Trump will nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS secretary

Washington — President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday in a social media post that he’ll nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” he said in a post on X. He said Americans have been “crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation” about public health, and Kennedy would “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”

Kennedy has a long record of criticizing vaccines, including spreading misleading claims about their safety.

He has vowed to combat an “epidemic” of chronic diseases and believes that large drug and food companies are to blame for a broad swath of ailments. Kennedy has claimed a number of health issues have worsened due to federal inaction, including autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, sleep disorders, infertility rates, diabetes and obesity. He has also urged removing fluoride from drinking water.

Kennedy would need to be confirmed by the Senate. His odds of clearing a Senate led by Democrats would have been low, given his long record of what the party called “anti-science, fringe public health stances,” but with Republicans in the majority come January, Trump’s nominees will have an easier path to confirmation. 

Despite the expected opposition to Kennedy’s nomination — along with other controversial choices to lead national security agencies and former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to lead the Justice Department — Trump has told associates in recent days he is standing by his pick for health chief. 

“No one can talk him out of it,” one of the sources familiar with the pick said Thursday.

Trump promised during the campaign to let Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic and former environmental lawyer, “go wild” on issues relating to health, food and medicine. 

“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 medicines,” Trump said in the final days before the election. “The only thing I don’t think I’m going to let him even get near is the liquid gold that we have under our feet … sometimes referred to as oil and gas.” 

As a co-chair of Trump’s transition, Kennedy has been vetting a slate of staffers who could fill top positions throughout the Trump administration. He has said he hopes “to have every nutritional scientist” across the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture “fired on Day One.”

Kennedy, who faced a costly and time-consuming process to appear on general election ballots as an independent candidate, ended his longshot bid for the White House in August and endorsed Trump. 

Kennedy said there were three issues that convinced him to endorse Trump: free speech, the war in Ukraine and what he called the “war on our children.” He said processed foods, chemicals and obesity were destroying the health of children in the U.S. 

At an August rally with Kennedy, Trump vowed to establish a panel to investigate chronic health problems and childhood diseases, as well as establish an independent presidential commission on assassination attempts that would be tasked with releasing all of the remaining documents related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Kennedy is the nephew of the late president and the son of the late senator, attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. 

Fin Gómez

Fin Gómez is the political director for CBS News. Fin oversees the day-to-day political coverage for CBS News. He has covered five presidential political cycles and multiple presidential campaigns. He was formerly a member of the CBS White House unit.