Donald Trump on Thursday chose anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy as his health secretary, in the incoming Republican president’s latest provocative nomination.
Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he was “thrilled” to name Robert F. Kennedy.
Fast forward to since his election last week, Trump has launched a campaign of political shock and awe, launching an administration designed to overthrow and in some cases literally destroy the American government.
Several of Trump’s picks for top posts — including a TV news anchor at the top of the Pentagon and an aide embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations for attorney general — have unsettled Washington.
Robert F. Kennedy, the scion of the famous political family known as RFK Jr., is a longtime environmental campaigner who abandoned a modest bid for the presidency to support Trump against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Donald Trump has said that he wants Robert F. Kennedy “Leads the Way” in Transforming Health Care.
Kennedy, 70, who has posted shirtless photos to boast about his weight-lifting abilities, argues that fundamental changes are needed in the way Americans eat, exercise and use medications.
If confirmed by the Senate, which is controlled by Trump’s Republican Party, he would take over the Department of Health and Human Services, a massive institution with a budget of nearly $2 trillion.
In his statement, Trump said Kennedy would “make America great and healthy again!”
The 78-year-old president-elect echoed many of Kennedy’s remarks, saying, “Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and pharmaceutical companies that have engaged in deception, misinformation and disinformation.”
Trump said, “Mr. Kennedy will restore these agencies as symbols of the traditions and transparency of gold standard scientific research to end the chronic disease epidemic.”
The nomination would face serious opposition, given Kennedy’s history of promoting medical conspiracy theories — including the discredited claim that childhood vaccines cause autism — and saying the Covid-19 vaccine was deadly. .
brain worm
He is burdened with colorful and even bizarre stories about his personal life.
These include his statement that once a worm “entered his brain and ate a part of it and then died.”
An admission this year that he was behind the long-unsolved mystery of a dead bear dumped in New York’s Central Park a decade ago raised eyebrows, as did later revelations that the married politician was married to a well-known journalist. Was in a sexting relationship with.
Trump still has to select Treasury and Commerce heads to implement tax and trade policy. He has also not revealed his preference for education – a department he wants to eliminate.
Trump’s first hires – including Secretary of State Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a traditional conservative on foreign policy – ​​were praised.
But then Trump frustrated Democrats and even some in the ultra-loyal Republican Party because he appeared to prioritize personal loyalty above expertise or expediency.
A major blow was the nomination of Matt Gaetz – the leader of the far-right Republicans in Congress, who was implicated in a years-long criminal investigation into sex trafficking – as the incoming attorney general.
Gaetz has denied wrongdoing and has never faced charges but is still being investigated by the House Ethics Committee.
The decision came after Trump’s nomination of former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard — who met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin — to take charge of the country’s most sensitive secrets as director of national intelligence. For.
Trump recruited Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense – a war veteran with no experience running large organizations but a host on Trump’s favorite Fox News Network.
clearing the deck
Trump and his allies have vowed that his second term will be about removing federal officials who served as a restraining influence on his populist, right-wing agenda during his first term.
Gaetz’s appointment would give Trump the benefit of a fiercely partisan position at the top of the Justice Department, whose election means immunity from serious criminal investigations.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to go after various political opponents.
Although Republicans are expected to gain a three-seat majority in the incoming Senate, Gaetz is widely disliked and will struggle to win confirmation.
Gabbard’s nomination also caused an uproar because of her anti-American, pro-Russian statements, including her suggestion that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was the result of “legitimate security concerns”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
