 employees, a $1.7 trillion budget, and a vast network of agencies and subagencies that cover topics as varied as nutrition, immigration and even biodefense research.
Kennedy has called out what he describes as “insidious corruption at the FDA, the NIH, the HHS, and the USDA” and warned Food and Drug Administration employees in a X post days before the election that if Trump won, “I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”
One Senate Republican source was aghast at Trump’s pick, telling The Post that “RFK has as much chance of getting confirmed by the Senate as he does of taking a vaccine shot.”
The source added that it’s unclear whether the threat of a recess appointment of Kennedy by Trump could lead soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to keep the upper chamber in a marathon session, saying “that dynamic is still being worked through.”
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote in his nomination announcement, making rare use of his X account to broadcast a cabinet pick.
“The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country. Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
Trump’s decision to offer Kennedy the HHS position was first reported by Politico and comes one day after The Post reported that Kennedy — an honorary chair of the Trump transition team — was gunning hard for the secretary role while allies were pushing him to accept a lesser advisory post.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Trump’s first term, was also aiming to run HHS, sources had told The Post.
Kennedy, the son of the late attorney general and senator from New York, was previously considered to run the Environmental Protection Agency by former President Barack Obama after the 2008 election, while Trump weighed tapping the Democratic scion for a slot on a vaccine commission during his first term.
RFK Jr. ran for president in 2024 — first as a Democrat and then as an independent — vowing to change health habits in America, bashing Big Pharma and the food industry. He and his running mate Nicole Shanahan questioned the need for some vaccines and the impacts they had on the body, and were publicly confused about their ticket’s abortion platform.
At one point in his campaign, Kennedy backed legalizing abortion even at “full term,” before issuing a statement saying he backed restricting the procedure at “fetal viability,” typically defined as 24 weeks of pregnancy.
RFK Jr. has also expressed left-wing views on government-funded healthcare, telling the popular podcast “Breaking Points” in May 2023: “My highest ambition would be to have a single-payer program where people who want to have private programs can go ahead and do that, but to have a single program that is available to everybody.”
The septuagenarian’s health was publicly questioned after he disclosed in May that a parasitic worm had once been found in his brain. His sanity was also queried after he admitted in early August to leaving a dead bear in Central Park after picking it up off the side of the road in 2014.
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Kennedy was also briefly investigated after a decade-old interview with his daughter, Kick, resurfaced in which she described him decapitating a dead whale and transporting its skull from Massachusetts to their Mount Kisco, NY home around 1994.
“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” Kick Kennedy told Town & Country magazine in 2012.
But the biggest shock came after Kennedy was found in September to have been engaging in a lewd sexting relationship with political reporter Olivia Nuzzi, who subsequently was relieved of her position at New York magazine.
The tryst was not out of character for the thrice-married RFK Jr., whom The Post revealed in 2013 kept diaries detailing his extramarital sexual conquests while wed to his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy.
Kennedy endorsed Trump immediately upon ending his White House bid, deploying the slogan “Make America Healthy Again.”
He also claimed Trump had promised him “control” of public health agencies — but transition co-chair and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick had insisted Kennedy would not be in the cabinet.
At least one prominent Democrat supported the Kennedy nomination, with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, floated as a possible 2028 presidential contender, gushing on X that he was “excited by the news.”
“He helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019 and will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and FDA,” Polis said, latching on to the “MAHA” moniker.
“I hope he leans into personal choice on vaccines rather than bans (which I think are terrible, just like mandates) but what I’m most optimistic about is taking on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health.”
Polis also praised RFK Jr. for supporting caps on drug prices, calling for the FDA’s nutrition department to be abolished and backing the elimination of pesticides in agriculture.
“He will face strong special interest opposition on these, but I look forward to partnering with him to truly make America healthy again and I hope that we can finally make progress on these important issues,” Polis predicted.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who became a close friend of RFK Jr. during the COVID-19 pandemic, told The Post he “could not be happier.”
“He is a very good man, of high intelligence who fearlessly follows and exposes the truth where it leads,” Johnson said. “America will become a healthier nation under his leadership.”
“Congratulations to @RobertKennedyJr on his nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Finally, someone to detox the place after the [Anthony] Fauci era,” added libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). “Get ready for health care freedom and MAHA!”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), another lawmaker-doctor who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee celebrated Trump for tapping someone who “has championed issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure.
“I look forward,” Cassidy added on X, “to learning more about his other policy positions and how they will support a conservative, pro-American agenda.”
