Top Trumps: Who runs health in the new US government?
BMJ 2025; 388 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r267 (Published 07 February 2025) Cite this as: BMJ 2025;388:r267
- Mun-Keat Looi
- The BMJ
Donald Trump began his second stint as president of the United States on 20 January 2025. His appointments to major government health and medical roles have been seen by many as contentious. Who has he appointed, what are they in charge of, and what might their appointments mean for health in the US and around the world over the next four years?
Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary, Health and Human Services
Kennedy, 70, is the son of former US attorney general Robert F Kennedy and nephew of former president John F Kennedy. He ran for selection as the Democratic presidential candidate last year and then as an independent presidential candidate before joining Trump’s campaign.
The teetotal environmental lawyer has risen to prominence over the past decade with several controversial health positions. He has questioned the safety of vaccines, said that “autism comes from vaccines,”1 and promoted unpasteurised milk—identified as a risk in the US’s current bird flu outbreak in cows.2 Kennedy founded Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccine non-profit, and once said, “There’s no vaccine that’s safe and effective.”
Kennedy is a figurehead of the Make America Healthy Again movement, which predates the election and promises to rein in the influence of drug companies and refocus the obesity debate away from quick fix weight loss drugs. It also has the potential to endanger vaccine programmes.
He is a staunch critic of the pharmaceutical industry and ultra processed foods, and has criticised the adding of fluoride to water supplies, calling it “an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.”3
Health and Human Services had a budget of $1.7tn (£1.4tn; €1.6tn) in 2024—about 23% of the entire federal budget. It oversees the Centers for Disease …
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