Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched a website he says will help “crowdsource” nominees for more than 4,000 potential government posts in Donald Trump’s upcoming administration. And while the anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist who abandoned his independent bid for president and threw his support behind the Republican nominee doesn’t have an official position in Trump’s Cabinet, that hasn’t stopped him from acting like he is in charge.
Kennedy endorsed Trump after his failed presidential campaign in what can only be described as an interminably long-winded speech. Since then, Kennedy has said Trump “promised” him he will be a health czar of sorts, with “control of the public health agencies.”
But RFK Jr’s new crowdsourcing website goes well beyond public health positions.
There are categories such as:
-
Economy
-
Technology
-
Labor
-
Education
-
Energy and Infrastructure
Anyone is free to nominate people for various positions, and those who log into the site can then “vote” for their favorite. So far, RFK Jr. has a vote lead in the category of "America's Health." He is followed by holistic chiropractor and osteopath Sherri Tenpenny, whose medical license was suspended after she told Ohio lawmakers that COVID-19 vaccines turned humans into magnets.
For more insight into the quality of the “crowdsourcing” going on, look at the “Education” category, where Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk leads the voting, followed by finance bro and failed GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Right-wing podcaster Candace Owens is in fifth place—yes, the woman who said the only problem with Hitler was that “he had dreams outside of Germany.”
Kennedy’s history of vaccine skepticism worries most public health experts. You need only look at Florida for a cautionary tale, where a similarly anti-science approach was taken by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ surgeon general pick, Joseph Ladapo, to deleterious public health results.
The man whose brain housed a dead worm remains vague about how he would “investigate” what he describes as “vaccine safety.” Kennedy has promised to get rid of water fluoridation treatments—something most experts consider disastrous for public health.
Trump’s transition team did not comment when asked whether or not the president-elect authorized Kennedy’s unorthodox staffing effort.
As of the writing of this story, Trump has yet to announce his plans for the department of Health and Human Services. However, Kennedy’s harebrained ideas have reportedly led Trump’s advisers to quietly try and distance das führer from the vaccine skeptic. Will the dead bear-cub hoaxer end up in a made-up department like Elon Musk and Ramaswamy, where he gets a chance to play pretend government? We can only wait and see.
English (US) ·