Year two of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure as health secretary is already yielding some wins — but not for him and his Make America Healthy Again movement.
Instead, the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries he’s long targeted are breathing a sigh of relief as the White House signals it’s reining in Kennedy’s attacks on their products and tasking him with touting healthy eating and President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut drug price deals.
The latest evidence came Wednesday when Trump issued an executive order promoting the production of glyphosate, the herbicide Kennedy and his MAHA followers believe is a carcinogen.
For Washington’s lobbyists, the move was an early glimpse of how midterm realities are forcing the administration to shift away from Kennedy’s anti-vaccine, anti-chemical plans.
“Picking on farmers. That’s the base of your party,” said Sam Geduldig, managing partner at CGCN, a Republican lobbying shop that has worked for food maker Kraft Heinz. “You don’t want to mess with that before an election.”
Lately, Kennedy’s been on a road show promoting his new dietary guidelines. They differ from past government guidelines in their endorsement of eating meat and drinking whole milk, but are otherwise in line with conventional wisdom about the dangers of ultraprocessed food and the benefits of fruits and vegetables.
Kennedy’s also been talking a lot about Trump’s efforts to pressure drug makers to make voluntary price cuts. A Trump administration official told POLITICO the White House wants Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist before joining forces with Trump, to lay off the shots. Surveys from Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, have found Kennedy’s moves to downsize the childhood vaccine schedule are unpopular.
The White House last week pressured the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider a flu vaccine from drugmaker Moderna that a Kennedy subordinate shot down days before. And on Thursday, Kennedy’s vaccine advisory panel — which has sought to lend scientific legitimacy to Kennedy’s push to reduce kids’ immunizations — postponed its February meeting indefinitely.
Health and Human Services Department and White House officials explained a management shakeup at HHS last week was driven by a desire to refocus on drug pricing and other popular elements of the administration’s health agenda. Chris Klomp, who’s led the drug pricing effort, is now overseeing all HHS operations.
The White House has rolled out its deals with pharma companies as evidence that it’s bringing prices down. But the deals are voluntary and industry has resisted efforts to make them law. The Supreme Court ruling against Trump’s tariffs Friday weakens a major lever in the president’s pressure campaign.
Kennedy’s followers have noticed the shift. The order on glyphosate, for example, has sparked fierce backlash. “Bayer just got a license to kill from our gov’t. This [is] the mass poisoning of Americans and it continues,” Vani Hari, a MAHA influencer, wrote on X, referencing the German conglomerate that makes the world’s most popular herbicide.
The victories for agriculture and pharma underscore the Trump administration’s delicate balancing act ahead of November’s midterm elections, which will shape the president’s influence for the remainder of his term. The president is juggling not only competing factions within the MAHA coalition, but also tensions between MAHA and his broader MAGA base. Vaccines remain a thorny issue even among MAHA supporters, for example, while efforts to rein in pesticides have upset farmers, a key Republican constituency.
“They’re walking a tightrope,” said Jeremy Furchtgott, a director at Baron Public Affairs, a government affairs consultancy. “The administration is very creatively trying to triangulate to keep the coalition together, deliver some wins, and show that everybody can get some kind of win.”
Emily Hilliard, an HHS spokesperson, maintained that the department was still focused on MAHA priorities. “HHS is doubling down on the MAHA strategy to improve the health of our nation’s children, improve nutrition, and make medicine more affordable and accessible. Americans voted for greater transparency and accountability in health care, and under President Trump’s leadership, HHS is delivering on those priorities,” she wrote in a statement.
Some key MAHA leaders are keeping in line with Trump. Tony Lyons, president of the political group MAHA Action, who has positioned his PAC to back Trump-endorsed candidates, told POLITICO the recent executive order on glyphosate was “not a step backward” but a temporary action needed to boost national security.
“This is a step to solve a short-term problem, which is that we can't rely on China or anybody else to solve problems that farmers have,” he said.
