The longtime environmental lawyer and former presidential candidate forged a critical alliance with President-elect Donald Trump in the fall, focusing on his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Their partnership was shaped by Kennedy’s goal of ending the country’s “chronic disease epidemic” and ensuring people have access to clean food and water.

He believes problems such as rising obesity rates and declining life expectancy are fueled by “corrupt” government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, which he says work to benefit the pharmaceutical industry.

“President Trump asked me to do three things,” Kennedy, who began detailing his plans for the next four years by overseeing health and environmental policy at the height of the Trump administration, said after taking the oath of office on Wednesday. Fireplace.

“1. Clean up corruption in our state health institutions. 2. Return these institutions to a rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science. 3. Make America Healthy Again by ending the chronic disease epidemic,” the environmental plaintiff wrote. to mail To X.

President Trump asked me to do three things:
1. Clean up corruption in our state health institutions.
2. Return these institutions to a rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science.
3. Make America Healthy Again by ending the chronic disease epidemic. pic.twitter.com/WHMOsD0CiI

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) 6 November 2024

Hours before Kennedy made the social media post, Trump made a special appeal to the environmental defender in his post-election victory speech. Calling RFK Jr. “a great guy,” Trump said, “He’s implying that he really wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go on that.”

While it’s clear that Kennedy will have a major role in Washington, D.C., it remains unclear exactly what his title will be on January 20. committed to Kennedy announced that RFK Jr. will take part in the management during town hall Earlier this month, Trump asked him to “reorganize” key agencies like the CDC and NIH. during Fox News report On Nov. 4, Kennedy said Trump had asked him what role he wanted, but he was still thinking about how he could be “most effective.”

Kennedy, who said his team was still “developing a proposal,” downplayed the possibility of taking on a Cabinet post at the Department of Health and Human Services. However, he stated that he will definitely be “in the White House” and will take on a high-level advisory role.

“One of the things I would advise Donald Trump to do to fix the chronic disease epidemic is to ban drug ads on television,” he said at a rally with Trump in Arizona earlier this month.

This move will have major implications for pharmaceutical companies, which spend billions of dollars each year promoting prescription drugs on television. With the US being one of only two countries worldwide to allow the practice, Kennedy argued that it had proven to be detrimental to quality of life, arguing that people in the US spend more on prescription drugs than anyone else in the world, yet they themselves allow the practice. has the worst health outcomes.

Kennedy has frequently vowed to break corporate power in Washington and eliminate conflicts of interest that he says have become commonplace between government agencies responsible for health policy and the pharmaceutical industry.

“Eighty percent of NIH grants go to people with conflicts of interest. These agencies, the FDA, the USDA, the CDC, are all controlled by large for-profit corporations. 75% of the FDA’s funding does not come from taxpayers. It comes from pharmacy. “And pharmaceutical industry executives, consultants and lobbyists move in and out of these agencies,” he said. in question He added in August: “A sick child is the best thing for the pharmaceutical industry.

Kennedy announced during a meeting NBC News He said in an interview Wednesday that while he doesn’t have the authority to eliminate federal agencies, he plans to purge “entire categories” of departments in bureaucracies like the FDA and CDC.

“They are not protecting our children,” he said of the FDA’s nutrition department, arguing that the agencies had previously set health policies that put children at risk of chronic disease and obesity.

“There are 1,000 ingredients in our food that are illegal in Italy and other European countries. This is due to corruption in the food industry and agriculture. Large agricultural producers control the FDA, so they are not worried about public health. They are worried about advancing commercial interests,” he said. he added at another recent meeting Fox and Friends It appeared as he outlined why his aim was to “take corruption out of agencies”.

During the meeting, Kennedy’s stance on vaccines was also emphasized. He has long been accused by critics of being anti-vaccine, but he frequently says he is fully vaccinated and argues in favor of “safe” vaccines. During his decades-long career, he frequently expressed concern that “perverse” incentives were pushing government health agencies to work with pharmaceutical companies, allowing them to produce, approve and distribute vaccines that could have harmful side effects.

His concerns echo those of Vice President J.D. Vance, another senior member of the incoming Trump administration.

After ruminating about the negative symptoms he recently experienced after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, Vance said Podcast host Joe Rogan: “I know public figures who have serious side effects from vaccines and don’t want anyone to talk about it. Definitely. “They fear being labeled as anti-vaxxer.”

Joe Rogan and JD Vance talk about their experiences with vaxx.

“I was sicker than I had ever been…” pic.twitter.com/mvohGxnyeX

— SULLY (@SULLY10X) November 1, 2024

Speaking on Wednesday about his stance on getting the vaccine, Kennedy said: “People should have a choice and that choice should be made with the best information. So I will make sure that the scientific safety studies and effectiveness are available and that people can make individual assessments about whether this product will be good for them.” .”

“I want the best science for every vaccine,” he added.

This wasn’t the first time Kennedy and Vance agreed. Vance has repeatedly reiterated the health advocate’s favorite talking points on the campaign trail, making the case that a strong White House alliance is more likely to bear fruit.

“We have all these weird childhood diseases that we didn’t have thirty years ago or fifty years ago,” Vance said at a rally in Michigan last month.

“One of the people I’m really proud of for supporting this campaign is RFK Jr.” The Ohio senator said: “Bobby Kennedy has a very true slogan and there is a lot of real depth in it. Let’s make America healthy again… Let’s make our water cleaner and our air cleaner. This is something Donald Trump and I believe in.

There was Kennedy I tried once beforein 2017 during Trump’s first term to push the safe vaccine agenda. Ultimately rejected, the environmental advocate was pressed on why he believed Trump’s proposals this time around were real.

“So far he has kept his word on everything. “Kennedy did things I didn’t want him to do,” he said. NewsUlus Chris Cuomo recently stated that Trump appointed him to lead the presidential transition team.

President Trump and I Will Make America Healthy Again. @realdonaldtrump He said he wanted to leave the end of the chronic disease epidemic as his legacy to the American people. pic.twitter.com/A3KwZ9uIVh

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 2, 2024

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Kennedy also said that due to his unfamiliarity with the political landscape at the beginning of his first term, Trump was “immediately surrounded by all these big business people and corporate lobbyists the day after the election.”

“(Trump) said, I’m not going to do that this time. I care about my legacy. I want to leave a healthier country. This is an existential threat to the American people,” Kennedy told Cuomo.