Just below the headlines describing the midterm disintegration of Donald Trump’s electoral coalition, a crackup is occurring that may prove equally consequential. As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. increasingly resembles his corrupt boss, the political fissures in his “MAHA” movement are rupturing – which creates opportunities for Democrats to recapture the high ground on environmental safety and public health.
What Kennedy delivered to the Republican Party in 2024 when he folded his own presidential campaign into Trump’s reelection bid – selling out his family’s iconic legacy – was a phalanx of suburban women who had usually supported Democrats, their ranks buttressed by a new category of online influencers. For those concerned about environmental perils, his previous record as an attorney and his name were sufficient credentials, with a smaller cohort drawn by his anti-vaccine activism.
From the beginning, those who knew Bobby understood that he was likely to double-cross the “MAHA moms,” not just because of his weak character and greed but because such falsity is embedded in Trumpism. Once he signed up with this president and the Republican Party, both wholly and permanently owned by corporate interests, there was no chance that Kennedy would fulfill his promises to confront pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial interests.
But in recent months the secretary of health and human services, and his inner circle have brazenly displayed the self-dealing and conflicts to make a mockery of MAHA’s supposed ideals. Last month his “Make America Healthy Again Summit” sold access and sponsorships for hundreds of thousands of dollars to the same corporate behemoths that market ultra-processed foods, pesticides and unaffordable health care, alongside the quacks who populate the anti-vaccine fever swamps. He has repeatedly misused his power to promote donors, notably a company marketing a controversial cancer-detection test that experts have denounced.
Meanwhile, Kennedy constantly gloms every speck of profit for himself, including $4 million in book contracts, continuing residuals from his anti-vax litigation, and free luxury travel, perks and gifts and perks lavished on him by dubious “allies.”
Worse still, from the perspective of his adoring fans, is his demonstrated propensity to abandon their environmental priorities at Trump’s command. While the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture promote cancer-causing pesticides and other threats to our water and food, Kennedy doesn’t fight – he folds like a cheap suit.
What has changed in the aftermath of the MAHA Summit is the slavish acceptance of Bobby’s deceit. Robert Malone, a longtime anti-vaxxer and Kennedy crony, blasted the corporate takeover, saying it showed that MAHA was “a grift.” MAHA mom influencers like Zen Honeycutt and Kelly “Glyphosate Girl” Ryerson have fumed publicly over the administration’s environmental depredations, and Scarlett Fang, a prominent MAHA activist, decried the “complete corporate capture.”
“This is not the MAHA we signed up for,” said former HHS official Gray Delany, ousted by the secretary last year. The truth, of course, is that Trump’s embrace of Kennedy was always a snare and a deception, at the service of corporatist ideology that despises environmentalism and public health.
What becomes of the broken-hearted, those MAHA moms?
Many will remain politically isolated in the anti-vax fever swamps, voicing conspiracy theories that look more insane than ever amid the upsurge of measles and the feared return of polio. Yet others in MAHA – and many unaffiliated Americans who share their concerns over the food supply and the quality of our water and air – might look elsewhere for solutions.
That’s why Democrats might want to emulate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, their party’s Michigan Senate nominee, who has reached out to the MAHA moms in recent days. Last week, El-Sayed released a policy agenda titled “Building a Healthier America,” vowing to outlaw dangerous pesticides, improve drinking water and broaden access to wholesome food – what MAHA once symbolized, minus the anti-vax nonsense.
As a former public health official who also happens to sport a buff physique, he knows that Kennedy’s wreckage is an important chance for
his party to renew and update their traditional devotion to the environment, public health and consumer protection. His fellow Democrats would be wise to heed him.
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