Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may be poised to play a key health role in the next administration should Donald Trump get re-elected, according to two people close to the campaign and familiar with the plans.
The current thinking is that the role for the former independent candidate would be spearheading what one of the people described as the “Operation Warp Speed for childhood chronic disease,” referring to the title of the Covid vaccine development project during Trump’s first term.
Kennedy is well-known for his criticism and skepticism of the Covid vaccine and other immunizations.
Kennedy, for example, has repeatedly claimed that vaccines are linked to autism, even though for decades numerous studies across several countries have debunked the association. Concerns about a potential link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine have persisted for years after a now-retracted 1998 paper claimed a connection.
There is significant common ground between the Trump campaign and Kennedy, on preventing conditions such as obesity and diabetes in children, a person familiar with the plans said, stressing that plans are still fluid and nothing has been decided.
Obesity and diabetes are major issues in the U.S. Obesity affects nearly 15 million children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; thousands of kids and teens have Type 2 diabetes, a condition linked to obesity, and numbers are increasing. On the campaign trail, both Trump and Kennedy have pitched a “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who has been an open critic of Kennedy, said that, despite the missteps, “Operation Warp Speed” during Trump’s term was “the single greatest achievement” of the administration.
However, he wasn’t sure how Warp Speed would apply to childhood chronic diseases — or in what way Kennedy would be helpful.
“I think his science denialism makes him the wrong person for any kind of progress,” Offit said.
In an interview Wednesday, former CDC director Robert Redfield compared the project to President John. F. Kennedy’s pledge to set foot on the moon.
“He didn’t know how it would work but he believed it was possible and he made it happen,” Redfield told NBC News. “Sometimes seeing the possible and being a leader and leading the nation to act can make things that many people think are not possible become reality.”
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt also emphasized that there still are “no formal decisions” about positions in a potential administration, but that Trump “has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to make America healthy again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children,” referring to type 2 diabetes.
“President Trump will also establish a special presidential commission of independent minds and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses,” she added.
At a rally in Nevada Thursday night with Kennedy, Trump said Kennedy was “going to work on health and women’s health.” He said he told Kennedy that he wanted him to “look at the food in the food supply and what we put on the food.”
“He can do anything he wants,” Trump added.
Kennedy, for his part, said Trump told him to “end the chronic disease epidemic.”
