The longtime environmental lawyer and former presidential candidate forged a critical alliance with President-elect Donald Trump over the fall, which is centered on a “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Their partnership has been driven by Kennedy’s goal to end the country’s “chronic disease epidemic” and to make sure people have access to clean food and water.

He believes issues including rising obesity rates and declining life expectancy have been fueled by “corrupt” government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, which he says have worked for the benefit of the pharmaceutical industry.

As he begins to flesh out his plans for the next four years helming health and environmental policy at the top of the Trump administration, Kennedy revealed on Wednesday that “President Trump has asked me to do three things” after he takes the oath of office in January. 

“1. Clean up the corruption in our government health agencies. 2. Return those agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science. 3. Make America Healthy Again by ending the chronic disease epidemic,” the environmental litigator wrote in a post to X. 

President Trump has asked me to do three things:
1. Clean up the corruption in our government health agencies.
2. Return those agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science.
3. Make America Healthy Again by ending the chronic disease epidemic. pic.twitter.com/WHMOsD0CiI

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 6, 2024

Hours before Kennedy made the social media post, Trump reserved a special call-out for the environmental advocate during his victory speech following the election. Calling RFK Jr. “a great guy,” Trump said, ”he really means that he wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go to it.”

Although it is clear that Kennedy will have a large role in Washington, D.C., it remains hazy what exactly his title will become on Jan. 20. The president-elect has consistently pledged that RFK Jr. will be a part of the administration, while Kennedy announced during a town hall earlier this month that Trump has asked him to “reorganize” key agencies such as the CDC and NIH. During a Fox News interview on Nov. 4, Kennedy said that Trump had asked him what role he wanted but that he was still thinking about how he could be the “most effective.” 

Saying his team was still in the works of “developing a proposal,” Kennedy downplayed the possibility of taking on a Cabinet position at the Department of Health and Human Services. However, he noted that he would assuredly be “in the White House,” making a top advisory role the most likely. 

“One of the things I’m going to advise Donald Trump to do in order to correct the chronic disease epidemic is to ban pharmaceutical advertising on TV,” he said at an Arizona rally with Trump earlier this month. 

The move would hold massive implications for pharmaceutical companies, which pour billions every year into promoting prescription drugs on television. With the U.S. being one of only two countries worldwide that allow the practice, Kennedy has argued that it has proven detrimental to the quality of life standards, saying that while people across the U.S. spend more than anyone else in the world on prescription drugs, they have the worst health outcomes.

Kennedy has often vowed to break corporate power in Washington, pledging to purge conflicts of interests he says are running rampant between government agencies in charge of health policy and the pharmaceutical industry. 

“Eighty percent of NIH grants go to people who have conflicts of interest. These agencies, the FDA, the USDA, the CDC, all of them are controlled by huge for-profit corporations. 75% of the FDA’s funding doesn’t come from taxpayers. It comes from pharma. And pharma executives and consultants and lobbyists cycle in and out of these agencies,” he said in August before adding: “A sick child is the best thing for the pharmaceutical industry.

Kennedy disclosed during an NBC News interview on Wednesday that while he doesn’t have the authority to eliminate federal agencies, he plans to clear out “entire categories” of departments at the bureaucracies such as the FDA and the CDC.

“They’re not protecting our kids,” he said of the FDA’s nutrition department before arguing that the agencies were setting health policies that put children at risk of chronic disease and obesity. 

“We have 1,000 ingredients in our foods that are illegal in Italy and other countries in Europe. And the reason for that is corruption in the food industry and agriculture. Big agricultural producers control the FDA, so they’re not worried about public health. They’re worried about advancing mercantile interests,” he added during another recent Fox and Friends appearance as he outlined why his goal is to “get the corruption out of the agencies.”

Kennedy was also pressed on his position on vaccines during the interview. He has long been condemned by critics as an anti-vaxxer, though he has often said that he himself is fully vaccinated and argued that he is for “safe” vaccines. Over the course of his decadeslong career, he has often expressed worry that “perverse” incentives have pushed government health agencies to work in tandem with pharmaceutical corporations, enabling them to produce, approve, and distribute vaccines that could have harmful side effects. 

His concerns echo another top member of the incoming Trump administration, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. 

After recently ruminating about the negative symptoms he experienced after taking the COVID-19 vaccine, Vance told podcast host Joe Rogan: “I know people who are public figures who have had serious vaccine side effects who do not want anyone to talk about it. Absolutely. They’re scared of being labeled an anti-vaxxer.”

Joe Rogan and JD Vance have a conversation about his experience with the vaxx.

“I was as sick as I’ve ever been…” pic.twitter.com/mvohGxnyeX

— SULLY (@SULLY10X) November 1, 2024

Speaking on Wednesday about his position on taking vaccines, Kennedy said, “People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information. So I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”

“I want the best science for every vaccine,” he added. 

This wasn’t the first time Kennedy and Vance agreed. Vance has repeatedly reiterated the health advocate’s pet talking points on the campaign trail, indicating a strong White House alliance all the more likely to come to fruition. 

“We have all of these weird childhood diseases that we did not have three decades ago or five decades ago,” Vance said during a Michigan rally last month. 

“One of the people that I’m really proud has endorsed this campaign is RFK Jr.” the Ohio senator said, adding, “Bobby Kennedy has this slogan that is so true, and there’s a lot of real depth built into it. Make America healthy again … Let’s make our water cleaner and our air cleaner. That’s something Donald Trump and I believe in.

Kennedy had tried once before, back in 2017, to push a safety vaccine agenda during Trump’s first term. As he was ultimately rebuffed, the environmental advocate has been pressed on why he believes Trump’s overtures this time around are real.

“He’s kept his word about everything so far. He did things that I didn’t ask him to do,” Kennedy told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo recently, as he noted that Trump had appointed him to help lead his presidential transition team.

President Trump and I will Make America Healthy Again. @realDonaldTrump has told me that he wants to leave as his legacy to the American people the end of the chronic disease epidemic. pic.twitter.com/A3KwZ9uIVh

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 2, 2024

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Kennedy also said that due to being unfamiliar with the political landscape at the start of his first term, Trump said he “was immediately surrounded the day after the election with all these big corporate people and corporate lobbyists.”

“[Trump] said, I’m not doing that this time. I care about my legacy. I want to leave a country that’s healthier. This is an existential threat to the American people,” Kennedy told Cuomo.