Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has reportedly recently held discussions with Donald Trump about endorsing his campaign for a second presidential term and serving in his administration if elected.
During the meeting, The Washington Post first reported the news on Monday. A few days after Kennedy publicly apologized Kennedy posted a video clip online of part of a private phone call he had with Trump in which Trump discusses his views on childhood vaccines and generally agrees with Kennedy, a well-known vaccine skeptic. In the video, Trump appears to be urging Kennedy to endorse his campaign.
But the Post reported that Kennedy, a Democratic candidate who became an independent in October, later sought a position overseeing health and medical issues in the Trump administration in exchange for the endorsement.
According to the outlet, the two men discussed possible Cabinet-level positions for Kennedy during their meeting in Milwaukee earlier this week, or positions that would not require Senate confirmation. They also discussed the possibility of Kennedy stepping down and supporting the former president.
Trump’s advisers reportedly worried that such a deal could cause problems, but did not dismiss the idea.
The idea emerged after Kennedy was denied a debate opportunity with Joe Biden and Trump in June, with his approval rating at about 9% in the presidential election and both major parties worried he would miss out on key independent voters.
The showdown between Trump and his underperforming counterpart prompted the president to announce on Sunday that he would not seek reelection.
Kennedy told The Post on Monday that the Trump campaign had been more open to him than the Democratic Party establishment. His uncle, President John F. Kennedy Jr., was assassinated in 1963, and his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968.
“I’m happy to talk to anyone from either party who wants to have a conversation about children’s health and how to end the epidemic of chronic disease,” Kennedy Jr. said, adding that he has “a lot of respect for President Trump for reaching out.”
Kennedy added, “No one at the DNC, high or low, has contacted me in the last 18 months. Instead, they have allocated millions of dollars to try to sabotage my campaign.”
The reported exchange came despite Trump saying in April that Kennedy was “more liberal than anybody running for the Democratic Party. Trump also said Kennedy was being pushed out of the Democratic Party because he was “stealing votes from Biden in the primaries.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy called Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, a U.S. senator and former Marine, “a tribute to the CIA, the intelligence community and the military-industrial complex.” CNN “There’s a lot of terrible things that President Trump has done,” she said in April, saying the former president had overseen “restrictions on individual liberty the likes of which this country has never seen.”
Daniel Alvarez, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, told the Post, “President Trump met with RFK to discuss these issues, just as he does regularly with key figures in business and politics, as they all come to realize he will be the next president of the United States.”
