West Palm Beach, Florida (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a choice that would add to Trump’s list of provocative picks whose confirmation processes will test the loyalty of Senate Republicans.
Trump on Thursday announced the selection, confirming CNN’s earlier reporting, saying he was thrilled to share the pick.
“The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” Trump said in a post on X. “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!”
Kennedy, who accepted the offer Thursday, has been one of the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists for years and has frequently spread false conspiracy theories about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. He has been in Palm Beach, Florida, for several days following the election.
In a statement Thursday, Kennedy emphasized the importance of ridding the department of “corruption” and vowed to “provide Americans with transparency” so they can make individual health decisions.
“I look forward to working with the more than 80,000 employees at HHS to free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth,” Kennedy said.
If confirmed as the top public health official in the country, Kennedy would oversee the operations of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. Though Trump has moved away from seeking to fully repeal Obamacare, it remains to be seen whether he and his health officials will release a plan to improve the law, as Trump promised on the campaign trail.
Kennedy would also be involved in any changes Trump and congressional Republicans attempt to make to Medicaid, which provides health care coverage for low-income Americans. In Trump’s first term, the agency tried to institute work requirements, which was largely blocked in court, and lawmakers unsuccessfully sought to reduce the program’s funding. The program, which covers nearly 72.5 million Americans, is expected to be a target in Trump’s second term, especially as the GOP seeks savings to offset the tax relief they hope to implement.
Kennedy’s selection, first reported by Politico, is a notable one given that only days before the election, Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick told CNN that Kennedy was “not getting a job for HHS.”
“He would not be in charge of HHS?” he was asked on “The Source with Kaitlan Collins.”
“No,” Lutnick said, “of course not.”
That answer set off an internal uproar in Trump’s orbit, with Trump making clear to Kennedy that he would make the ultimate decision.
Kennedy had launched his own presidential bid 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 numerous policies aimed to overhaul food safety and environmental guidelines, promote holistic medicines and restructure public funding for vaccine research.
In the final days of Kennedy’s campaign, he met with Trump on multiple occasions, in which 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 that same day.
In October, Trump teased Kennedy would oversee a public health portfolio while speaking at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, telling the audience he would let Kennedy “go wild on health,” “go wild on the food” and “go wild on medicines” if reelected.
On Thursday, shares of prominent vaccine makers plunged after Trump’s announcement that he’d selected Kennedy for the top health post.
Kennedy, since Election Day, has pledged to take major steps to reshape the nation’s public health guidelines. Last week, Kennedy said he would “immediately” begin studying vaccine safety and efficacy but promised to not “take vaccines away from anybody.” He also committed to formally recommending states and municipalities remove fluoride from public water.
Kennedy has also floated significant employee turnover at public health agencies. He said in an interview with MSNBC that he would cut workers in “the nutrition departments” at the US Food and Drug Administration. While speaking at a conference in Arizona on Saturday, Kennedy proposed replacing 600 officials at the National Institutes of Health with hand-picked staff.
In an interview with NPR News following the election, Kennedy laid out his areas of focus in Trump’s administration.
“President Trump has given me three instructions,” Kennedy said. “He wants the corruption and the conflicts out of the regulatory agencies. He wants to return the agencies to the gold standard, empirically-based, evidence-based, science and medicine that they were once famous for. And he wants to end the chronic disease epidemic with measurable impacts on a diminishment of chronic disease within two years.”