The “Make America Healthy Again” movement that’s caught President-elect Donald Trump’s attention is clear-eyed about the challenge it will face in a Republican Party that’s still conditioned to favor the interests of business and agriculture. So says Jeff Hutt, a spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again PAC affiliated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and former national field director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Kennedy is the movement’s de facto leader. Why it matters: MAHA advocates believe the government has long favored the business interests of food manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies over the health of Americans, permitting them to sell products that cause disease, and it wants Trump to stop it. “Established Republicans are going to have to be the most brave for this to be successful,” Hutt said. “That could be an impediment.” Leaders in the MAHA movement expect they’ll face resistance on both sides of the aisle as they pursue rules to bar pesticides and food additives they consider unhealthy, he added. But MAHAians also recognize the challenges before them in how they’re seen — in large part because of their many disagreements with public health experts in academia and government. “A lot of the MAHA movement has been depicted as witchcraft-ery,” Hutt said. “We need to move beyond that.” Kennedy’s opposition to current vaccination recommendations, for instance, and claims that vaccines cause autism, has made some establishment Republicans uncomfortable. What’s next? Former Kennedy campaign staffers are helping the Trump transition team vet people who could be part of the next administration, Hutt said, pointing to a MAHA webpage created for the public to suggest candidates for administration appointments. And Senate Republicans are leaving the door open to confirming Kennedy to Trump’s Cabinet. The Trump campaign declined to comment on the involvement of former Kennedy staffers. “President-Elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration soon,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, said in an email. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.” MAHA’s expecting a big role since it was key to Trump’s victory, Hutt said.
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