The White House is frustrated with the “mess” of communications coming from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services, according to a report.
Trump administration sources told Axios that Kennedy loyalist Stefanie Spear—his current deputy chief of staff and former presidential campaign press secretary—is being blamed for the department’s slow and unclear messaging. According to the outlet, the White House has been concerned enough to step in and handle media requests for the department.
Critics told Axios the problem stretches back to January when Spear stopped all HHS external communications. As a result, the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report was not sent out for the first time in decades.
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On February 26, after a child in West Texas was the first to die in a measles outbreak, it took two days for RFK Jr. to speak on the issue, and he did so in an X post. A more official statement came two days later—the day before Kennedy posted again on social media to celebrate a hike he’d taken in the Coachella Valley.
“The White House was like, ‘Where the f--- is the statement?‘” a White House official involved in the response to the measles outbreak told Axios. “CNN was blaring this chyron about how Kennedy was silent, and there was just nothing from the department because of Stefanie.”
Trump administration officials also told the site that the problem is so pronounced that an alternative, parallel press team is working concurrently with Spear’s team to firm up media output and relations with reporters. “This shouldn’t be the White House’s job, but here we are,” a White House adviser told Axios.
They added that the White House directly handled the response to news that the country’s top vaccine official dramatically quit his job late Friday, making public a blistering resignation letter targeted at Kennedy. Spear was unreachable when the news broke, leaving the White House to approve the HHS response, the adviser claimed.
Before that, the White House nixed a Spear directive not to engage with the media on leaked news that the CDC planned to investigate a link between vaccines and autism—a long-time RFK Jr. lightning rod—according to the report.
A Kennedy-approved directive named Operation Stork Speed—which aims to make baby food healthier—also received little press coverage because the agency didn’t coordinate with the media enough, the report claims, adding that the White House was annoyed.
The department has also allegedly had to contend with friction between Trump administration officials and career HHS employees, who are generally more liberal.
“It’s a mess over there,” another White House aide told Axios. “The [career employees] hate us and are always undermining us and leaking stuff to the media. And then there’s this small circle of trust with Stefanie that hasn’t expanded.”
Spear and HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Beast that “anonymous sources are attempting to create conflict where none exists.”
“The White House has a great relationship with Stefanie and HHS. We work closely day in and day out to Make America Healthy Again,” he said. “It’s disappointing that bitter, anonymous sources are attempting to create conflict where none exists.”
