At a Heritage Foundation event on February 9, 2026, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said working in President Donald Trump’s administration is “a joy,” mainly because Trump lets him push policies no other leader would go for.
Kennedy mentioned this while celebrating the first year of the Make America Healthy Again initiative. He said Trump is the most pro-business president since George W. Bush and praised how he handles regulations and corporate issues. Kennedy added that Trump won’t put up with extra red tape and doesn’t mind stepping on the toes of powerful groups.
The health secretary, whom Trump picked to run Health and Human Services after the 2024 election, also made bold comments about experts and authority. He suggested that relying too much on experts is like following religion or totalitarianism, which sparked backlash from scientists and public health advocates.
Kennedy, who used to be a Democrat and even ran for president as an independent before joining Trump, spent his first year rolling out major changes to U.S. health policy. One of the biggest was pulling back federal COVID vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy kids, a move that worried many medical experts who say the science strongly supports vaccination.
In June 2025, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with his own picks—many of whom are known for questioning vaccines. This dramatically changed how federal vaccine recommendations are made and marked a big break from the usual reliance on epidemiologists, immunologists, and other specialists.
At the Heritage Foundation event, Kennedy also described his fight against ultra-processed foods as a kind of spiritual battle. He warned that the country could be in real trouble if the issue isn’t handled, calling it a huge war on our cells and an attack on kids.
Critics spoke up right away after Kennedy’s comments about Trump. Shaughnessy Naughton, who leads 314 Action—a group that tries to get more scientists elected—claimed Kennedy has made money from pushing anti-vaccine ideas. She said he and his allies could make millions by going after vaccine manufacturers.
Since taking over, Kennedy has led a major shake-up at HHS. Around 20,000 jobs have been cut (half of those were voluntary), and about $1.8 billion in NIH research grants have been frozen or canceled, including $500 million in BARDA contracts tied to mRNA vaccine development. These changes have hit the CDC, NIH, FDA, and other agencies hard.
The turmoil at the CDC led to many top officials leaving. Former CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was fired in August 2025 after just 29 days, later told Congress that Kennedy wanted her to approve all vaccine policy changes ahead of time without reviewing scientific evidence and to fire long-time vaccine experts. She said she refused both, and that’s why she was fired.
Kennedy defended the overhaul, saying it was necessary to fix what he called serious stagnation at the CDC. He argued the agency had become too tied to pharmaceutical companies and needed a complete reset to better serve the public.
In September 2025, Joseph P. Kennedy III—RFK Jr.’s nephew and a former congressman—said Kennedy was “a threat to the health and well-being of every American,” showing just how divided the Kennedy family is over his approach to public health and vaccines.
Representative Haley Stevens also slammed Kennedy’s leadership, saying he has weakened the nation’s public health system and put people at risk. In December 2025, she filed articles of impeachment accusing him of damaging public health, driving up healthcare costs, and hurting major research institutions, including those in Michigan. It was one of the strongest moves Congress has taken against him.
The department’s decisions directly affect the health of hundreds of millions of Americans.
Kennedy’s appointment was seen as an unusual choice by Trump. His time in office has been full of controversies about possible conflicts of interest and whether he or people close to him might financially benefit from his policy decisions.
Supporters say Kennedy is raising important concerns about chronic illness in the U.S. and pushing back against what they believe is too much pharmaceutical influence over public health. They argue that rising obesity, diabetes, and other long-term conditions show the current system isn’t doing enough.
The Make America Healthy Again initiative, which Kennedy mentioned during his speech, has turned into a slogan for people who want food policy changes, less reliance on medication, and what they call a more holistic approach to health.
The level of Trump’s involvement in Kennedy’s work became clearer during testimony from former CDC Director Susan Monarez in September 2025. She said Kennedy told her he spoke with Trump “every day” about changing the childhood vaccine schedule.
Trump’s support for Kennedy was even more obvious after a tense Senate Finance Committee hearing in September 2025, where senators from both parties criticized Kennedy’s leadership. Instead of backing away, Trump publicly defended him, saying, “I like the fact that he’s different.”
