Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told supporters on an online organizing call this week that former President Donald J. Trump had “promised” him “control” of the nation’s public health agencies, should he win the election next week.
The Trump campaign, however, would confirm no such commitments.
“President Trump announced a Trump Vance transition leadership group to initiate the process of preparing for what comes after the election,” Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. “But formal discussions of who will serve in a second Trump Administration is premature.”
Mr. Kennedy, who suspended his presidential campaign in August, said in a text message to The New York Times that a video of the call, which circulated on social media Tuesday, was a recording of an internal discussion with campaign workers discussing get-out-the-vote efforts for Mr. Trump.
“I stand ready to help him rid the public health agencies of their pervasive conflicts and corruption and restore their tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement.
During his discussions with the Trump campaign before his endorsement, Mr. Kennedy made clear that he wanted to have a significant role in public health oversight. Since then, Mr. Kennedy has spoken openly about his plans to reform the federal health care and agriculture systems, which he and his supporters see as corrupt and dangerous.
Mr. Kennedy, 70, an environmental lawyer and a scion of a storied Democratic family, is a leader of the so-called “medical freedom movement,” which broadly opposes vaccine mandates. The movement gained force during the pandemic and now seems closer than ever to the seat of power.
Mr. Kennedy has in recent years promoted unproven theories about the dangers of pharmaceutical treatments, including childhood vaccinations. His potential role in running America’s public health bureaucracy has animated his supporters, but alarmed medical professionals.
“The key that, I think, President Trump has promised me is control of the public health agencies, which are H.H.S. and its subagencies,” Mr. Kennedy said in the clip of the call, meaning the Department of Health and Human Services. He then listed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
He said he would “reorient” the N.I.H. “so that instead of developing drugs” or “serving as an incubator for pharmaceutical products,” the organization would instead “be figuring out what’s causing these autism rates and autoimmune diseases and neurodevelopmental diseases.”
Mr. Kennedy has recently spoken at length about what he calls an exploding childhood chronic disease epidemic rooted in environmental and food toxins. Public health experts have said such claims are likely overblown.
Mr. Trump has named Mr. Kennedy to his transition team, which would typically entail a central role in picking the administration’s leadership. Mr. Trump has pledged, including on Joe Rogan’s podcast last week, that Mr. Kennedy would be involved in his administration. But he has not mentioned a specific role.
In a separate statement, Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said: “When we send President Trump back to the White House, he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to Make America Healthy Again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children.” She added that Mr. Trump would set up a commission to investigate “the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses.”
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