Former President Donald Trump said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have a “big role in the administration” if he wins Tuesday, telling NBC News in a phone interview that he is open to some of his more controversial ideas.
Kennedy, who ran for president as an independent this year before he dropped his bid and endorsed Trump, has long spread conspiracies and falsehoods about vaccines and other public health matters. He has, for example, frequently claimed that vaccines are linked to autism, even though studies have debunked that theory for decades.
Asked Sunday whether banning certain vaccines would be an option during a second term, Trump didn’t rule it out.
“Well, I’m going to talk to [Kennedy] and talk to other people, and I’ll make a decision, but he’s a very talented guy and has strong views,” Trump said.
Trump declined to talk about specific roles Kennedy might play in a second administration, but in recent public appearances, he has made it clear that envisions a prominent role for him.
“He can do anything he wants,” Trump said at an event Thursday in Arizona.
He said Kennedy was “going to work on health and women’s health,” and two sources close to the Trump campaign have told NBC News he might play a prominent role in battling “chronic childhood disease.”
On Friday, Kennedy tweeted that on its first day in office, a Trump administration would push to ban fluoride in water, claiming it is “industrial waste” that leads to problems like cancer and other diseases.
“Well, I haven’t talked to him about it yet, but it sounds OK to me,” Trump said Sunday when he was asked about that plan. “You know, it’s possible.”
Major public health groups support water fluoridation, and health groups also emphasize that the practice is safe.
The Trump team has embraced Kennedy and some of his fringe views in recent days.
Last week, Howard Lutnick, a co-chair of the Trump transition team, praised Kennedy and questioned whether vaccines were “fine.”
On an episode of the “The Joe Rogan Experience” last week, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, also spoke about his experience with the Covid vaccine, expressing skepticism about it.
