President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the health of all Americans is the subject of mockery for “trying to be Guy Fieri” by touring the country eating what he calls “real food.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was ripped for sharing photos of himself posing with an array of meats at a BBQ joint in Austin, Texas, and writing, “First stop on my national BBQ tour, I visited Terry Black’s to EAT REAL FOOD.”
The post’s top reply on Thursday read, “Why is this dips--t traveling around the nation like a Food Network host?”
A commenter responded to Kennedy, “No one gives a 💩: Bobby…. We didn’t elect Trump so you all can start a social media influencer career... We elected Trump to destroy the corporate technocracy that has wiped out the middle class…”
Others accused Kennedy—who completed his photo op by wearing black gloves and a branded, black apron—of behaving more like a content creator than a Cabinet secretary.
“Our HHS content creator hard at work,” read one reply.
Another added, “Can our politicians stop trying to be Guy Fieri?”
One of the photos showed Kennedy, 72, holding a beef rib that cost $60. Others show him loading pork ribs into a smoker and him slicing through meat. Some noted that the food did not appear to be exactly “Make America Healthy Again” approved.
“Eating multiple jalapeno cheese sausages and washing them down with a large sweet tea is actually healthy now,” said Semafor journalist Maxwell Tani.
Another X user wrote, “I love BBQ as much as the next Texan does, but for the HHS Secretary to highlight central TX BBQ as something that is healthy adjacent is ridiculous. All it took for me to develop gout was a Traeger gifted to me for Christmas from my wife and 2 weeks of eating only smoked meats.”
Traeger is a company that produces wood pellet smokers and grills.
Others questioned whether a BBQ tour should be among Kennedy’s priorities.
“There is a major measles outbreak currently taking place in the country,” said one response, which detailed some of the extreme measles cases in North Carolina. “This dude is out touring BBQ joints.”
Kennedy spent the month of February generating strange press coverage for his health initiatives. The health secretary released a video with Kid Rock where the pair was shirtless as they exercised—an exhibition that even earned skepticism from Fox News hosts.
On more concrete policy issues, Kennedy got strong backlash from his MAHA supporters this month, after he sided with the president on an executive order promoting the use of a widely used weed killer called glyphosate.
“I can’t envision a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mom than this,” Ken Cook, a MAHA advocate and co-founder of Environmental Working Group, told the New York Times of Kennedy’s position.
