Inside Kennedy’s Rise at HHS: Meeting MAHA Priorities for Trump

WASHINGTON — On Independence Avenue, inside a brutalist gray building considered by many to be the ugliest in this city, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. built a monument to his family.

In the well-lit, royal blue hallway leading to his private offices, framed historic American flags are interspersed with pennants representing the campaigns and slogans of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy — with phrases like “A Time For Greatness: Kennedy for President” and “Welcome Jack.”

In the secretary’s suite, just a few steps from paying homage to his Democratic forebears, the man himself commands an empire of about 62,000 workers (even after this year’s massive cuts) with the largest budget of any federal agency. At 71, RFK Jr. has become America’s leading voice on health and wellness and an evangelist for his own school of thought. He is the country’s 26th Secretary of Health and Human Services, and already, arguably, the most disruptive.

It’s from there that he calls President Trump almost daily, with his aides sitting on the floor while the men talk, coaching the secretary on what to ask Trump or walking him through talking points, according to a former official granted anonymity to speak freely.

This is where he is an eager student, this official said, reading every HHS report and article he can get his hands on and sending emails to advisers asking, “Where are we on this?”

When he’s not in the office, Kennedy, fit and exceptionally tanned, establishes himself as a celebrity in this buttoned-down capital. His adventures before becoming a secretary were recounted in entertaining titles involving brain worms and dead bears, and he loves mingling with the Hollywood crowd; he is married to actress Cheryl Hines.

Kennedy is followed by a phalanx of security — rare for a cabinet secretary not in a defense or security role — posing for selfies as he enters a Gold’s Gym or tanning salon, or dines at his usual booth at a restaurant once frequented by JFK.

STAT interviewed dozens of people, including nine directly in Kennedy’s orbit, to reveal never-before-seen details about his management style, his work habits, his relationship with the president and his motivations for leading perhaps the most sweeping overhaul ever of the nation’s health and science agencies. Journalists also examined his official statements and dozens of social media posts, finding that he frequently relied on misinformation to support his policy decisions and on flawed scientific evidence.