A former White House doctor has lost it on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for calling Americans the “sickest people in the world.”
Donald Trump’s health secretary appeared on podcaster Theo Vonn’s This Past Weekend last week and later posted a clip from the episode on X. “Americans didn’t become the sickest people in the world because they’re lazy,” he wrote in the caption. “We are sick because ultra-processed foods dominate our diets—and because the government misled the public about what drives disease.”
The messaging incensed Jonathan Reiner, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, who cared for him during the George W. Bush administration. “Americans are not the sickest people in the world,” he said. “There’s a lot we can do to improve the health of our population, including eating better (and vaccinating our kids) but to call Americans the sickest people in the world, is just bulls–t.”
In the clip with Vonn, Kennedy pointed to a rise in obesity rates across the country, claiming it fell at the feet of ultra-processed foods and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“When my uncle [John F. Kennedy] was president of this country, I was a 10-year-old kid. He spent zero on chronic disease in this country,” Kennedy said. “Zero.”
“Today we spend $4.3 trillion a year, and it’s about 40 cents out of every tax dollar that is paid by you, to the federal government, that is going towards treatment for chronic disease. It’s unsustainable, and it’s getting worse every year.”
Kennedy, who has developed a reputation for leaning into the conspiratorial, continued, “Individuals have a responsibility—when I was a kid, five percent of children were obese. Today… overweight is 40 percent, adults it’s even higher. Americans do not get obese because they’re invalids or lazy, or they don’t want to do exercise. They got that way because they are being mass poisoned.
The CDC reports that “ninety percent of the nation’s $4.9 trillion in annual health care expenditures are for people with chronic and mental health conditions.”
Chronic disease also includes conditions such as epilepsy, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease.
It adds, “Only 2 in 5 young adults are weight-eligible and physically prepared for basic training in the U.S. military. Obesity costs the U.S. health care system nearly $173 billion a year.”
“They’re being mass poisoned because the government lied to them,” Kennedy continued. “And it lied about the food. Now, 70 percent of the food that our kids eat is ultra-processed food, and it’s just poison. It’s not food, it’s just poison.”
Asked what government agency was to blame, raw-milk enthusiast Kennedy said, without hesitation, “FDA.”
It comes days after the health secretary featured in a bizarre video with Trumpy musician Kid Rock. The baffling montage included the message “GET ACTIVE + EAT REAL FOOD,” but raised eyebrows when, at one point, the 72-year-old got into a tub wearing jeans and no T-shirt as Kid Rock flipped the bird.
In another part of the clip, a shirtless Kennedy peddled on an exercise bike in a steam room while Kid Rock, also shirtless, did push-ups.
The Daily Beast did not immediately receive a response from HHS.
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