Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggests he will have significant influence over U.S. agricultural policy if Donald Trump is elected president, the latest in a series of roles he envisions for himself in a second Trump administration.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist who ran for president as an independent before endorsing Trump, posted on social media on Monday a video he filmed outside the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington.
“Corporate interests have hijacked the USDA nutritional guidelines to make natural, whole foods an afterthought. That’s one reason why 70% of the American diet now consists of ultra-processed foods. We are going to change that,” Kennedy said, before listing a series of policy ideas that appeared to run counter to much of what Trump’s Department of Agriculture did during his first administration.
“If Donald Trump gets me into the building I’m standing outside of, it won’t be like that anymore. American agriculture will come roaring back, and so will American health care.”
The Trump campaign said in a statement that formal discussions about who would serve in a second Trump administration are “premature.” But the former president himself has said in recent rallies that RFK Jr. is someone who could help his government if he wins.
“We will make America whole again. Do you know who’s going to do that? RFK Jr. He has some good ideas,” Trump said at a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania.
The prospect of Kennedy influencing a wide range of federal policies has set alarm bells ringing among advocates of sound science. Public health experts have pointed to Kennedy’s crucial role in spreading false information and sowing fear about vaccines around the world, as well as conspiracy theories about technology such as 5G. While there are rare cases of people having serious reactions to vaccines, the billions of doses administered worldwide provide real proof that they are safe. The World Health Organization says vaccines prevent as many as 5 million deaths every year.
Trump, who is locked in a tight battle for the presidency with Democrat Kamala Harris, embraced Kennedy’s endorsement in August after the scion of the famed Democratic political family suspended his third-party bid. He had built an unusually strong base for an independent candidate, powered by anti-establishment voters and vaccine skeptics who have followed his anti-vaccine work since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although public opinion polls gave no clear indication that he has an outsized influence on support for either major party candidate, there were indications that Kennedy’s entry into the race would hurt Trump more than Harris. An AP-NORC survey in July found that about half of Republicans had a favorable view of Kennedy, compared with about three in 10 Democrats and a similar share of independents.
In endorsing Trump, Kennedy suggested that Trump had offered him a job if the former president returned to the White House, but neither he nor Trump provided details. Before the endorsement, the Kennedy campaign told the HBO show “Last Week Tonight” in August that the two had discussed “the possibility of a Cabinet position – HHS,” referring to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, among other agencies.
Kennedy has made a series of videos this month saying he plans to exert his influence on a wide range of policies if Trump wins.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture — which Kennedy posted about Monday, the day of his mother, Ethel Kennedy’s funeral — is the primary agency responsible for supporting farmers, animal and plant health, and the safety of meat, poultry and eggs. It oversees federal nutrition programs that provide food to low-income people, pregnant women and young children, and school meals.
Kennedy’s background as an environmental lawyer, however, is unlikely to be universally popular in agriculture. He has challenged the widespread use of herbicides such as Roundup and the large commercial farms and feed companies that dominate the industry as the most efficient way to grow crops and animals. Bayer, maker of the Roundup weedkiller, has been hit with tens of thousands of lawsuits claiming it causes cancer, a charge the company denies.
“If I were Trump, I would try to shut him up as quickly as possible. Do you really think RFK would sell very well in farmland? said John Hansen, past president of the Nebraska Farmers Union.
Many of the policies implemented by Sonny Perdue, the secretary of agriculture during Trump’s first term, benefited the massive farms and ranching operations that Kennedy opposes.
On October 1, Kennedy posted a video filmed for the Environmental Protection Agency, saying he planned to work on issues of health and the environment. Four days later, he posted that he was working with Trump “to transform our nation’s food, fitness, air, water, soil and medicine.”
“Our big priority will be cleaning up the public health agencies like CDC, NIH, FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those agencies have become sock puppets for the industries they are supposed to regulate,” Kennedy said.
Last week, he took aim at the Food and Drug Administration in a video filmed outside the U.S. Capitol.
“I want to work at the FDA to make America healthy again,” he said, ending the video with the phrase: “Get Donald Trump to the White House in November, and me to the FDA.”
A spokesman for Kennedy did not return messages seeking comment on Tuesday.
Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said it was too early to say who would serve in a Trump administration, but that a transition leadership group of Trump and Vance was preparing for “what comes after the election.” .
Mike Haag, a Trump supporter who has about 2,000 acres of farmland and raises about 6,000 hogs a year near the small town of Emington, Illinois, said he doesn’t think Kennedy would be a good choice for the Department of Agriculture, but that he won’t worry. too much about it at this stage.
“I can’t imagine it would be any good, but until Trump actually says he’s going to do that, I probably wouldn’t let it hold much water either,” Haag said.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19. 19 vaccines. Kennedy parted ways with the group when he announced his run for president, but is listed as one of the lawyers in the lawsuit.
