Trump’s First Election Promise Is Making Us Sick (Literally)

Donald Trump is already musing about repainting the walls of the federal government post-inauguration—and it appears to involve allowing notorious vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. free rein over the nation’s health policies.

Delivering his first speech after being declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election, Trump promised a cheering crowd that Kennedy’s name would have a place in his second administration.

“​​He’s going to help make America healthy again,” Trump said as the crowd began to chant “Bobby.”

“He’s a great guy, he really means it, he wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go to it,” he continued. “I just said, but, Bobby, leave the oil to me. We have more liquid gold—oil and gas—we have more liquid gold than any country in the world. More than Saudi Arabia.”

“Bobby, stay away from the liquid gold. Other than that, go have a good time, Bobby,” Trump added.

During an interview with NBC News’s Dasha Burns on Monday, Trump refused to promise that he wouldn’t ban vaccines, instead outlining his intentions to talk to Kennedy and “talk to other people” and make a decision. “He’s a very talented guy and has strong views,” Trump said of Kennedy.

During the same interview, Trump signaled that he would be open to removing fluoride from all public water systems—a 1945 public health decision that has reduced cavities and tooth decay in adults and children by as much as 25 percent, according to the American Dental Association.

Last week, Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick insisted that vaccines are “not proven” and shared that he had a more than two-hour conversation with Kennedy, a notorious vaccine conspiracy theorist who has been promised “control” of several federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, under a second Trump administration.

Lutnick claimed that Kennedy—who has admitted that his brain has been eaten by worms and who had to apologize for tying vaccine conspiracies to what happened in Germany during the Holocaust—has plans to strip even long-standing vaccines from the market.

Vaccines have proven to be one of the greatest accomplishments of modern medicine. The jabs are so effective at preventing illness that they have practically eradicated some of the worst diseases from our collective culture, from rabies to polio and smallpox, a fact that has possibly fooled some into believing that the viruses and their complications aren’t a significant threat for the average, health-conscious individual.