An escalating civil war is tearing apart Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA movement as it struggles to make an impact in the midterms.
A rebellion has been brewing inside the “Make America Healthy Again” ecosystem, with a growing faction accusing the movement’s leaders of selling out to business interests seeking influence with Kennedy.
The infighting appears to be choking off much-needed fundraising for Republicans from the coalition that helped power the party during the last election, Politico reports.
Much of the ire has centered on Kennedy’s friend, Tony Lyons, who runs a sprawling network of MAHA nonprofits and political groups. In March, Lyons promised to raise $100 million to help elect Republicans allied with Kennedy, but his MAHA Political Action Committee has raised just $1 million so far, according to Politico, amid the movement’s internal feud.
Lyons came under fresh fire after he hosted an invite-only summit on Tuesday at Washington’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel, sponsored by Anthropic and OpenAI, two AI giants driving the data center boom that has alarmed many Kennedy supporters over its health effects.
Walmart, whose shelves are packed with the ultra-processed foods that have become a central target of the MAHA movement, also sponsored the summit.
“What is shocking is how quickly a movement built to challenge that system appears to have reproduced it,” Robert Malone, an anti-vax scientist and former Kennedy adviser, wrote in a Substack essay reflecting on the summit.
Malone had advised Kennedy on vaccine policy until quitting in March after clashing with Kennedy’s staff.
Stephanie Stock, president of MAHA organization Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, blasted the summit as evidence that movement leaders are cozying up to corporations while abandoning grassroots efforts.
Stock, who was backed by Lyons’ MAHA Institute in her unsuccessful Ohio state House bid, partly blamed her loss on receiving no money from the group.
“These guys are throwing galas, and we’ve just kind of had it,” Stock told Politico. “You look up at the sponsors, and you see Anthropic and Walmart, drug companies, and you’re like, ‘What in the world?’”
“These outside entities that have branded themselves as representative of the MAHA voting bloc… they are not helping us,” she said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to both the Department of Health and Human Services and Lyons’ MAHA PAC for comment.
“It’s a civil war out there,” said Larry Sharpe, the libertarian politician who worked on Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.
He called Lyons’ decision to support only Republicans in the midterms a “strategic mistake” that could hurt the movement, saying that “it’s almost like a split between Eastern Orthodox and Catholics…They both believe in the afterlife. They both believe Jesus is divine, but they’ve gone different ways.”
