Trump Taps RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate controversial FDA critic and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his secretary for Health and Human Services.
“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 said in a Truth Social post. “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!”
Many critics are already placing RFK Jr. in the same “unqualified” category as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who was named 11/13 as Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice, and they, as well as other Trump nominations, may face an uphill battle to win Senate confirmation. They point to environmental lawyer RFK Jr.’s lack of medical background and his anti-vaccine and conspiracy theorist beliefs as possible obstacles to advancing the nomination.
As HHS secretary, RFK Jr. could easily meddle in FDA matters, which he telegraphed during the presidential campaign would be high on his list. In a post late last month on X (formerly Twitter), he had this to say: “FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can't be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”
And as recently as last week, RFK continued his criticism of FDA and officials working there, going as far as saying that there are some “departments” and “some categories of workers” that have to go because they are not doing their job. Shortly after Trump’s election victory, RFK Jr. appeared on MSNBC and promised to root out the “corruption” at FDA and other health agencies. “I can get the corruption out of the agencies,” he told MSNBC. “That’s what I’ve been doing for 40 years. I've sued all those agencies. I have a PhD in corporate corruption, and that's what I do. And once they’re not corrupt, and once Americans are getting good science and are allowed to make their own choices, they're going to get a lot of healthier.”