Before he began his remarks on health care policy at a White House event earlier this summer, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. first felt the need to praise one of President Trump’s passion projects.
Mr. Kennedy said that Mr. Trump’s new Oval Office décor had “transformed” a White House that comparatively looked “drab” when his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, filled it. “Under your stewardship, it looks extraordinary today,” Mr. Kennedy said as Mr. Trump nodded in approval. “So thank you, Mr. President.”
During a three-hour cabinet meeting this week, it was Mr. Trump’s turn to support Mr. Kennedy’s endeavors: researching any link between vaccines and autism, a theory that many medical professionals and studies have debunked. “I know you’re looking very strongly at different things, and I hope you can come out with that as soon as possible,” Mr. Trump said.
The two exchanges crystallized the mutually beneficial nature of the relationship between the two men, an alliance driven by political calculation and a striking alignment of some of their views. Their ties have empowered Mr. Kennedy to push the boundaries of public health and science with the support of the president, who in turn benefits from Mr. Kennedy’s coalition of followers opposed to vaccines and health mandates.
It helps that Mr. Trump has long been dazzled by the storied nature of the Kennedy name.
“As someone who grew up during the Kennedy Camelot era, the idea of having a Kennedy report to him makes him feel good,” said Chris Meekins, an assistant secretary for pandemic preparedness in the first Trump administration. “R.F.K. will be given a long-enough leash — will be given enough discretion — until there is a point when the political damage he’s doing to Republican efforts is greater than the political benefit he’s bringing.”
The White House has thrown its support behind Mr. Kennedy after he ousted the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after less than a month on the job, engulfing the agency in chaos and causing alarm among both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
“Secretary Kennedy has been a crown jewel of this administration who’s working tirelessly to improve public health for all Americans,” Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters on Friday.
After Mr. Kennedy tried to fire the C.D.C. director and she refused to accept the dismissal, he went to the White House. Officials there, acting at Mr. Trump’s direction, had the presidential personnel office fire her, according to two people briefed on the matter. A third said Mr. Trump was not especially exercised.
Still, it remains to be seen whether public blowback against Mr. Kennedy’s planned restrictions for access to the coronavirus vaccines will trouble a president who views their development and distribution as a crowning achievement of his first term.
But Mr. Trump was also mindful during his campaign that many of his core voters — who he privately called the “radical right” — were skeptical of the vaccine, and he did not boast about it publicly as often as he used to.
The Food and Drug Administration earlier this week authorized the vaccines for people 65 and older, who are known to be more vulnerable to severe illness from Covid. But younger people would only be eligible if they have at least one underlying medical condition that would put them at risk for severe disease. Healthy children under 18 could still receive the shots if a medical provider is consulted.
The new policy means this fall will be the first season that Covid shots are not widely recommended to most people and children.
In a statement, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that “President Trump has the utmost confidence and trust in Secretary Kennedy to lead HHS, and he only wants the best, brightest, most MAHA-aligned people on board,” referring to Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again slogan.
She added that the president was aware of the new guidelines for the vaccines, a day after she insisted they were not restrictions and claimed they did not affect the availability of the shots for people who want them.
It is not the first time Mr. Trump, who promised to let Mr. Kennedy “go wild on health” after receiving his endorsement on the campaign trail, has thrown his support behind the health secretary’s upending of the federal public health infrastructure.
Mr. Trump gave Mr. Kennedy a freer hand than he did most cabinet secretaries to shape his own department. The initial selection of Susan Monarez, the C.D.C. director Mr. Trump fired this week, was Mr. Kennedy’s, two people briefed on the matter said.
When Mr. Kennedy canceled nearly $500 million of grants and contracts for developing mRNA vaccines earlier this month, Mr. Trump reacted by saying his administration was “onto other things.” And when a Kennedy ally leading the F.D.A.’s vaccines division left this position after being attacked by right-wing activist Laura Loomer, the Trump administration supported his return.
In Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Trump has also found a loyal soldier willing to turn the president’s long-held suspicions over vaccines into policy.
Some associates of the president have said that they do not recall him voicing opposition to childhood vaccines decades ago. But since at least 2014, Mr. Trump has publicly questioned whether there is a link between vaccines and autism. His skepticism was attractive to some voters at a time when a government-skeptical wing of the Republican Party was growing after the fiscal crisis in the late 2000s.
“With autism being way up, what do we have to lose by having doctors give small dose vaccines vs. big pump doses into those tiny bodies?” Mr. Trump posted on social media in 2014. He repeated a version of that statement on a Republican primary debate stage in 2015.
When Mr. Kennedy told reporters in January 2017, days before Mr. Trump was sworn in and after meeting with him at Trump Tower, that the incoming president was going to appoint him to a panel to study vaccines, Mr. Trump’s advisers quickly shut down the prospect. But Mr. Trump never let go of the idea that vaccines and autism could be linked, even though he stopped bringing it up publicly.
During a post-election news conference in December after he won a second term, Mr. Trump again expressed enthusiasm for “brilliant people” like Mr. Kennedy who would soon investigate any connection between vaccines and autism.
But the briefing was also an example of the potential baggage that comes with the health secretary. Mr. Trump was forced to respond to questions over the future of the polio vaccine after The New York Times reported that a lawyer for Mr. Kennedy petitioned federal regulators to withdraw the vaccine from the market.
The petition prompted Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and a polio survivor, to warn that “efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous.”
“I think you’re going to find that Bobby is much — he’s a very rational guy,” Mr. Trump said in December. “I found him to be very rational.”
Members of Congress have joined public health officials in expressing concern that the opposite could be true.
After the firing of Ms. Monarez, Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and the chair of the Senate health committee, called for a delay in an upcoming C.D.C. vaccine advisory committee meeting, which was recently reconstituted by Mr. Kennedy with new members who have questioned the safety of vaccines.
Mr. Cassidy, a physician who publicly agonized over voting for Mr. Kennedy’s nomination, also said that the recent “high-profile departures will require oversight” by his panel.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, called for Mr. Trump to fire Mr. Kennedy “immediately.”
“RFK Jr.’s stubborn, pigheaded, and conspiracy-based attacks on proven science are going to make many more people sick and cause more deaths,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “Americans are in greater danger every day Robert Kennedy Jr. remains as H.H.S. Secretary.”
Mr. Meekins, the health official from Mr. Trump’s first term, said the extent of Mr. Kennedy’s impact on the health care system was still unclear.
“It’s the same with hurricanes. No one cares about how effective the changes within FEMA are until they need to be called on, and they’re not up to speed or not up to it,” Mr. Meekins said. “That’s the challenge with public health. You don’t appreciate the benefits of them until you fully need them.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
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