WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Returning President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he will be nominating former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) in his new administration, confounding pre-election indications that the iconoclastic medical activist would only serve in an advisory capacity.
“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” Trump posted 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. 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!” Trump added.
Kennedy, nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy and son of the late Attorney General Robert Kennedy, is a longtime environmental and medical activist, who initially attempted to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination, switched to an independent bid against both Biden and Trump after months of accusing party leadership of having “rigged” the Democratic primary process against him, and ultimately dropped out and endorsed Trump in August.
As a longtime Democrat, Kennedy held and continues to hold left-wing views on most issues, including abortion and the right to life, but enjoyed support along non-traditional lines and even among some conservatives for his strong criticism of the COVID-19 lockdowns, mandates, and shots, to the point that there is some overlap between fans of Kennedy and fans of Trump, whose administration initially backed the lockdowns and who embraces the shots to this day (while opposing making them mandatory). Kennedy has also expressed opposition to “gender transition” practices for minors, including puberty blockers, hormones, and transgender surgeries.
Few expected Kennedy to actually become president, but he generated significant speculation as to whether he would draw more votes from Trump or Biden (who ultimately stepped aside in favor of nominating his vice president, Kamala Harris) and was embraced as a symbolic protest vote for many dissatisfied with the options given to them by the major parties and a way to register discontent with the bipartisan mistakes of the COVID establishment.
Trump went on to give Kennedy a role on his presidential transition team, with their alliance prompting hope that Trump might finally have reconsidered his COVID stance. Mixed signals followed, however, with Kennedy stating in his endorsement that differences remained between the two men but that they were united on “existential” issues such as chronic disease in children. He went on to focus on subjects other than COVID for the remainder of the campaign, such as “poisonous” chemical additives in common foods.
During a late October interview on CNN, Trump’s presidential transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick said Kennedy would not have a formal agency position, but would instead be given the necessary data to prove his suspicions. Lutnick also relayed how Kennedy convinced him of the thesis that conventional vaccines cause autism, but did not discuss the Trump team’s current position on the COVID shots.
Last week, Kennedy told NPR that “President Trump has given me three instructions: He wants the corruption and the conflicts out of the regulatory agencies. He wants to return the agencies to the gold standard empirically based, evidence-based science and medicine that they were once famous for. And he wants to end the chronic disease epidemic with measurable impacts on a diminishment of chronic disease within two years.”
So far, supporters of Trump are ecstatic about the pick, hailing it as a bold follow-through on his promise to shake up the federal government with non-establishment figures executing his agenda. Whether Kennedy’s appointment is confirmed by the incoming Republican Senate remains to be seen, as does the final result of his and Trump’s potentially dueling stances on COVID, the full range of his scientific views outside of COVID, and what he will ultimately do with HHS abortion policy.