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Louise Thomas

Editor

Donald Trump has asked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to join his presidential transition team should he be elected in November, the former independent presidential candidate told Tucker Carlson on Monday evening.

Kennedy, who suspended his long-shot presidential campaign on Friday, has rapidly shifted gears from drawing votes away from Trump to now avowing to “fight” and “work” to get him elected.

His dedication to the Trump campaign is apparently sincere enough that he has been given an important task.

“I’ve been asked to go onto the transition team to help pick the people who will be running the government and I’m looking forward to that,” Kennedy told Carlson.

The presidential transition team is a group of key advisers, tapped by a candidate, to create a smooth transition process from one administration to the next. Those key advisers help the incoming president select more than 4,000 appointees – thousands of whom need Senate confirmation, establish a clear policy agenda and evaluate how federal agencies can assist the president’s goals.

So far, Trump has tapped two of his largest donors to join the transition team. Additionally, his adult sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. as well as vice presidential candidate JD Vance will serve as “honorary” members.

Kennedy’s addition to the team means he will have an acknowledged opinion about who may join Trump’s executive branch and how the administration shapes policy.

The former independent presidential candidate is passionate about combating chronic disease – which he blames on pharmaceutical companies. Famously, Kennedy is a vaccine skeptic and has espoused anti-vax policies that have had real consequences. 

In 2017, Kennedy claimed that Trump tapped him to join his “commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity” after meeting with the then-incoming president. But the Trump camp stopped the rumors, saying it was only a conversation and that Trump and Kennedy explored “the possibility of forming a committee on autism”.

During his interview with Carlson, Kennedy unsubstantiated claimed the American medical system is purposefully making children “sick” to profit from them. He also questioned why autism diagnoses have risen in the United States over the past 60 years.

It is unclear how much of a role Kennedy will play in Trump’s presidential transition team. The Independent has asked the Trump campaign for more information.

But Kennedy also told Carlson that after Trump was shot during a rally, a Trump adviser coordinated a conversation between the two candidates – with the possibility of Kennedy taking on a vice presidential role.

Kennedy said he wasn’t interested in the role but remained in contact with Trump who he described as “deeply interested” and “well informed” on the issues that matter to Kennedy.

For roughly an hour and a half, Kennedy spoke with Carlson about his journey from running as a Democrat, then as an independent and then to endorsing Trump, put down Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign for refusing to coordinate a meeting between him and Harris and criticized his Secret Service detail being revoked.

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