Sharon Mayl, a partner at DLA Piper, a Washington-based law and lobbying firm that represents many pharmaceutical clients, said it’s smart politics for Kennedy to focus on healthy eating.
“Food is an issue that is relatable to everyone. It is easy to speak in sound bites that oversimplify and vilify particular ingredients without considering the complexity of the food system and the benefits,” she wrote in a statement.
The administration’s pivot arrives as Republicans worry the health secretary’s earlier moves to weaken the country’s vaccine policies will hurt them in the midterms. An October poll conducted by health policy think tank KFF and the Washington Post found the majority of MAHA parents still expressed confidence in childhood vaccine safety, while the vast majority of MAHA and non-MAHA parents agreed ultraprocessed foods were harmful.
Last week, HHS reshuffled its leadership team, dismissing Kennedy’s second-in-command, Jim O’Neill, and General Counsel Mike Stuart. The department, meanwhile, promoted Klomp from deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to chief counselor in charge of overseeing all HHS operations. Within the FDA, deputy commissioners Kyle Diamantas and Grace Graham were also promoted to senior counselors, while retaining their prior roles.
The restructuring at the top followed a high-profile messaging blitz from Kennedy focused on food over vaccines, involving rallies in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Nashville, Tennessee, and a Kennedy-endorsed Super Bowl ad paid for by the MAHA Center featuring boxer Mike Tyson and the slogan “Eat Real Food.” Earlier this week, Kennedy teamed up with the conservative musician Kid Rock to deliver a message about the importance of exercise in a video showing the two pumping iron shirtless.
White House officials granted anonymity to discuss strategy attributed the changed focus to the importance health care will play in the midterms and the desire to focus on issues that have broad appeal.
“I think we're largely done with vaccines. I think the food stuff, we're just beginning to kind of get into more,” the official said. “When you look at what's keeping America unhealthy, it largely has to do with obesity and diabetes and heart disease and other very diet-driven and lifestyle-driven issues.”
Kennedy has also devoted more time to touting Trump’s drug pricing deals as voters grow frustrated with the Republican party over the high cost of living. “We negotiated with 16 of the 17 pharmaceutical companies. We brought them all to the table, and now we have agreements with all of them. We are now going from paying the highest price in the world to paying the lowest,” Kennedy said at an event at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank earlier this month.
The White House has not disclosed details about the agreements, which were brokered in exchange for tariff relief. Health policy analysts doubt they will bring down prices for the vast majority of Americans, and drugmakers have made little mention of them in their investor calls.
The turn away from pesticides and vaccines is a dramatic departure for the White House that, less than a year ago, called out the harms of pesticides and suggested vaccines may be linked to childhood chronic disease. Kennedy believes they have caused a big increase in autism rates, even as researchers have failed to find a connection.
Kennedy defended Trump’s order to boost glyphosate production in the name of national security. “We must safeguard America’s national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it. When hostile actors control critical inputs, they weaken our security. By expanding domestic production, we close that gap and protect American families,” he said.
For MAHA activists and industry observers, the shift underscores the continued strength of corporate lobbies even under a populist administration that has been critical of corporate influence. “We hate it,” said Paula Obeid, a MAHA organizer in Arizona, referring to Trump’s executive order on glyphosate. “There’s so much money on the agriculture side there.”
Drugmakers and manufacturers of chemicals, including pesticides, are some of the biggest spenders in Washington, typically outpacing food makers. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents brand-name drugmakers, spent nearly $38 million on lobbying last year, its highest on record. The American Chemistry Council, meanwhile, spent almost $19 million last year.
The Consumer Brands Association and the American Beverage Association, representing food conglomerates and soft drink producers, respectively, spent less than $11 million combined.
“It’s easier to get a win in the food industry,” said Furchtgott. “The food industry spends a lot less on lobbying than the pharma industry.”
“The companies that have taken D.C. seriously over many years have seen the benefits.”
Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
from Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories https://ift.tt/exGTl1K
via IFTTT
0 Commentaires