The claims were backed by Trump himself who spoke about his plans for Kennedy’s would-be appointment Sunday night at his Madison Square Garden rally. “I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines,” Trump said.

At a virtual event on Monday, Kennedy offered his own version of Trump’s statement, “The key that President Trump has promised me is control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others … and then also the USDA, which, you know, is key to making America healthy,” Kennedy said.

It’s unknown whether Kennedy or Trump were referring to the HHS secretary position, but Senate confirmation would be required to appoint Kennedy to a Cabinet position. Steven Chung, Trump campaign communications director, said “formal discussions of who will serve” in a Trump administration are “premature,” but reportedly did not deny Trump’s promise to Kennedy.

Stefanie Spear, a spokeswoman for Kennedy, said, “He [Trump] has asked him to address the chronic disease epidemic, which is affecting more than 50% of Americans and is having a devastating impact on the nation’s health, economy and global security.”

Kennedy endorsed Trump this summer after calling off his independent presidential bid. A platform Kennedy was largely running on was “Make America Healthy Again,” but Kennedy’s past of vaccine skepticism and other controversial opinions could pose hurdles to gaining Senate confirmation.

Kennedy has recently focused on chronic disease issues like obesity, diabetes, kidney disease, autoimmune conditions, cancer, and addiction. He wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “Americans are becoming sicker, beset by illnesses that our medical system isn’t addressing effectively.”

Kennedy has also made comments about ending NIH infectious disease research, and posted about gutting the FDA. For pharmaceuticals, he’s said he wants to match American drug prices to Europe’s and review direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising guidelines on TV.

However, despite having some ideas that have been endorsed by former Trump CDC director Robert Redfield, there are concerns that appointing Kennedy would paint the administration as anti-science due to his anti-vaccine ideals.

Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general under Trump’s presidency, said Kennedy could “spread misinformation and take us back to the dark ages in regards to vaccine-preventable diseases,” but Adams hoped Kennedy would focus on “promoting overall well-being” instead.

One policy of Kennedy’s that is finding agreement across some health experts is his food policy. While he has slated goals to address diet-related chronic illness, removing toxic chemicals out of the food supply, and eliminating conflicts of interest between industry and government, there are still doubts on whether they can actually be accomplished.

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Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, has served in a health policy role in every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan’s. He is concerned about Kennedy’s “pseudoscience” and potential Trump policies.

“Everything that we see and know about what a Trump administration would look like would devastate public health in this country,” Osterholm said. “Devastate it.”