Kennedy’s health plan apparently has some hiccups.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is continuing to express interest in being Health and Human Services secretary in President-elect Donald Trump’s fresh Cabinet — despite a push for him to have a broader health advisory role — The Post has learned.
Kennedy is being “stubborn” in his push for HHS, one source told The Post, with a second source saying he’s becoming difficult to deal with in discussions, as he’s an honorary chair in Trump’s transition team.
The Post previously reported that neurosurgeon and 2016 presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is also angling for the HHS spot.
Trump transition co-chair — and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO — Howard Lutnick has previously said Kennedy would not be getting a spot in the Cabinet and would instead be given a position dealing with health “data.”
“No, of course not,” Lutnick told CNN in October. “He’s not going to be the secretary, no.”
“That’s not what he wants to do,” he added. “He just wants data, and he wants to prove things [about vaccines] are wrong. And he says, ‘If I can’t prove they’re wrong, that’s fine. But if I can, I can save millions of Americans’ lives and make their lives better.’”
Kennedy would have to be approved by a Senate majority for a Cabinet position, and that could prove difficult, given his stance on vaccines.
But the Democrat-turned-independent, who endorsed Trump in August after suspending his presidential bid, has spoken bullishly about how much power he would have over health agencies.
“[What] Trump has promised me is — is control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others, and then also the USDA,” Kennedy said in late October in video obtained by CNN.
“We’ve got to get off of seed oils, and we’ve got to get off of pesticide-intensive agriculture.”
The former president has praised Kennedy over his views on health during his campaign events, saying he would let him “go wild” on several topics.
“I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines,” Trump announced during his Madison Square Garden rally.
Trump adviser Brian Hughes, who is a part of Trump transition’s team, told The Post that there would be “nothing” coming out before “any announcement or decision” from the former president about his HHS choice.
A Kennedy rep did not respond to an inquiry from The Post.
