Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a close ally of Donald Trump and the president-elect’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, once called Trump a “bully,” a “threat to democracy,” and a “carnival barker,” according to recordings newly uncovered by CNN. Kennedy apparently also compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and described his supporters as “outright Nazis” and “belligerent idiots.”
Kennedy, of course, also endorsed Trump in his run for reelection. But as recently as the month before, CNN reports, the one-time long-shot third-party presidential candidate called Trump a “terrible president.” That quick about-face presumably relates to Trump’s reported promises that the conspiracy theorist would receive a prominent public health post in exchange for his endorsement.
Before that sudden change of view, however, Kennedy was consistently and colorfully critical of Trump on his radio show, “The Ring of Fire,” and in other venues. “President Trump has not only brought this country into disrepute around the globe, but he has also brought into disrepute the entire American experience with self-governance,” Kennedy said at a 2018 event in Philadelphia. In April 2024, Kennedy said that Trump posed a “threat to democracy” and had done many “appalling” things in his time as president.
In one 2016 episode of “The Ring of Fire,” the long-running talk radio show Kennedy once co-hosted, CNN reports, he compared Trump to historical demagogues who exploited public fear to gain power, including Hitler, Francisco Franco, and Benito Mussolini: “Every statement that Donald Trump makes is fear-based,” Kennedy said. “Every statement he makes.”
On another episode that year, Kennedy quoted at length from an article by the journalist Matt Taibbi, which described Trump’s efforts to “build a truly vicious nationalist movement” composed of “belligerent idiots … opportunists and spineless fellow travelers.” “He’s not like Hitler. Hitler had like a plan, you know, Hitler was interested in policy,” Kennedy said of Trump. “I don’t think Trump has any of that.”
Kennedy disavows that assessment now, like many a Trump-critic-turned-devotee before him. Mitch McConnell once called the president-elect “a despicable human being” who was “unfit” for office. (McConnell went on to endorse him.) JD Vance once compared Trump to Hitler; he will now serve as Trump’s vice president. In a statement to CNN, Kennedy explained that he was formerly under the sway of “the mainstream media’s distorted, dystopian portrait of President Trump.” “I no longer hold this belief,” he added, “and now regret having made those statements.”
