‘MAGA is losing their minds’: Trump’s administration pick unapologetically drags MAGAs over Trump support
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may have publicly cribbed a phrase from MAGA to “Make America Healthy Again,” but in private he’s not on their side.
Until recently, Kennedy wasn’t on Donald Trump’s side either. Kennedy has a long history of criticizing Trump, and has called him a “threat to democracy” and a “terrible president.” Since his subsequent nomination for the Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Director, Kennedy’s antipathy towards Trump appears to have evaporated overnight. Kennedy told a crowd in Arizona that Trump was the man to “protect America’s freedom” at a campaign rally.
While Kennedy may have been a harsh critic of Trump in the past, he saved his most inflammatory attacks for Trump’s supporter. In a 2016 interview from Kennedy’s radio show Ring of Fire, he can be heard applauding the suggestion that Trump’s followers were “outright Nazis” and “boot li*kers.” Kennedy also approved of a description that called MAGA supporters “belligerent idiots.” Kennedy went on to compare Donald Trump to Hitler and Mussolini.
Kennedy wouldn’t be the first Trump administration pick to publicly drag the president’s most diehard supporters. Elon Musk recently came under fire after agreeing with a user that called MAGA immigration hardliners an ableist slur in a since deleted post on X. In the ensuing civil war that occurred within the GOP over H-1b visas, Musk told his critics to “take a big step back in F*** YOURSELF IN THE FACE”. His comments in support of immigration for some were met with censure from many of Trump’s supporters, who were incited to vote for Trump due to his draconian anti-immigration policy plans.
As one Twitter user points out, Trump’s own second in command once expressed disdain for the president. Before he became Vice President, J.D. Vance called Trump “reprehensible.”
While Kennedy has criticized Trump and his supporters in the past, he has completely changed his tune in order to fall in line with the administration he may soon be part of. His “Make America Healthy Again” slogan itself is a riff on MAGA’s namesake phrase, and he has since publicly apologized for past remarks he made against the president. In a statement to CNN, Kennedy said that he “allowed [himself] to believe the mainstream media’s distorted, dystopian portrait of President Trump,” and expressed “regret” for his past comments.
While Kennedy wants to forget the past, the internet is doing his best to help him remember it. One user on X called Kennedy’s remarks against Trump and his followers “the one truthful thing he’s said.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of Trump’s most controversial nominees, and has a history of supporting untrue conspiracy theories surrounding public health. Perhaps the most infamous point of view he maintains is vaccine skepticism, and he supports the universally debunked idea that vaccines cause autism in children. Kennedy has also spread numerous other bizarre conspiracy theories, including the ideas that American tap water can turn children gay and trans and that WiFi causes cancer.
Other users say that Kennedy has become just like the very people he once criticized:
If there’s one thing Donald Trump demands from his subordinates, it’s absolute loyalty. Like many of Trump’s former critics, Kennedy appears keen to put his on display.
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