Robert F. Kennedy Jr. concedes even he cannot get 79-year-old President Donald Trump to ditch the Diet Coke and McDonald’s.
Asked on Wednesday whether he has pushed his Make America Healthy Again agenda on the rapidly aging president, the Health and Human Services secretary answered that he has done so “to no avail.”
Kennedy, 72, then walked away from the podium as laughter erupted in the crowd. However, the president’s health, which the Daily Beast has documented is deteriorating before our eyes, is no laughing matter.
Kennedy acknowledged this in November 2024, when Page Six reported he and Melania Trump were “ganging up” on the then-president-elect to get him to eat a balanced diet rather than fast food.
Trump has endorsed Kennedy’s health push, saying MAHA is “very hot.” He even hosted a White House event promoting whole milk consumption, one of many head-scratching practices his administration is pushing.
However, Kennedy suggested Wednesday that Trump is not making his own changes behind the scenes.
Trump’s shockingly unhealthy diet is well-documented. Corey Lewandowski, a top DHS adviser who was once a campaign adviser to Trump, revealed in 2017 that the then-71-year-old president’s McDonald’s order included “two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted,” a haul totaling a whopping 2,400 calories.
The president’s eating habits had not changed by September 2024. While attending a college football game, he reportedly ordered two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches with cheese, stadium hotdogs, Domino’s pizza, and a Diet Coke to his suite.
Trump called on the Golden Arches again the following month. Outside his New York City hush-money trial, staffers in dark suits were spotted carrying six large brown bags from the fast food chain into the courthouse where Trump was waiting.
Kennedy has referred to the junk food that Trump eats as being “just poison.” Meals shared by White House staff aboard Air Force One show that the plane regularly serves unhealthy options, though it’s unclear if Trump dines on the same meals as the rest of the cabin.
Trump is now less than six months away from becoming an octogenarian, and his physical health has shown signs of slipping. His right hand is often bruised, he cannot walk in a straight line at times, and he now struggles to keep his eyes open during public engagements.
The president is not keen on exercising to stay in tip-top shape, however. He said of non-golf exercise: “I just don’t like it. It’s boring.”
He added, “To walk on a treadmill or run on a treadmill for hours and hours, like some people do, that’s not for me.”
