Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. has revealed why he loves working for Donald Trump: because the president allows him to do things others won’t.
The vaccine skeptic and occasional conspiracy theorist made the frank admission at the Heritage Foundation—the Washington-based think tank responsible for Project 2025—as he marked one year of his “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
Describing Trump as the “most business-friendly president” since George Bush, Kennedy told the audience that the president “will not tolerate overreach and doesn’t care about vested interests, doesn’t care about offending powerful people.”
“So it is a joy to work for him because he lets me do stuff that I don’t think anybody else would,” he added.
The former Democrat also declared that trusting experts was not a feature of democracy or science, but rather, “a feature of religion and totalitarianism”.
And he ramped up his push against ultra-processed foods, describing it as “spiritual warfare” and warning that “we’re going to lose our country” if the issue wasn’t tackled.
“It’s a war at scale against cellular activity. It’s an assault on our children,” Kennedy said.
The health secretary’s frank admission about Trump raised eyebrows among critics, with some on social media describing it as “scary.”
“RFK Jr. has a vested interest in vaccine injury lawsuits—he’s profited from his anti-vax agenda in the past,“ said 314 Action president Shaughnessy Naughton, whose group aims to elect more scientists to public office.
“Now, RFK Jr. and his allies stand to make millions taking down vaccine manufacturers, while outbreaks spread like wildfire and children die. No one is surprised that the most corrupt president in history doesn’t care how far he goes, even if it means kids will get hurt.”
Kennedy, the scion of America’s most famous political dynasty, was handpicked by Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services after the former Democrat-turned-independent presidential candidate promised to support him at the 2024 election.
But he has come under fire for making sweeping changes to vaccine policies, including withdrawing federal recommendations for COVID shots for pregnant women and healthy children and replacing the CDC’s expert advisory panel with anti-vaccine activists and other hand-picked advisers.
He has also seen a massive restructuring of the Health and Human Services department, including eliminating thousands of jobs and freezing or canceling billions of dollars for scientific research.
The CDC shakeup led to a leadership exodus at the agency and claims by former CDC director Susan Monarez that she was forced out of her job for resisting the controversial policies he pushed.
“Robert F Kennedy Jr. is a threat to the health and wellbeing of every American,” his nephew Joseph P Kennedy said at the time.
But Kennedy justified the changes as “absolutely necessary” to address what he described as a “deeply, deeply embedded... malaise” within the agency.
Supporters have praised his push to tackle high rates of chronic illness through the MAHA movement and his willingness to challenge what they see as undue pharmaceutical and food industry influence.
However, others strongly disagree—and have even called for his impeachment.
“One year into RFK Jr.’s tenure, and the results are clear: our public health system is weaker, Americans are less safe and less healthy, and science has been pushed aside. He must be impeached,” said Michigan Democrat Congresswoman Haley Stevens, a ranking member of the Research and Technology Subcommittee.
