Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s latest health pitch has sparked a backlash from his own base.
Members of Make America Healthy Again, the movement that the health secretary helped create and steer toward the Trump administration, are at odds with its base over his recent embrace of AI.
At a MAHA Summit last week, Kennedy, 72, vowed that the technology would free Americans from “medical tyranny” and help them “fact-check their own medical advice,” the Associated Press reported.
“We’re never ever again going to be able to be dominated by public officials who tell us: ‘Trust the experts,’” said Kennedy at the invite-only summit, where OpenAI and Anthropic were among the sponsors.
Dr. Robert Malone, a MAHA ally and vaccine skeptic, told the AP that the sponsored summit was an example of how big companies run by the “broligarchs” are replacing grassroots “MAHA moms.”
“There was no representation of people that have been at the core of MAHA and its creation, whether it be physicians or patients or patient advocates,” Malone said.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Tony Lyons, who sits at the helm of the Kennedy-aligned MAHA PAC, told the AP that the organization’s focus was to “build the biggest movement we can possibly build to actually get things done.”
The Kennedy scion’s fascination with AI could, potentially, stem from his boss’s fixation.
Just last week, Trump coined the technology “super intelligence” and established what he called his “White House Accord on Super Intelligence.”
Signed by billionaire Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the document essentially states that the AI industry will not be subjected to serious, if any, government oversight.
“They’re gonna self-police,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s gonna work out very well.”
Meanwhile, Musk has claimed there’s a non-zero chance that AI will “end humanity.”
Trump’s 2024 election campaign received $290 million in donations from Musk. He has also bought and sold shares in AI companies Nvidia and Microsoft.
A White House spokesperson told the BBC that Trump’s stock portfolio presents “no conflict of interest,” and that “neither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested.”
For Kennedy, this is the latest in a series of breaks with the movement that helped propel him to power.
In February, MAHA erupted in anger after President Donald Trump issued an executive order promoting the use of glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller. Kennedy and his base have long argued that the chemical is dangerous and have backed thousands of lawsuits involving Roundup, an herbicide originally manufactured by Monsanto.
Kennedy, a lawyer, has argued that Monsanto knew glyphosate caused cancer—and helped secure a $289 million jury verdict against the company in 2018, according to The New York Times.
“The herbicide Glyphosate is one of the likely culprits in America’s chronic disease epidemic. Much more widely used here than in Europe,” Kennedy wrote on X in June 2024, while he was campaigning for president.
