Trump picks RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that he will nominate vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
If the Senate votes for Kennedy, the former independent presidential candidate will lead a sprawling department responsible for the giant health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
HHS spending and policy decisions have significant impacts on the U.S. health care system and its related businesses.
Kennedy, 70, is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the late U.S. attorney general and Democratic senator from New York who was assassinated by a gunman in Los Angeles in 1968 while running for president. He is the nephew of former President John Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.
Trump said in October that if Kennedy were elected, he would let him “go wild on health care.”
“I am pleased to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services,” Trump wrote in a post on his website Truth Social on Thursday.
“For too long, Americans have been oppressed by the industrial food complex and pharmaceutical companies that have engaged in deception, misinformation and disinformation when it comes to public health,” Trump wrote.
“The safety and health of all Americans is the most important responsibility of any government, and HHS will play a major role in ensuring everyone is protected from the harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health crisis in this country.”
Kennedy thanked Trump in a post on
“We have a generational opportunity to bring together the greatest minds in science, medicine, industry and government to end the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy wrote. “I look forward to working with HHS’s more than 80,000 employees to lift the agencies from the oppressive cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission of restoring Americans to the healthiest people in the world.”
Kennedy said in a recent interview with NBC News that Trump said he wanted Kennedy to “clean up the corruption” in federal health agencies, return those agencies to science-based policies and “make America healthy again.” Kennedy said, “There are entire departments, like the FDA's nutrition division, that have to go.”
Vaccine makers' stock prices fell early Thursday on reports that Trump would tap Kennedy for the HHS post.
Kennedy suggested last year that the Covid-19 virus, which the CDC played a major role in combating, was engineered to “attack Caucasians and Blacks” and cause less harm to “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
He previously promoted theories that autism was linked to childhood vaccinations, a link that has been debunked.
Kennedy outraged many of his siblings when he endorsed Trump in August after abandoning his long-held presidential bid.
Trump's selection of Kennedy came a day after the Republican president-elect nominated Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to be attorney general.
Gaetz's selection immediately sparked controversy, due in large part to the fact that the Justice Department, which he would lead as attorney general, had previously investigated him for possible sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.
Gaetz resigned from Congress effective Thursday, removing himself from the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee. But several Republican senators have called on that panel to release a report on its investigation into the former lawmaker.
Last week, Kennedy reportedly proposed laying off 600 NIH employees and replacing them.
His website, “Make America Healthy,” has sought suggestions from the public for more than 4,000 positions to be filled by Trump across the federal government.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., criticized Kennedy in a statement.
“Mr. Kennedy's outlandish views on basic scientific facts are troubling and should concern all parents who expect schools and other public spaces to be safe for their children,” Wyden said.
“When Mr. Kennedy comes before the Finance Committee, it will be very clear what Americans have to lose under Trump and the Republicans in Congress.”
Another Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said: “Donald Trump's choice of a notorious anti-vaxxer to lead HHS couldn't be more dangerous – a cause for grave concern for every American.”
“There is no telling to what extent a fringe conspiracy theorist like RFK Jr. could set America back on public health, reproductive rights, research and innovation, and much more,” Murray said.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who will become Senate majority leader in January when Republicans take control of the chamber, said he had no reaction to Kennedy being chosen for the HHS post.
“Honestly, the whole nomination process is just starting, so we're giving him a chance to see what happens,” Thune told reporters.
“And none of those names have been formally submitted yet, so there will be a vetting process. I have told people that these will be drafted after consultation and consent and we will make sure we process them there.”
But other Republican senators, including Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Josh Hawley of Missouri, also praised Kennedy's choice.
“Bad day for Big Pharma,” Hawley tweeted.
Andrea Ducas, vice president of health policy at the advocacy group Center for American Progress, called Trump's choice of Kennedy “nothing short of disastrous for the country” in a statement.
“His track record and open skepticism of long-standing medical science could jeopardize the incredible public health progress we have made as a nation – including the progress we have made in combating infectious diseases through childhood vaccination programs and in securing our food supplies achieved through pasteurization,” said Ducas.
“This election is particularly concerning as it comes on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which life-saving vaccines prevented countless infections and deaths.”
