In October, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stood outside the United States Department of Agriculture headquarters and railed against the state of US agriculture. Big farms, pesticides, and feedlots were all part of a system that he said was destroying the health of Americans. “When Donald Trump gets me inside the building I’m standing outside right now, it won’t be this way anymore,” he said in a video uploaded to YouTube.
President Donald Trump did not get RFK Jr. inside the USDA. Instead he nominated his erstwhile opponent as Secretary of Health and Human Services, a role which will put Kennedy—if confirmed—in charge of vaccine policy, science funding, and public health.