RFK Jr. Means Something Different

For so many of us, this was about much more than simply an appointment.

Ten days into the second version of Trump, and so far, there’s quite a bit more excitement than the second term of Grover Cleveland. There’s lots of interest in the cabinet picks and, like most coalition governments, lots of competition and frustration for people who think that their group was the one that brought the victory. Yes, Trump was masterful at building a diverse group of people from hardcore MAGA to MAHA to libertarians and a whole bunch of others who are expressing some disappointment in his cabinet picks. It’s fairly clear that Trump wants to deal with the rot domestically far more than the stuff overseas. Marco Rubio isn’t a serious choice, but hopefully, DeSantis picks a better candidate and little Marco can sail off into the sunset of politics like so many others. He’s been intimidated since sipping water on TV and being made fun of. I’m not sure how well that will play at the State Department or with the Mullahs or China, but perhaps the magnitude of the office will eliminate him from serious damage before he gets going.

One trend that is emerging that is encouraging is the youth of the cabinet picks so far. Trump is interested in leaving behind a legacy of MAGA with the next generation, and that is a very pleasant change in politics. If I’m honest, I don’t know any of these people at all - even Robert Kennedy Jr., who I have met and spent time supporting, isn’t someone I would say I “know.” Politics is a strange celebrity - those interested in it are rife with conflicts of interest if they have been around that swampy city for any amount of time. It creates an inherency towards those conflicts by its very nature. Power requires that kind of cunning trade-making. For the most part, all we can do as the people of this country is hope that what they portray to us in their speeches and media interviews is a reasonable facsimile of their real persons.

This isn’t the Kennedy administration, and as much as I might want it to be, it isn’t going to be. Kennedy may have some influence, but Trump won the election. It is his to do with as he pleases. He clearly had a mandate not to be Kamala Harris or to continue the nonsense of the last 40 years, but Trump will do what he wants to do. I celebrate the victory for what it potentially saved us from in a censorship-driven, open-border world envisioned by the Democratic Party, but I make no illusion that this is the tempered RFK Jr. cabinet that he might have chosen.

If we are realistic, a full Kennedy cabinet would have had troubles with his supporters, too. No one bats a thousand on their picks, and make no mistake, donors and influencers get a seat at that table of decision. Most of the time, these picks are calculated based on political capital, too. No one wants to spend that on too controversial of a pick. Most of the time, you get milquetoast nothing’s who Washington approves of, and no one sees as very consequential. It’s as if Dad is letting you drive when you are 6, sitting on his lap. You think it’s real, but everyone knows that Dad is really in control. Washington is the same with their politicians. The public thinks the president is driving, but the blob knows they’re really in control. The entrenched barnacles raise holy hell with the slightest deviation from conventional wisdom picks and they get to keep everyone in the wickets.

I can’t say that all of Trump’s picks run counter to that, but so far, I’m very happy with a few of them that would never have seen the light of day in a normal political moment. Perhaps it is because he knows there isn’t another term or elections to win again, but whatever the reason, he does not seem to care about the expenditure of capital on this. Do I think that 6 months from now there is going to be a set of disagreements about how the government is going? There’s no question in my mind. But for now, he’s fielding the best team he can. He’s not picking people based upon their status in Washington or on their ability to advance a donor. He’s clearly said that wrecking things as they stand today is necessary.

His appointment of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General is a page straight from John F. Kennedy’s book. The AG needs to be your most trusted ally. You need a man on the inside who can do the job you need in an offensive manner. That requires someone you trust implicitly and who is loyal to you above anyone else. He has it in Mr. Gaetz

This afternoon’s Lincoln-Memorial-shattering choice of Robert Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services Director is his boldest choice of the batch. Most of us who followed the RFK campaign had hoped for this - Mr. Kennedy, in an unbelievable act of nobility, gave up a lot for this position. So while it isn’t surprising at face value, it is surprising at the face value of Washington - where no one keeps promises and everyone looks out for themselves above all others.

I am thrilled for Mr. Kennedy. He’s a deserving man for the position, and it will change the landscape of America for generations. If he can make tangible and systemic change within the largest division of the budget in Washington, America will be a better place.

For those of us who have watched the medical-industrial complex ruin the lives of countless thousands, no choice could have been better. Many of us believe the COVID misadventure needs real reckoning. It’s not an exaggeration that many of us see it as a crime against humanity akin to the worst moments in 20th-century history. Many of us hope that Dr. Fauci finds his way to justice - and he might prefer the humane justice the system offers compared to what many of us would want if it were left up to us. The WHO, Bill Gates, and the executives at Pfizer should all be soiling their pants today. RFK is a surgeon, and with the power that President Trump just offered, there won’t be shadows to hide in.

President Trump is giving positions to people in his cabinet with an axe to grind. That will serve him well. Revenge is usually a bad place to make decisions, but not in politics. We have been abused as people for decades. We’ve been lied to about war, money, the border, and our health. We were told that our own eyes were lying. We were told that the government should be trusted because as they got wealthier and we got poorer, it was in our best interest to surrender our liberty to them. We were told that they were the experts on everything. Meanwhile, our waistlines grew proportionate to their affluence. Our farmers went bankrupt. Our mainstreets closed down. Our kids developed chronic illnesses and were sicker than any generation before them.

We watched as they stole our future wealth by spending on wars that they made young men and women fight under false pretenses. Every soldier who was lied to about the service of their country is about to see some redemption for their misdeeds. All it takes is one chink in the armor and people will realize slowly, then all at once, that all of the government and its minions have been a disingenuous lie.

If Robert F. Kennedy can disclose that in the health bureaucracy, people will start to ask about everything else in government. Pair it with President Trump’s other brazen picks, like Tulsi Gabbard in the Intelligence agencies and Pete Hegseth in Defense, and the whole thing might become an avalanche of truth. I can only hope that it happens quickly and that there is an incoming flood of bureaucratic baristas who find out how much work it takes to live in the system they made.