Trump’s RFK Jr. pick will cause trouble

Of all Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments this week, his selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is in some ways the least surprising. Yet it could prove the most controversial.

RFK Jr’s mistrust of Big Pharma and Big Food resonates widely

If confirmed, RFK Jr. will oversee a sprawling federal agency of some 80,000 employees. HHS shapes which drugs Americans can access, the food they consume and directs billions of dollars into medical research. Given Kennedy’s radical views on the downsides of processed foods, certain vaccines and widely prescribed medicines, his leadership could place a Republican administration in direct conflict with some of the most powerful forces in the modern world: Big Pharma, global agribusiness and the planet’s largest corporations. On health, Trump’s much-vaunted “realignment” may soon collide with the immense might of corporate America.

Trump’s alliance with RFK Jr. is fascinating in itself. The two men struck a deal over the summer. RFK Jr. suspended his independent presidential effort and endorsed Trump the day after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when “Kamalamania” was at its peak. In return, Trump all but confirmed at various rallies that RFK Jr. would play a significant role in his administration — provided he steered clear of energy policy.

“Bobby, stay away from the liquid gold,” Trump quipped during his victory speech on November 5. “We have more liquid gold than any country in the world. Other than that, go have a good time, Bobby.”

Kennedy and his vice presidential nominee, Nicole Shanahan, have been similarly explicit about their agenda: Make America Healthy Again. In a video entitled “Enough is Enough,” released last month, Kennedy pledged to tackle the consumption of US food products he believes are fueling alarming rises in obesity, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease and Alzheimer’s.

“The Democrats, who claim to care about healthcare, have stood by while other countries banned these poisons that make our kids sick,” he declared. “President Trump and I are going to stop the mass poisoning of American children.”

Free-marketeers may dismiss such rhetoric as typical East Coast puritanism or hippie woo woo. They argue that the elite, who can afford expensive organic food, want to deprive the lower classes of cheap, sugary pleasures. Yet RFK Jr.’s mistrust of Big Pharma and Big Food resonates widely — among Democrats, independents and a growing number of conservatives. The “crunchy con” movement, first identified by Rod Dreher in 2006, is in the ascendancy.

RFK Jr has written a book about Anthony Fauci. It is a strong attack on the leadership of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an agency of HHS, throughout the Covid pandemic. Kennedy accuses Fauci, the then director of NIH, of conducting “a historic coup d’état against Western democracy,” among other things. So, if RFK does indeed land the role, we can expect a series of exposés over what Fauci and other leading western scientists did in 2020, which are bound to be explosive.

Kennedy also has a key ally in Tucker Carlson, the influential TV commentator and Trump confidant, who shares his concerns about the sickening of America. Carlson regularly draws attention to the rise of dementia, the decline in sperm counts across the West, and the harmful impacts of processed sugars, seed oils, the contraceptive pill, and more.

Carlson and Kennedy have been inspired by Casey and Calley Means, siblings who this year brought out a book, Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health. Casey Means, a doctor, argues that the food-industrial complex is causing significant health issues in children, while the drug-industrial complex profits by treating them into adulthood. Expect her to be given a role in RFK Jr.’s HHS.

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.