Donald Trump has picked vaccine sceptic and former independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr )as his health secretary, as the president-elect continues to build his new administration.
Kennedy, commonly known by his initials RFK Jr, has a history of spreading health information that scientists say is false.
If his nomination is ratified by the Senate, he will lead a huge agency overseeing everything from food safety to medical research and welfare programmes.
The announcement came amid a fresh flurry of nominations on Thursday evening, with Trump also declaring his intention to nominate North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum as his interior secretary.
Trump said he would formally announce the selection of Burgum – a former businessman who ran against the president-elect for the Republican presidential nomination – on Friday.
He had initially teased the move during a speech to supporters at Mar-a-Lago – his first since election night – saying he would be appointing Burgum to a “very big position”, before seemingly deciding to dispense with the suspense.
Other nominations announced on Thursday include:
- Former Georgia Congressman Doug Collins as secretary of veterans’ affairs.
- Todd Blanche, Trump’s defence lawyer in his “hush money” criminal trial, to serve as deputy attorney general.
- Dean John Sauer, who represented Trump in a US Supreme Court case earlier this year, as solicitor general. He will be charged with supervising and conducting government litigation in the Supreme Court.
- Jay Clayton, former chairperson of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, as US attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the most influential federal trial courts.
Trump said in a statement he was “thrilled to announce” Kennedy’s nomination.
Speculation had grown that Trump planned to hand his former rival a key healthcare role. He told supporters at his election night victory party that Kennedy wanted to “help make America healthy again”.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health”, Trump said in his statement on Thursday.
“Mr Kennedy will restore these Agencies [Health and Human Services] to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!
The nominee hails from one of the most famous families in Democratic politics as the son of US Attorney General Robert F Kennedy and nephew of President John F Kennedy, both of whom were assassinated in the 1960s.
Now aged 70, the environmental lawyer ran for president this year as an independent after initially launching a Democratic primary bid, but he eventually suspended his own campaign, endorsing Trump.
He is known for his criticism of childhood vaccines, claiming in an interview last year: “I do believe that autism comes from vaccines.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, America’s national public health agency which is one of the bodies the US health secretary oversees: “Many studies have looked at whether there is a relationship between vaccines and ASD [autism spectrum disorder]. To date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with ASD.”
Kennedy, who was addicted to heroin for 14 years in his youth, has also talked about wanting to help tackle America’s substance abuse crisis.
‘We’re now seeing an epidemic of addiction, alcoholism,” he told the Daily Mail last year. “But also just loneliness, despair, disassociation, alienation.”
During his campaign for the White House, tales of Kennedy’s personal life more often caught the news than any major policy proposals. His admission that he had suffered from a brain worm, and a separate story about his dumping of a dead bear in New York’s Central Park, dominated headlines for days.
Democrats have been quick to condemn the pick, with Senator Patty Murray calling the choice “catastrophic” and labelling Kennedy a “fringe conspiracy theorist”.
Republican Senator Susan Collins said she had found some of Kennedy’s “statements to be alarming” but said she would grant him a fair hearing during confirmation proceedings.
Trump has been selecting his top team since winning the US election last week. His party is projected to win the House of Representatives, meaning the Republicans will run the White House and all of Congress.
Marco Rubio has been nominated for secretary of state and former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence. But his decision to nominate controversial Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz has raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill.
Long an outspoken ally of Trump’s, Gaetz was the subject of an ongoing ethics investigation in the House of Representatives into allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and misuse of campaign funds.
Senator Dick Durbin, the sitting chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has asked for the findings of the report into the allegations to be published.
Gaetz is also divisive figure within his party after he forced out House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Senate Republican, said Gaetz was not “a serious nomination for the attorney general”.
Meanwhile, Trump offered new details on the role Elon Musk will play in his administration, in his first public address since his election night victory speech.
The president-elect said Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency would issue a series of reports in the coming weeks to streamline the US government.
Summary
- Donald Trump praises his pick for health secretary, RFK Jr, as a “great mind” in his first speech since election night
- Trump says the vaccine sceptic will “help make America healthy again” by protecting them from “harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives”
- Celebrating his impending return to the White House at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump told supporters the Russia-Ukraine conflict has “got to stop”
- And he unexpectedly announced Doug Burgum as his pick for interior secretary – see who’s joined Trump’s team so far here
- Trump’s choice of loyalist Matt Gaetz for attorney general continues to cause controversy, as a senior Republican senator joins calls for an investigation into alleged misconduct to be released
Former Democratic presidential candidate backs RFK Jr
Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, who challenged Joe Biden this year and is known as Oprah Winfrey’s former “spiritual advisor,” takes to social media to congratulate RFK Jr.
Speaking to ABC, she says that although she disagrees with him on some issues, she “agreed with and campaigned on” many of his points.
She also highlights what she describes as the “malicious way the system sought to remove him from the conversation”.
Williamson mentions that she offered her health policy to the Democratic Party as an alternative after Kennedy endorsed Trump, but felt their “disinterest displayed a profound lack of understanding of people’s health concerns”.
Democrat governor says RFK Jr will ‘help make America healthy again’
Speaking on X, the former House representative says Kennedy will “help make America healthy again by shaking up [Department of Health and Human Services] and FDA [Food and Drug Administration]”.
Polis cites some of RFK Jr’s promises, like capping prescription drug prices, cutting certain FDA departments, and moving away from “pesticide-intensive agriculture”, as reasons for his excitement.
An hour later, Polis wrote: “Re my thoughts on Robert Kennedy Jr, science must remain THE cornerstone of our nation’s health policy and the science-backed decision to get vaccinated improves public health and safety.”
“Lest there by any doubt, I am vaccinated as is my family,” he adds, referring to Kennedy’s vaccine scepticism.
A digest of Trump’s latest appointmentspublished at 08:0408:04
In the last 24 hours, Donald Trump has announced a several more picks for his new administration – here’s a look at the new recruits:
Health secretary: Former independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic who has repeatedly made widely debunked claims about them causing harm.
Secretary of veterans affairs: Former Georgia congressman Doug Collins, who served in Iraq with the US Air Force.
Deputy attorney general: Todd Blanche, a lawyer who represented Trump at his criminal trial in New York earlier this year, in which he was convicted of falsifying business records.
Solicitor general: Dean John Sauer, former solicitor general for the Missouri state Supreme Court. He also represented Trump in a US Supreme Court case and in the appeal of his New York civil fraud case.
US attorney for the Southern District of New York: The influential role, often called “the sheriff of Wall Street,” is given to Jay Clayton, former chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE: BBC NEWS
