Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggests he will have significant influence over American agricultural policy if Donald Trump is elected president – the latest in a series of roles he has envisioned for a second Trump administration.
Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer and environmentalist who ran for president as an independent before endorsing Trump, posted on social media Monday a video he filmed outside the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington.
“Corporate interests have abused the USDA Dietary Guidelines to make natural, unprocessed foods merely an afterthought. This is one reason why 70% of the American diet now consists of highly processed foods. “We’re going to change that,” Kennedy said, before listing a series of policy ideas that appear to contradict much of what Trump’s Agriculture Department did in his first term.
“If Donald Trump puts me in the building I’m standing in front of right now, it won’t be the same anymore. American agriculture will bounce back, and so will American health.”
The Trump campaign said in a statement that formal discussions about who would serve in a second Trump administration were “premature.” But the former president himself has said at recent rallies that RFK Jr. is someone who could aid his administration if he wins.
“We will make America whole again. Do you know who will do this? RFK Jr. He has some good ideas,” Trump said at a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania.
The prospect that Kennedy could influence a wide range of federal policy 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 stoking vaccine fears around the world, as well as spreading conspiracy theories about technologies such as 5G. Although it is uncommon for people to have severe reactions to vaccines, the billions of doses administered worldwide provide real-world evidence that they are safe and sound. According to the World Health Organization, vaccinations prevent up to five million deaths each year.
Trump, who is engaged in a tough presidential battle with Democrat Kamala Harris, welcomed Kennedy’s support in August after the scion of the famed Democratic political family suspended his third-party bid. He had built an unusually mighty base for an independent candidate, buoyed by anti-establishment voters and vaccine skeptics who have followed his anti-vaccine work since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although public polls provided no clear indication that he had an outsized influence on support for any of the major parties’ candidates, there were indications that Kennedy remaining in the race would hurt Trump more than Harris. In an AP-NORC poll conducted in July, about half of Republicans had a favorable opinion of Kennedy, compared with about three in 10 Democrats and a similar share of independents.
When Kennedy endorsed Trump, he hinted 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 HBO’s “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 and other agencies.
Kennedy made a series of videos this month in which he says he plans to exert his influence on a wide range of policies if Trump wins.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture – which Kennedy released on Monday, the day of his mother Ethel Kennedy’s funeral – is the primary agency responsible for supporting farmers, the health of animals and plants, and the safety of meat, poultry and eggs. It oversees federal nutrition programs that provide food to low-income people, pregnant women and newborn children, and school lunches.
However, Kennedy’s background as an environmental lawyer is unlikely to be widely popular in agriculture. He has questioned the widespread utilize of herbicides like Roundup and the vast commercial farms and animal feeding operations that dominate the industry because they are the most capable way to raise crops and animals. Bayer, maker of the weedkiller Roundup, has faced tens of thousands of lawsuits over claims it causes cancer, a charge the company denies.
“If I were Trump, I would try to silence him as quickly as possible. “Do you really think RFK would sell very well in farm country?” said John Hansen, the longtime president of the Nebraska Farmers Union.
Many of the policies pursued by Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary during Trump’s first term, favored the huge farms and ranches that Kennedy rails against.
On October 1, Kennedy released a video filmed in front of the Environmental Protection Agency in which he said he wanted to address health and environmental issues. Four days later, he announced that he was working with Trump “to transform our country’s nutrition, fitness, air, water, soil and medicine.”
“Our big priority will be to clean up the public health agencies like CDC, NIH, FDA and the US Department of Agriculture. “These agencies have become puppets of 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 break into the FDA to make America healthy again,” he said, ending the video with the line: “Get Donald Trump in the White House in November and me at the FDA.”
A Kennedy spokesman did not respond to messages seeking comment 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 between Trump and Vance was preparing for “what comes after the election.” .
Mike Haag, a Trump supporter who farms about 2,000 acres and raises about 6,000 pigs a year near the petite town of Emington, Illinois, said he doesn’t think Kennedy is a good choice for the Agriculture Department, but he will Don’t worry I will talk about it too much at this stage.
“I can’t imagine it would be a good thing, but until Trump actually says he’s going to do that, I probably wouldn’t let it go for long either,” Haag said.
Kennedy’s nonprofit anti-vaccine group 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 actions to spread misinformation, among other things about COVID-19 and COVID-19. 19 vaccinations. Kennedy bid farewell to the group when he announced his presidential candidacy, but is listed in the lawsuit as one of its lawyers.
