Whether it’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s multiple Signal group chats containing critical details about a bombing mission or Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department defying judges who are demanding answers about the government disappearing hundreds of immigrants without due process, the second Trump administration is a minefield of lawlessness, incompetence, and malice.
But if Hell exists, there may need to be an entirely new wing built for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary who doesn’t care about health or humans.
Kennedy, who was sworn in as HHS secretary in February, has performed exactly as one should have expected an anti-vaxx and conspiracy theory monger to behave. In what has been a head-spinning array of lies and insults, Kennedy said, in widely reviled comments, that autism “destroys” families. He called autism “an epidemic,” and falsely claimed that children with autism “will never” get a job or go on a date, and that “many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.” Without evidence — his preferred method when discussing health and science— he said that autism is “preventable.”
He has also instructed the National Institutes of Health to gather private medical records — including medication records from pharmacy chains, claims from private insurers, and data from smartwatches and fitness trackers — for his so-called study, due in September, on the “cause” of autism, which Kennedy has blamed on “environmental toxins.”
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Oh, and he’s launching a new registry to track Americans with autism, which will probably be exactly as nefarious as it sounds.
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In a sweeping wave of budget cuts, Kennedy’s HHS allegedly plans to eliminate the National Suicide Hotline’s Program for LGBTQ Youth, which in February clocked more than 2,100 contacts. He is also reportedly considering the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of recommended immunizations for children.
Let’s remember how we got here.
Riding on little more than his famous surname — and misty memories of his uncles, President John F. Kennedy and longtime Massachusetts senator Edward M. Kennedy, and the fondly remembered father whose name he carries — Kennedy first ran as a Democrat, then as an independent in the 2024 presidential campaign. But being a political nepo baby only took him so far and left him well short of a nomination.
When Kennedy suspended his failed campaign last August, he essentially made a deal with Donald Trump. In exchange for his endorsement of the Republican presidential nominee, Trump, if elected, would offer Kennedy a Cabinet position. What Kennedy wanted was HHS secretary.
The future president agreed, Kennedy endorsed, and the rest is an unfolding nightmare.
At a rally weeks before the election, Trump touted that as president he would allow Kennedy to “go wild on health,” “go wild on the food,” and “go wild on medicines.” Which is pretty much what Kennedy has set his mind on doing to the likely detriment of hundreds of millions nationwide.
Kennedy crows about “making America healthy again,” but has mostly downplayed one of the largest measles outbreaks in decades and continues to cast doubt on the efficacy of the vaccine that has saved countless lives for more than 60 years. In 2000, US health officials declared that measles had been eliminated. Now there are nearly 900 cases nationwide in at least eight states. Two unvaccinated children in Texas, where the outbreak began, have died.
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No Democrats supported Kennedy’s confirmation, so Republicans own what we’re seeing now. That includes the firing of about 10,000 HHS workers in March. In a familiar pattern, some staffers were reinstated about a week later. “Personnel that should not have been cut were cut — we’re reinstating them, and that was always the plan,” Kennedy said at the time.
That was not the plan. There is no plan beyond destroying the government and destabilizing every aspect of American life.
During the first Trump administration I used to say, half-jokingly, “May we live in less stupid times.” Now, with one of the greatest dangers to the health and wellbeing of this nation being the man charged with overseeing the health and wellbeing of this nation, I say, without a hint of humor, may we just continue to live.
This is an excerpt from Outtakes, a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Renée Graham. Sign up to get Outtakes in your inbox each week.
Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com.
