The Heritage Foundation on Monday launched an advertisement campaign supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The ad, first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, touts Kennedy as “fearless,” and promotes his policy agenda to make America healthier and combat the chronic disease crisis. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and former Democratic presidential candidate with deep party roots, launched an independent presidential bid in 2023 before bowing out of the race to endorse now-President-elect Donald Trump in August 2024.
“One word to describe Bobby Kennedy: fearless,” the video’s narrator says. “He was when he took on big corporations and big government. Now, he is ready to work with President Trump to take on special interests, reform a broken system, and make America healthy again.”
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President-elect Donald Trump selected Kennedy to lead the HHS on Nov. 14, stating that Kennedy “will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services signals a bold step toward restoring trust, accountability, and integrity in our nation’s public health agencies,” Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF. “His commitment to ending corruption and addressing chronic disease resonates with millions of Americans who question why Big Pharma continues to grow richer while the health of Americans deteriorates. His vision to depoliticize science and medicine, paired with his dedication to protecting individual freedoms, lays the groundwork for a stronger, healthier future—but achieving this will require taking on entrenched interests. RFK Jr. has the backbone to see it through.”
The Heritage Foundation’s latest ad is a part of a wider $1 million campaign launched in November that “advocates for prompt confirmation” of Trump’s second-term cabinet picks and “educates the American people about the confirmation process.” The think tank recently released separate ads promoting some of Trump’s other cabinet picks, including Pete Hegseth, Defense secretary nominee, and Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI.
The president-elect and Kennedy have pledged to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) by enacting sweeping measures to overhaul the country’s food system, remove conflicts of interest from federal regulators and tackle the rising issue of obesity in adults. Kennedy’s pledge to make America healthier coincides a dramatic 24-year drop in the public’s perception of the U.S. healthcare system.
Kennedy also vowed to tackle the chronic disease crisis that has plagued Americans and driven up health-related costs. The U.S. spent more per capita on health care in 2022 than any other similar country, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. In 2023, total health care spending reached $4.9 trillion, which is roughly $14,570 per person.
The prospective HHS secretary has also been a critic of the COVID-19 vaccines, and has said he would investigate any potential links between the childhood vaccine schedule and autism. He has also called for the U.S. to reduce the high levels of fluoride in drinking water, calling the mineral a “dangerous neurotoxin” and an “industrial waste.”
While Trump’s decision to nominate the former independent presidential candidate for a key cabinet position has drawn criticism from some corporate media outlets and left-leaning healthcare organizations, supporters have advocated in favor of Kennedy’s MAHA agenda and have pledged to help secure his confirmation as HHS secretary.
Ahead of Trump announcing the HHS selection, Kennedy told NPR in a November interview that the president-elect had given him “instructions” to remove “corruption and the conflicts” from regulatory agencies and “end the chronic disease epidemic.”
“President Trump has given me three instructions,” Kennedy told NPR in November. “He wants the corruption and the conflicts out of the regulatory agencies. He wants to return the agencies to the gold standard empirically based, evidence-based science and medicine that they were once famous for. And he wants to end the chronic disease epidemic with measurable impacts on a diminishment of chronic disease within two years.”
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