Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke with Donald Trump earlier this month about getting a job in the White House in exchange for endorsing him as president.
The Washington Post reported Monday that in the hours after Trump’s attempted assassination last week, Kennedy received a message from the former president’s team asking to talk. At the time, Kennedy had been giving interviews about the attack.
Later that night, the two men spoke on the phone, and weighed the price of Kennedy’s support: a job in Trump’s administration. But, apparently, Kennedy’s job interview quickly fell apart.
Some on Trump’s team were reportedly concerned about offering the independent candidate an official role in return for his endorsement, according to sources who spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity. So, nothing materialized for either candidate.
A segment of a phone call between Kennedy and Trump was previously leaked on social media, in which the former president could be heard claiming that vaccines cause autism. Although Kennedy insisted before Congress last summer that he had “never been anti-vaxx,” he previously claimed that there was “no vaccine that was safe and effective,” and said he believed vaccines cause autism.
“I would love you to do something,” Trump said during that call. “And I think it would be so good for you. And so big for you. And we’re going to win. We’re going to win. We’re way ahead of the guy.” It was previously unclear what exactly Trump was referring to, but now it seems likely they were talking about a potential gig for the conspiracy-touting independent.
Kennedy apologized for the leak, and on Monday, he began praising Trump.“I have a lot of respect for President Trump for reaching out to me. Nobody from the DNC, high or low, has ever reached out to me in 18 months. Instead they have allocated millions to try to disrupt my campaign,” he said in an interview with the Post.
He added that he would continue his campaign.
A Trump spokesperson tried to downplay the significance of the meeting between the two. “President Trump met with RFK and they had a conversation about the issues just as he does regularly with important figures in business and politics because they all recognize he will be the next president of the United States,” said Danielle Alvarez.
