When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Donald J. Trump last week, he recounted speaking with the former president about “the issues that bind us together,” including “having safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic.”
Mr. Kennedy, a onetime environmental lawyer and longtime vaccine critic, insisted that a second Trump administration would lead to the elimination of pesticides and other hazardous chemicals in America’s food and water supply.
“We will make Americans healthy again,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“Don’t you want healthy children?” he asked. “And don’t you want the chemicals out of our food? And don’t you want the regulatory agencies to be free from corporate corruption? And that’s what President Trump told me that he wanted.”
As president, though, Mr. Trump ended more than 100 environmental policies, including bans on toxic chemicals known to pose serious health threats. He installed industry lobbyists in top jobs, where they took actions that helped the companies they once represented and worked to gut most federal health and safety agencies.
“They basically did what industry asked them to do,” said Rena Steinzor, who teaches administrative and food safety law at the University of Maryland. She said it was “laughable” to think a second Trump administration would be different.
Asked for comment, Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement that “we are proud” that Mr. Kennedy, who suspended his independent bid for president, had “been added to the Trump/Vance transition team.”
Here are three examples from the Trump administration’s record that touch on Mr. Kennedy’s priorities.
Failed to Ban Dangerous Pesticides
The Trump administration rejected efforts to ban a number of toxic chemicals.
One decision that angered public health experts was allowing the continued use of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that had been widely applied on food crops. It has been linked to neurological damage in children, including developmental disorders in toddlers.
Under President Trump, senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency rejected a finding by their own scientists detailing the ways in which chlorpyrifos can stunt brain development in young children. President Biden’s administration has banned chlorpyrifos, though that decision is being challenged in court.
The Trump administration also withdrew Obama-era proposed bans on methylene chloride and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), ingredients in paint strippers that have been found to cause miscarriages; reduced male fertility; and damage to the liver, kidneys, and immune and nervous systems. It did the same regarding trichloroethylene (TCE), a carcinogen found in cleaning products, paint removers, spray adhesives, carpet cleaners and spot removers.
This year the Biden administration banned most uses of methylene chloride. It has proposed limits on the use of N-Methylpyrrolidone and a ban on all uses of trichloroethylene.
Under the first two years of the Trump administration, the E.P.A. approved more than 100 products with pesticides that are banned in other countries, according to an analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.
Hired Lobbyists to Oversee Chemical Regulations
Mr. Trump promised to “drain the swamp” and limit the influence of lobbyists in Washington. But he hired hundreds of lobbyists to run his administration. That included a former coal lobbyist to lead the E.P.A., an auto lobbyist to run the Energy Department and a former oil and gas lobbyist to head the Interior Department.
The same approach was evident among the top Trump appointees overseeing chemical policy. Mr. Trump appointed Peter Wright to lead the E.P.A.’s cleanup of thousands of Superfund sites. Mr. Wright previously spent 19 years as a lawyer at Dow Company, one of the world’s largest chemical makers. There, he fought to lessen Dow’s responsibility to contribute to the cleanup of a toxic waste site in Michigan.
Nancy B. Beck, Mr. Trump’s principal deputy head of chemical safety at the E.P.A., came from the American Chemistry Council, which represents chemical manufacturers. At the E.P.A., Ms. Beck weakened the process for regulating chemicals like the pesticide chlorpyrifos. Other senior E.P.A. leaders came from industry, including David Dunlap, who had been a policy chief at Koch Industries, which has long fought regulation. He recused himself from work on formaldehyde because Koch Industries was a major producer.
Weakened School Lunch Guidelines
Mr. Kennedy has railed against processed foods and accused the food industry of keeping vegetables off school lunch plates.
“There’s no vegetables,” Mr. Kennedy said Friday. “There’s nothing that you would want to eat. We are just poisoning the poor citizens.”
But in 2020 Mr. Trump rolled back school nutrition standards requiring more fruits and vegetables. It was a major victory for food industry lobbyists.
The standards, which had been championed by the former first lady Michelle Obama during her husband’s administration, increased the requirement for whole grains and fruits and vegetables, cut trans fats and reduced sodium levels in school meals. Cafeterias were also required to serve only skim or low-fat milk.
The Trump administration watered down those requirements, allowing more foods high in sodium and saturated fat. It also allowed schools to cut the amount of fruit served during breakfast and serve fries instead of healthier vegetables. A federal court struck down the Trump rollback.
The post Kennedy Says Trump Will ‘Make Americans Healthy.’ His Record Suggests Otherwise. appeared first on New York Times.