NEW YORK (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A recent Wednesday was spent receiving praise from vice presidents and medical technology CEOs at glitzy events. “Make America Healthy Again” Event Organized in Washington to celebrate the success of the Secretary of Health. the movement he built.
But a different story about his tenure was unfolding online, with a small but vocal group of Kennedy supporters and former employees attacking Trump administration top advisers, claiming they were sabotaging Kennedy and distancing MAHA from the government. original purpose.
“MAHA is no longer MAHA,” Gray Delaney, a former Department of Health and Human Services official who was fired in August, said in a podcast interview that day. “I’m not there, but what I heard about what’s going on today is not the MAHA we contracted with.”
Criticism grew and the Health Secretary posted on social media Two days later, he came to the defense of his colleague and exposed the cracks that were beginning to appear within his coalition. accumulate strength and the range expands.
Some of the environmentalists and vaccine skeptics who helped propel Mr. Kennedy into the political world are frustrated by what they believe is not enough action on their priorities. They are also alarmed that the Department of Health appears to want to do so. Cooperate with pharmaceutical companiesthe motives of technology companies and other large corporations cannot be trusted.
The rift threatens the unity of a movement that has been a key ally to President Donald Trump and has given Republicans access to policy. new group of voters. These incidents occurred amid rifts in President Trump’s own “Make America Great Again” movement over issues such as: epstein file and the white house focus on global diplomacy.
Among the general public, MAHA’s popularity is skyrocketing. About two-thirds of Americans say they support it. Initiatives to “Make America Healthy Again” According to the federal government, June Ipsos poll.
“MAHA’s growth is a reflection of its success,” said HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon. “Secretary Kennedy is leading a broad coalition to make Americans healthier, guided by transparency, accountability, and measurable results. The meaning of this movement remains the same and is stronger than ever.”
Public health researchers say the genius that fueled President Kennedy’s campaign – a universal appeal to make Americans healthier – also invites competing interests and potential conflict.
“This is a story as old as politics,” said Matt Motta, a professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health. “The bigger the tent, the harder it is to keep everyone happy.”
Frustration rises from within
Kennedy, a longtime environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist who helped lead the movement against coronavirus vaccinations during the pandemic, has taken a number of steps this year to reduce vaccinations. he Raised $500 million for developmentexpelled and replaced all members of Congress. Vaccine Advisory Committee and promised an overhaul of federal programs For compensation to Americans injured in the shooting. He has also repeatedly spread false and misleading information about vaccines during his tenure.
It’s a move that excited the Kennedy administration’s anti-vaccine bastion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just this week. Website changed This would contradict the long-standing scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism.
But many Kennedy supporters, in what they call the “health freedom” movement, argue that that is not enough. Some have called for penalties for companies that profited from vaccines and mask mandates during the pandemic. Despite the scientific consensus, some want mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines removed from shelves. saved millions of lives.
In an attack on the administration last week, several MAHA influencers and two fired HHS officials suggested that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and President Kennedy’s aide Stephanie Speer were colluding to restrict President Kennedy’s ability to restrict vaccines and crack down on drug companies.
Some Kennedy supporters echoed this argument, pointing to Wiles’ career at a lobbying firm that has worked with Pfizer as evidence that he was trying to undermine Kennedy. They also shared social media posts from years ago by Spear criticizing Trump.
Kennedy defended his colleague in two posts about
“Let us focus on our extraordinary achievements to date and the monumental work that remains to be done,” President Kennedy wrote. “Let’s build our coalition, not divide it.”
The meaning of MAHA depends on who you ask.
Since debuting the “Make America Healthy Again” slogan on the campaign trail last year, Kennedy and Trump have significantly expanded the MAHA tent by inviting anyone concerned about Americans’ health, nutrition, and chronic disease to participate.
This is attracting a diverse crowd, including those interested in money, including health data startups, artificial intelligence companies, pharmaceutical companies, and even fast food companies. Steak ‘n Shake recently promoted its fries cooked in beef tallow, saying it was “proud to be part of the MAHA movement.”
At a recent MAHA event in Washington, organized by the pro-Kennedy group MAHA Action, President Kennedy and other federal health officials appeared on a stage occupied throughout the day by biotech companies such as CRISPR Therapeutics and Regeneron, brain-computer interface company Neuralink, and various AI companies and health startups. The guest list flagged some longtime Kennedy supporters.
“I wasn’t thrilled with some of the people who were there,” said Leslie Manoukian, founder and president of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, a nonprofit that promotes bodily autonomy. “I don’t believe that pills, creams, injections, medicines, chips, monitors, and devices will make America healthy again.”
MAHA Action Chairman Tony Lyons told The Associated Press that the strength of the MAHA movement “comes from our openness to ideas, our dedication to including all voices, all perspectives, more dialogue, more intense debate.”
“We don’t want to exclude anyone,” he said. “We don’t want to censor anyone.”
Ethan O’Green, who led the Colorado volunteer effort for Kennedy’s presidential campaign last year, said he was concerned about both the speakers at the event and recent social media posts by Kennedy that he met with technology leaders to talk about personal health data.
He said he wants President Kennedy to fight corruption in the U.S. health care system and take mRNA coronavirus vaccines off the market.
“It’s definitely ringing alarm bells,” O’Green said. “The grassroots MAHA people definitely don’t trust these companies, and it’s not really clear whether the government is just playing nice with them or is really holding its foot to the fire.”
Kennedy and his team thread the MAHA message through the eye of the needle
In a recent Oval Office meeting, Mr. Kennedy sided with Mr. Trump and other administration leaders to tout agreements with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to expand coverage and lower prices of weight-loss drugs.
President Kennedy has previously expressed skepticism about GLP-1 weight loss drugs, saying he wanted to focus on the root causes of the disease rather than treating the population. But he praised the deal, although he was careful to add that it is not a “silver bullet.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said during the MAHA event that it was “understandable” that the issue would receive scrutiny from President Kennedy’s base. He defended the administration as using Trump’s negotiating strategy rather than “confronting our adversaries head-on.”
Some of Mr. Kennedy’s core supporters said they hoped he could remove toxins from food and the environment and further restrict vaccines, but that the government’s deeply entrenched bureaucracy would make reform difficult. President Kennedy appeared Thursday with Western governors and said he had no intention of taking away people’s access to the vaccine.
Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute, a nonprofit organization that has garnered support from President Kennedy, said MAHA activists are idealistic but naive about the difficulties of government reform.
“It’s very important to hold on to your ideals,” he said. “But if you’re just throwing rocks, that could be a problem.”
Professor Motta said that regardless of where MAHA goes next, it is already bigger than any single policy position.
“Identities don’t disappear easily,” he said. “They are deeply ingrained, deeply embedded in our sense of self. And I would be shocked if this was a movement that went away.”
___
Associated Press writer Lynley Sanders contributed to this report from Washington.
