MAGA won big. Now MAHA is ready to take on Washington.
President-elect Donald Trump promised Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a chance to implement his Make America Healthy Again vision and Kennedy is in the mix to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
That could turn the government’s role in public health upside down. Kennedy blames Americans’ poor health in part on a corrupt alliance among the food and drug industries and the regulators supposed to watch over them. He wants to replace the bureaucrats and overhaul the systems for overseeing pesticides, food additives and vaccines.
That could mean rules and product bans that threaten the profits of the food and pharma sectors GOP lawmakers have long deferred to — and who employ many of their constituents. MAHA expects them to put up a fight, but Trump during his campaign and the GOP lawmakers most willing to talk this week said they’re taking Kennedy’s asks seriously and are open to pursuing his policy goals through legislation or by confirming him to a top administration post.
“Bobby Kennedy can do more working with President Trump to advance America’s health than anybody really in history,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said. “If President Trump wants him, I think he could [be confirmed to the Cabinet]. Why not?”
Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Rand Paul of Kentucky seconded Johnson’s point.
Tuberville said it was “great” Kennedy is involved and said he was open to confirming him to a top job. Paul called the longtime environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, and scion of one of America’s most famous Democratic families “an important voice … for reassessing the crony capitalism that has big corporations, particularly Big Pharma, having an undue influence in regulation and approval of their drugs.”
Even Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, noted “several issues” where he and Kennedy, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination before dropping out to endorse Trump, would agree, including: “tobacco and organic agriculture.”
Wyden declined to say more about how he’d respond if Trump gave Kennedy an administration role.
It might just be that Kennedy’s critics are holding back, expecting Trump won’t go there. But holding back they are.
Lobbyists for food and pharmaceutical interests have declined to publicly criticize Kennedy or openly push for the incoming administration to change course, even as they say they are reaching out to the Trump transition team and lawmakers for reassurance.
And many GOP lawmakers — including some who represent farm country, like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — declined to comment as they were returning to Washington after a break for the election. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told POLITICO Thursday it was premature to say if she’d vote to confirm Kennedy given he hasn’t been nominated to a post yet.
Public health and medical experts have sounded the alarm on Kennedy’s ideas, particularly his claim that vaccines cause autism, as dangerous.
Kennedy declined to comment on the MAHA movement’s involvement in the incoming administration or criticisms from industry groups and health experts.
MAHA devotees aren’t declaring victory, predicting a fight with lobbyists for pharma and food companies and their allies on Capitol Hill.
Jeff Hutt, spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again PAC and former national field director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign, will brief health policy staffers on Capitol Hill next week, following a similar briefing in September from Kennedy ally Calley Means, a former food-industry lobbyist who has become a prominent voice in the debate about Trump’s health policy platform.
“Established Republicans are going to have to be the most brave for this to be successful,” Hutt said.
For now, MAHA’s acolytes are waiting to see whether Trump is brave enough to follow through on his promise to Kennedy.