The longtime environmental advocate and former presidential candidate forged a critical alliance with President-elect Donald Trump in the fall that is centered on the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Their partnership was driven by Kennedy’s goal of ending the country’s “chronic disease epidemic” and ensuring that people had access to clean food and water.

He believes the problems, including rising obesity rates and declining life expectancy, have been fueled by “corrupt” government agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, which he says have worked to benefit the pharmaceutical industry.

As he begins fleshing out his plans for the next four years leading health and environmental policy at the top of the Trump administration, Kennedy revealed Wednesday that “President Trump asked me to do three things” after taking the oath of office. January.

“1. Clean up the corruption in our government health agencies. 2. Return those agencies to their rich tradition of standard, evidence-based science. 3. Make America Healthy Again by Ending the Chronic Disease Epidemic,” the environmental lawyer wrote in a post at X

President Trump has asked me to do three things:
1. Clean up the corruption in our government health agencies.
2. Return those agencies to their rich tradition of standard, evidence-based science.
3. Make America Healthy Again by Ending the Chronic Disease Epidemic. pic.twitter.com/WHMOsD0CiI

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 6, 2024

Hours before Kennedy made the social media post, Trump booked a special call for the environmental lawyer during his post-election victory speech. Calling RFK Jr. “a great guy,” Trump said, “he really understands that he wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go at it.”

While it’s clear that Kennedy will have an important role in Washington, DC, it remains unclear what his title will become on January 20. The elected president a pledged that RFK Jr. would be part of the administration, while Kennedy announced during a town hall Earlier this month, Trump asked him to “reorganize” key agencies like the CDC and NIH. During a Fox News interview on November 4, Kennedy said that Trump had asked him what role he wanted, but that he was still thinking about how he could be “most effective”.

Saying his team is still working to “develop a proposal,” Kennedy downplayed the possibility of a cabinet position at the Department of Health and Human Services. However, he noted that he will definitely be “in the White House,” most likely doing a top adviser role.

“One of the things I will advise Donald Trump to do to correct the chronic disease epidemic is to ban pharmaceutical advertising on television,” he said at a Trump rally in Arizona earlier this month.

The move would have massive implications for pharmaceutical companies, which invest billions each year in promoting prescription drugs on television. As the US is one of only two countries in the world to allow the practice, Kennedy argued that it has proven detrimental to quality of life standards, saying that while people in the US spend more than anyone else in the world on over-the-counter drugs prescription, they have the worst health outcomes.

Kennedy has often vowed to crack down on corporate power in Washington, promising to eliminate conflicts of interest that he says run between government agencies responsible for health policy and the pharmaceutical industry.

“Eighty percent of NIH grants go to people who have conflicts of interest. These agencies, the FDA, the USDA, the CDC, are all controlled by huge for-profit corporations. 75% of FDA funding does not come from taxpayers. It comes from pharma. And pharmaceutical executives, consultants and lobbyists come in and out of these agencies,” he said in August before adding: “A sick child is the best thing for the pharmaceutical industry.

Kennedy revealed during a NBC News interview Wednesday that while he doesn’t have the authority to eliminate federal agencies, he plans to free “whole categories” of departments from bureaucracies like the FDA and the CDC.

“It’s not protecting our children,” he said of the FDA’s nutrition department, before arguing that the agencies are setting health policies that put children at risk of chronic disease and obesity.

“We have 1,000 ingredients in our food that are illegal in Italy and other European countries. And the reason is corruption in the food industry and agriculture. The big agricultural producers control the FDA, so they are not concerned about public health. They are concerned about promoting commercial interests,” he added during another recent one The fox and friends while outlining why his aim is to “take corruption out of agencies”.

Kennedy was also pressed on his position on vaccines during the interview. He has long been condemned by critics as an anti-vaxxer, although he has often said that he himself is fully vaccinated and has argued that he is for “safe” vaccines. During his decades-long career, he often expressed concern that “perverse” incentives pushed government health agencies to work in tandem with pharmaceutical corporations, allowing them to manufacture, approve and distribute vaccines that could had harmful side effects.

His concerns are echoed by another top member of the incoming Trump administration, Vice President-elect JD Vance.

After recently ruminating about the negative symptoms he experienced after taking the COVID-19 vaccine, Vance said podcast host Joe Rogan: “I know people who are public figures who have had serious side effects from the vaccine and they don’t want anyone to talk about it. Absolute. They are afraid of being labeled an anti-vaxxer.”

Joe Rogan and JD Vance have a conversation about his experience with vaxx.

“I was as sick as I’ve ever been…” pic.twitter.com/mvohGxnyeX

— SULLY (@SULLY10X) November 1, 2024

Speaking Wednesday about his position on vaccination, Kennedy said: “People should have a choice, and that choice should be informed by the best information. So I’m going to make sure there are scientific studies of safety and efficacy, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product will be good for them.”

“I want the best science for every vaccine,” he added.

It wasn’t the first time Kennedy and Vance agreed. Vance has repeatedly reiterated the health advocate’s talking points throughout the campaign, pointing to a strong White House alliance all the more likely to materialize.

“We have all these weird childhood diseases that we didn’t have three decades ago or five decades ago,” Vance said during a rally in Michigan last month.

“One of the people I’m really proud to have supported this campaign is RFK Jr.” the Ohio senator said, adding, “Bobby Kennedy has this slogan that’s so true and there’s a lot of real depth to it. Make America Healthy Again… Let’s make our water cleaner and our air cleaner. That’s something Donald Trump and I believe in.

Kennedy had tried once beforein 2017 to promote a safe vaccination agenda during Trump’s first term. As it was ultimately rejected, the environmental lawyer was pressed on why he believes Trump’s proposals are real this time.

“So far he has kept his word on everything. He did things I didn’t ask him to do,” Kennedy said NewsNation’s Recently, Chris Cuomo noted that Trump has appointed him to help lead his presidential transition team.

President Trump and I will make America healthy again. @realDonaldTrump he told me he wanted to leave as a legacy to the American people an end to the chronic disease epidemic. pic.twitter.com/A3KwZ9uIVh

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 2, 2024

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Kennedy also said that because he was unfamiliar with the political landscape at the start of his first term, Trump said he was “immediately surrounded the day after the election with all these big corporate people and corporate lobbies.”

“(Trump) said, I’m not doing that this time. I care about my heritage. I want to leave a healthier country. This is an existential threat to the American people,” Kennedy told Cuomo.