TOI correspondent from Washington: MAGA supremo and President-elect Donald Trump continued to torch established norms as he picked Robert Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, to head the health portfolio, and demanded his term in office start from November 5, the day he won the election, instead of the constitutionally mandated January 20 following the election.
Kennedy’s assignment to the Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS) was widely expected considering Trump had urged him to “go wild” on the health front even before he was elected. But it still sent a jolt through the traditional establishment considering Kennedy’s outlier stand on many issues relating to public health: Among them, his theory that vaccines cause autism; his campaign to remove fluoride from water supply which experts say had beneficial effects; his canvassing for raw milk, and dodgy Covid therapies, including promoting hydroxychloroquine, which the FDA said is ineffective in treating Covid-19.
However, his campaign against America’s junk food fetish is widely appreciated — even by Donald Trump, who is himself a burger king sworn to colas. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health… HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” Trump said in a statement, adding that Kennedy “will restore the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic” in America.
In effect, Kennedy will be heading a department with a $ 2 trillion budget and 80,000 employees, with oversight of the very agencies (FDA, CDC, NIH etc) which he has been at war against and which have debunked many of his claims. He will also be fighting the unhealthy junk food habits of the very voters who put Trump in office; MAGA Republicans win most of the unhealthiest, least-educated, poorest states in America, with some of the worst health metrics, including obesity.
Like most of Trump’s nominees, Kennedy too appears to have some skeletons in the closet — in his case literally a bear carcass he dumped in NYC’s Central Park after initially intending to skin it for meat; and another time sawing off the head of a beached whale and driving home with it strapped to his car roof.
Typical of the Kennedy family (he is the nephew of President John F Kennedy and son of his brother Robert F Kennedy). RFK jr has other spotty scandals and controversies on his resume. But Trump is attempting a Hail Mary for his dodgy nominees to his upcoming administration by indicating he intends to skip FBI background checks (because of his deep distrust of the institution) and bypass senate confirmation hearings, the two wire-trippers for questionable nominees.
So off the charts are Trump’s nominees that liberal political junkies and language mavens are proffering a rarely used term to describe his administration-in-the-making: Kakistocracy which describes a government led by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state. Aghast liberal and moderate commentators can’t seem to decide which is Trump’s worst nomination. “Any one of the last three of Trump’s Cabinet-level picks (Gabbard as DNI, Gaetz as AG, RFK Jr for HHS), standing alone, would arguably have been the worst in American history. The fact that Trump made all three in a span of roughly 24 hours is astonishing. Congratulations, Mr President-Elect—and everyone who voted for him—on this kakistocratic hat trick,” anti-Trump Republican George Conway, who ex-wife Kellyanne Conway is a Trump loyalist, wrote on X.
The purported kakistocracy would normally have had to pass the smell test of gerontocracy in the US Senate (whose median age is around 66 years). But GOP Senate grandees are being intimidated by younger MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives (median age 56) with warnings that they will be defeated in upcoming elections if they resist Trump nominees. A third of the 100-member Senate will go to the polls in mid-term elections in 2026.
So much in thrall are MAGA Republicans of Trump that one lawmaker touched new heights of sycophancy in America. “There’s no question he’s the leader of our party. So now he’s got a mission and his goals and objectives. Whatever that is, we need to embrace it. All of it. Every single word. If Donald Trump says jump three feet high and scratch your head, we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads and that’s it,” Troy Nehls, a Republican Congressman from Texas, said in one interview.
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