Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Democratic presidential candidate-turned-independent candidate-turned-Donald Trump campaign surrogate, proposed a massive overhaul of the federal health system with himself leading the charge, potentially as White House “health czar.”

What You Need To Know

  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proposed a massive overhaul of the federal health system under Donald Trump's administration with himself leading the charge, potentially as White House “health czar”
  • Kennedy Jr. said he believes he “may be more effective in the White House, health czar or something like that” than he would be as Health and Human Services Secretary, proposing massive changes to federal policy on the fluoridation of water and vaccines

  • He also pitched eliminating entire departments and purging employees within the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  • Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Kennedy has long relied on junk science and misinformation to make his claims about the health of certain foods, vaccines, medications and fluoride

One day after the election, Kennedy Jr. gave multiple interviews from President-elect Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, where he had gathered allies in recent days to watch election results come in and plot his next administration. In the interviews with NBC News and NPR, Kennedy Jr. said he believes he “may be more effective in the White House, health czar or something like that” than he would be as Health and Human Services Secretary, proposing massive changes to federal policy on the fluoridation of water and vaccines.

He also pitched eliminating entire departments and purging employees within the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A longtime leader in the promotion of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and falsehoods, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy left his family’s party to mount an independent bid for president before joining forces with Trump. The president-elect has said Kennedy is going to “go wild on health” and oversee “the health of women, men and children, and he is so good and so into it.” Trump also said on Sunday that he was open to Kennedy’s proposals to ban certain vaccines and advise local water authorities to remove fluoride from drinking water. 

“He's been very specific at what he said. He wants me to do three things. One, clean up the corruption of the agencies, particularly the conflicts of interest that have turned those agencies into captive agencies for the pharmaceutical industry and the food industry, the other industries that they're supposed to be regulating,” Kennedy told NBC News on Wednesday. “Number two, to return those agencies to the gold standard science, the empirically based, evidence-based medicine that they were famous for when I was a kid. And number three, to make miracles again, to end the chronic disease epidemic.”

Kennedy said “we have not decided yet what my official role is going to be,” but that he planned to meet with Trump transition officials to discuss later on Wednesday to discuss the subject.

While there is undoubtedly potential conflicts of interests at agencies like the FDA and the CDC, Kennedy has long relied on junk science and misinformation to make his claims about the health of certain foods, vaccines, medications and fluoride.

The prospect of Kennedy's influencing a wide array of federal policy has raised alarm bells among advocates of sound science. Public health experts have pointed to Kennedy's pivotal role in spreading false information and sowing fear around the world about vaccines, as well as conspiracy theories about technology like 5G. While there are rare instances when people have severe reactions to vaccines, the billions of doses administered globally provide real-world evidence that they are safe. The World Health Organization says vaccines prevent as many as 5 million deaths each year.

Vaccines recommended in the United States and mandated for many public school children are widely deemed to be safe and effective by the broader scientific community, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Mayo Clinic, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and dozens of independent medical organizations across the country and the globe. Kennedy is a longtime, prominent proponent of debunked public health claims surrounding vaccines and has been accused of spreading harmful misinformation, including in the Pacific island nation of Samoa where one expert said his false claims “resulted in the amplification of the epidemic and an increased number of children dying” from measles. Kennedy has denied any responsibility to the growth of the anti-vaccine movement in Samoa.  

And Kennedy has continued to promote the long-debunked claim that vaccines are linked to childhood autism, a claim that has no scientific merit and that the Autism Science Foundation has said “will absolutely increase the chance that a child could contract and die from a vaccine-preventable disease.”

Kennedy claimed “if vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away” in his NBC News interview, but continued to question the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines. Trump has also said he would defund public schools with vaccine mandates.

“There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” Kennedy said on a podcast in July.

Last year, Kennedy claimed “COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately. COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

The anti-vaccine nonprofit he founded brought two appeals to the Supreme Court to try to reverse the FDA’s authorization for COVID-19 vaccines for children and undo a Rutgers University requirement that most students be vaccinated to attend courses on campus. Both appeals were rejected in June. 

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

“I think the faster that it goes out, the better. I'm not going to compel anybody to take it out, but I'm going to advise the water districts about their legal liability, their legal obligation to their constituents,” Kennedy Jr. said about his plans for fluoride. 

In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.

Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.

Cabinet positions are required to be confirmed by the Senate, but even with Republicans set to control the chamber, Kennedy’s long history of controversies — and career as a liberal environmental lawyer — might make him a difficult candidate to make it through the Senate unscathed. On Wednesday, however, some GOP senators left the door open to possibly approving Kennedy if Trump wants him to be Health and Human Services secretary or another Senate-confirmable role. 

“Well, I think the Senate is going to give great deference to a president that just won a stunning — what I think is an electoral college landslide when all is said and done — and a mandate,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said on CNN when asked about Kennedy.  “Presidents who are given a mandate to govern deserve from the Senate the opportunity to surround themselves with people who are going to help them execute their policies.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who plans to step down and let a new member take charge while keeping his seat representing Kentucky, said “I’m not going get into that subject” when asked if he would support Kennedy or billionaire Elon Musk serving in Cabinet positions. McConnell, a polio survivor, used his personal story to urge people to get vaccinated during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Polio, an incurable disease once thought to be eradicated in the United States due to the world-historic success of the polio vaccine, reemerged with a handful of cases in the U.S. in recent years amid the growth in the anti-vaccine movement. A man in New York was left paralyzed after contracting the virus in 2022.

On a podcast appearance in July, Kennedy falsely linked the polio vaccine to cancer and said he couldn’t say if it caused “more death than it averted.” The World Health Organization estimates the lives of millions of people globally were saved by the polio vaccine and that vaccinations efforts resulted in more than 20 million people “able to walk today who would otherwise have been” paralyzed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.