President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday he will nominate conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “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.”
If confirmed, Kennedy — an anti-vaccine activist — would oversee the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, among others.
Kennedy ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign before suspending his bid in August and endorsed Trump. Before Election Day, he said Trump had “promised” him “control of the public health agencies.”
Before being offered the HHS role, Kennedy was also looking into the possibility of being the White House “health czar.” Sources say Kennedy was seen at Mar-a-Lago multiple times over the course of the last week.
On Thursday, NBC News reported that some FDA staffers were considering quitting if Kennedy was selected for the role.
On the campaign trail last month, Trump said he was considering Kennedy for the role, saying he would allow him to “go wild” on health.
“We’re gonna let him go wild for a little while, then I’m gonna have to maybe rein him back, because he’s got some pretty wild ideas, but most of them are really good,” Trump said.
Trump and Kennedy have not always seen eye to eye with the former president turned President-elect putting the 70-year-old down when he was running as a Democrat.
“Kennedy is a Radical Left Democrat, and always will be!!! It’s great for MAGA, but the Communists will make it very hard for him to get on the Ballot,” Trump posted on his Truth Social in March.
