President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in a controversial choice that would elevate the prominent vaccine skeptic to a position overseeing the nation’s leading health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump named Kennedy to the role via a post on Truth Social Thursday afternoon.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to public health,” Trump wrote. “Mr. Kennedy will restore these agencies to the traditions of gold standard scientific research, and beacons of transparency, to end the chronic disease epidemic, and to make America great and healthy again!”
A Democrat turned independent candidate for president, Kennedy threw his support behind Trump after ending his own campaign. At rallies, Trump pledged to let Kennedy “go wild” on healthcare, seeming to embrace Kennedy’s vision to go after the food and drug industries, which he has long criticized.
For years, Kennedy has crusaded against the widespread adoption of approved vaccines for infectious diseases, citing disproven links to autism and other health conditions. His appointment to a role overseeing both the FDA, which approves vaccines, and the CDC, which develops recommendations for their use in specific populations, is likely to raise alarms among many public health officials.
News of Kennedy’s nomination, which was first reported by Politico before the stock market’s close, sent shares in vaccine makers like Pfizer, Moderna and GSK down sharply. The XBI, an exchange traded fund that tracks the broader biotechnology industry, also fell.
Kennedy has also called for the elimination of fluoride from the country’s water supply, targeting an initiative that’s been credited with improving the dental health of Americans.
More recently, Kennedy has said Trump is tasking him with ridding the FDA and other regulatory agencies of “corruption,” an accusation for which he’s offered no evidence. In posts to X, he’s claimed he will end the “FDA’s war on public health,” citing what he describes as regulator’s “aggressive suppression” of stem cells, raw milk, nutraceuticals and the malaria pill hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 treatment.
Trump’s announcement of Kennedy as his pick for HHS follow’s the president-elect’s nomination of other controversial figures to prominent posts within his administration, including former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Fox News host Peter Hegseth as secretary of defense.
Presidential cabinet nominations, among them HHS secretary, must be confirmed by a majority of the Senate. If confirmed, Kennedy would succeed Xavier Becerra, who’s led the department under President Joe Biden.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information.
