Of all Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments this week, his selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is in some ways the least surprising. Yet it could prove the most controversial.
RFK Jr’s mistrust of Big Pharma and Big Food resonates widely
If confirmed, RFK Jr will oversee a sprawling federal agency of some 80,000 employees. HHS shapes which drugs Americans can access, the food they consume, and directs billions of dollars into medical research. Given Kennedy’s radical views on the downsides of processed foods, certain vaccines and widely prescribed medicines, his leadership could place a Republican administration in direct conflict with some of the most powerful forces in the modern world: Big Pharma, global agribusiness, and the planet’s largest corporations. On health, Trump’s much-vaunted “realignment” may soon collide with the immense might of corporate America.
Trump’s alliance with RFK Jr is fascinating in itself.
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