President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday said he is “thrilled to announce” Robert F. Kennedy Jr as his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in a statement on social media.
“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,” Trump wrote on Nov. 14.
The HHS, created in 1979, oversees 13 separate agencies. The most well-known of these are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health.
“If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags,” Kennedy wrote.
HHS is currently led by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. Becerra was formerly a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and California’s attorney general.
Presidential Campaign
Kennedy, 70, launched his presidential campaign in April 2023 as a candidate in the Democratic primary. In October that year, he announced he would run as an independent, citing the Democratic National Committee’s attempt to “rig” the primary and not allow competition for President Joe Biden.
Fighting chronic disease, improving children’s health, and addressing corporate capture of government agencies were a vital part of Kennedy’s campaign platform.
“I prayed to God every day for the past 19 years that America’s health crisis would be solved for the next generation. That is a major reason why I ran for president,” Kennedy told The Epoch Times.
“President Trump wants to leave as his legacy healthy children and a healthier country. Those are deep interests we share.”
On stage with Trump in August, Kennedy said, “If I’m given the chance to fix the chronic disease crisis and reform our food production, I promise that within two years, we will watch the chronic disease burden lift dramatically.”
During a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Oct. 27, Trump proclaimed about Kennedy: “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 the medicines.”
Reform Ideas
In recent days, Kennedy has said he will eliminate the nutrition departments of the FDA because they are not protecting children and recommended to Trump that pharmaceutical advertising on television be banned.
A staunch advocate for regulating chemicals in food, Kennedy recently suggested that McDonald’s should use tallow fat instead of seed oils to make its French fries healthier. He has chastised American food manufacturers for using ingredients like artificial dyes.
Kennedy has said that if given the chance, he will dismiss the officials who lead those agencies and appoint replacements who will “turn them back into healing and public health agencies.”
On Nov. 6, Kennedy said that the FDA should be trimmed.
“There are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA … that have to go—that are not doing their job. They’re not protecting our kids,” Kennedy told MSNBC.
Fighting “corporate capture of government agencies” and ending the chronic disease epidemic are related, Kennedy said on Sept. 30 at Rescue the Republic, a day-long rally that brought 6,500 supporters of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement to the National Mall in Washington.
“We enriched these corporations and their captive agencies. And now, they want to go and commoditize all of the things we value in our lives,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy believes little will change until giant or private corporations stop controlling the FDA, CDC, and the Department of Agriculture.
Children’s Health Defense
Kennedy, who is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, is the founder of Children’s Health Defense (CHD). The 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, according to its website, works to end “childhood health epidemics by eliminating toxic exposure.”
The CHD website highlights potential problems linked to vaccines administered to children under the recommendation of the CDC. The organization questions whether that vaccine regimen is linked to children’s health problems.
