Trump picks Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

West Palm Beach, Florida
CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a source familiar with the move told CNN, a choice that would add to Trump’s list of provocative picks whose confirmation processes will test the loyalty of Senate Republicans.

The source said Kennedy accepted. Several sources told CNN that Trump could announce the election as early as Thursday.

Political was the first to report the election.

“The president certainly wants to find a place for RFK Jr.,” transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News Thursday. “As for his specific position, I’ll let President Trump announce that.”

The move is notable since Trump co-chairman Howard Lutnick told CNN just days before the election that Kennedy “didn’t get a job at HHS.”

“He wouldn’t be in charge of HHS?” he was asked about “The Source with Kaitlan Collins.”

“No,” said Lutnick, “of course not.”

That response set off an internal tumult in Trump’s circle, with Trump making it clear to Kennedy that he would make the ultimate decisions.

Kennedy has been one of the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists for years, often spreading false conspiracy theories about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

He launched his own presidential campaign last year — first as a Democratic challenger to President Joe Biden, then as an independent — focused largely on reversing “the chronic disease epidemic.” He proposed several policies aimed at revising food safety and environmental guidelines, promoting holistic medicine, and restructuring public funding for vaccine research.

In the final days of Kennedy’s campaign, he met with Trump on several occasions, where the two discussed the possibility of him endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in his administration. Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and endorsed Trump the same day.

In October, Trump teased that Kennedy would oversee a public health portfolio while speaking at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, telling the crowd that he would let Kennedy “go crazy on health,” “go crazy on food ” and “get lost on medicine” if re-elected.

Since Election Day, Kennedy has promised to take major steps to reshape the nation’s public health guidelines. Last week, Kennedy said he would “immediately” begin studying the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, but promised not to “take vaccines away from anyone.” He also committed to formally recommending states and municipalities remove fluoride from public water.

Kennedy has also created significant employee turnover at public health agencies. He said in an interview with MSNBC that he would cut workers in the “nutrition divisions” of the US Food and Drug Administration. Speaking at a conference in Arizona on Saturday, Kennedy proposed replacing 600 officials at the National Institutes of Health with handpicked staff.

In an interview with NPR News after the election, Kennedy outlined his areas of focus in the Trump administration.

“President Trump has given me three instructions,” Kennedy said. “He wants the corruption and conflicts out of the regulatory agencies. He wants to return the agencies to the gold standard, empirically-based, evidence-based, science and medicine for which they were once famous. And he wants to end the chronic disease epidemic with measurable consequences for chronic disease reduction within two years.”

This is a breaking story and will be updated.