Woo-woo or common sense? Inside RFK Jr's plan to Make America Healthy Again

What will Trump's new health secretary do with his $1.7 trillion budget?

- CLAUDIA COCKERELL

Robert F Kennedy Jr has R promised to Make America Healthy Again. If all goes to plan, he will become President Donald Trump's health secretary and oversee the world's biggest public health agency. Kennedy is facing some roadblocks, however. The President's cabinet nominations must receive majority approval from the Senate, but Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed concern over Kennedy's history of pushing vaccine conspiracies and flipflopping on abortion rights. More than 15,000 US doctors signed an open letter opposing his nomination. While the Senate has waved through most of Trump's cabinet nominees, Kennedy's hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Kennedy has promised to "ignite a health revolution in America" and, with the 80,000 staffers and $1.7 trillion budget of the Department of Health and Human Services at his disposal, his firepower would be huge.

He is difficult to pigeonhole. Until 2023 he was a Democrat, like his uncle John F Kennedy. He then ran as an independent in the 2024 presidential campaign before dropping out and backing Trump. He had a long career as an environmental lawyer but is more notable nowadays as a conspiracy theorist. Many would see the ideas he promotes around health and eating as woo-woo: he backs "alternative and holistic approaches", rails against vaccines, and wants to increase access to weed and psychedelics. Yet many of his policies seem common sense, from encouraging sustainable, organic farming to fighting corporate greed.