Donald Trump plans to hand health policy over to anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if he wins, the Republican presidential candidate said at his Madison Square Garden rally Sunday.
“I’m going to let him go wild on health, I’m going to let him go wild on the food, I’m going to let him go wild on medicines,” Trump said of his former political rival, who once claimed a doctor found a dead worm in his brain.
Kennedy is one of the nation’s leading voices peddling debunked conspiracy theories that vaccines cause autism and kill COVID-19 patients. Recently he has been hawking T-shirts that promote suet fat from sheep and cows as a healthy alternative to seed oil.
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In August, Kennedy ended a failed third-party presidential run and endorsed Trump in exchange for a spot on the former president’s transition team—and a Cabinet post if he wins.
The two have long been in talks for Kennedy to take on an official role discouraging the use of vaccines, which are widely considered history’s greatest medical achievement.
In 2019, Trump met with Kennedy to discuss putting him in charge of a “vaccine safety commission” to promote his bogus claims. But after initially granting Kennedy “high-level meetings” with federal health agencies, Trump abandoned the idea.
Now all bets appear to be off.
Based on his rally statements, Trump could appoint Kennedy secretary of health and human services or make him the head of the Food and Drug Administration. He could even give him a role in the U.S. Department of Education eliminating funding for schools that require students to be vaccinated—in other words, every public school in the country.
“The only thing I don’t think I’m going to let him even get near is the liquid gold that we have under feet… oil and gas,” Trump said at Sunday’s rally.
