Crowdsourcing Cabinet Picks, what could go wrong

RFK Jr. Is Crowdsourcing Cabinet Picks for Trump

“Bobby cannot do this alone, so he is now turning to the wisdom and expertise of his supporters.”

Kiera Butler

Just days after former President Donald Trump won the presidential election, his onetime-opponent turned supporter, the anti-vaccine superstar Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has set up a website to solicit suggestions for key Cabinet roles. Anyone can submit a name and vote for their favorite nominees across 12 areas of government, including health, food and agriculture, education, technology, and more. “Trump has stated that he was not able to ‘drain the swamp’ during his first term, and he’s welcomed Bobby’s expertise in getting the job done in his second term,” the site’s “About” section states. “But Bobby cannot do this alone, so he is now turning to the wisdom and expertise of his supporters.”

In the food and agriculture category, the current leading nominee is Zen Honeycutt, executive director of the anti-GMO group Moms Across America. In September, Honeycutt told me about how her group’s followers have changed over the years—many of them moving from being staunch Democrats to supporting Trump. As she said back then:

“I marched in the parade for gays to be able to get married,” she recalled. But she became disillusioned with what she saw as government overreach around school vaccine requirements. Mostly for that reason, she, her husband, and their three sons relocated a few years ago to a farm in North Carolina. Since then, she said, she has heard from “thousands and thousands” of other parents who had become disillusioned with what she described as “the fascism of the Democratic party,” such as “mandatory vaccines or maybe medication down the road.” she said. “We already have mandatory chemotherapy that kids have to get—you can get your kid taken away from you if you don’t give them chemo if they have cancer.” For these reasons, many former Democrats she has talked to “have found in the Independent party or the Republican party a home they can connect with around their personal health freedoms.” 

Now, with the party she has championed earning a powerful electoral mandate, I checked back in with Honeycutt. She said she has been in touch with Kennedy’s team (which did not immediately respond to my request for comment) about a potential role that would allow her to “make a difference in transforming the food supply and health with the new administration.” In such a position, her goal, she explained, would be to rid the food supply of what she sees as toxins: pesticides—including the ubiquitous weedkiller glyphosate—food dyes, and genetically modified ingredients. She blames these impurities for rising autism and Alzheimer’s disease rates, as well as infertility, which she believes is in some ways a more pressing issue than abortion. Why? Because, she says, it affects 11 percent of women. “The Democrats in this past election made abortion a huge issue,” she said, “but the issue of infertility is actually seven times greater than the abortion issue.”

Honeycutt’s assertions about the direct contribution of food additives to illness aren’t backed by a robust body of high-quality scientific evidence, though some research suggests exposure to pesticides in utero could contribute to autism diagnoses. Some pesticides also have been shown to disrupt the endocrine system, which could in theory affect fertility, but robust studies showing a direct connection don’t exist.

For Honeycutt, however, the prospect of finally eliminating the additives she considers unhealthy is an exciting possibility. She believes that the lifestyle benefits of such a move could bring the fractured nation some peace. “When we do get the poison out of our food, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you’re going to sleep better,” she said. “You’re going to lose weight, you’re going to feel better, you have better relationships, you’re going to have better sex.”

Aside from Honeycutt, so far, some of the most popular nominees for other roles on the Kennedy website include:

Dr. Simone Gold for the Department of Health and Human Services. Gold, who founded the Covid-denialist and anti-vaccine group America’s Frontline Doctors, participated in the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021, an offense for which she spent 60 days in prison.

Sherri Tenpenny for the Department of Health and Human Services. Tenpenny is an anti-vaccine activist who promoted the disproven idea that vaccines turn people magnetic. She is currently being sued by the Department of Justice for failing to pay $650,000 in taxes.

Joel Salatin for a job at the Department of Agriculture. Salatin, a libertarian farmer and staunch critic of overregulation of agriculture, has become embroiled in controversies around Covid and remarks about Black Americans, including that “the Black community is in dysfunctional collapse.”

Mike Rowe for the Department of Labor. Rowe, the creator and host of the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs, has emerged as a critic of unions and as an anti-vaccine activist.

Tulsi Gabbard for “Peace Abroad.” Gabbard, who represented Hawaii in Congress as a Democrat, has become a registered Independent and a strong supporter of President-elect Trump, endorsing him frequently in the conservative media.

Vivek Ramaswamy for a possible position within the Department of Education. A pharma executive who positioned himself to the right of Trump during his short-lived campaign for president, Ramaswamy in this role would be a leader in an agency that Trump has vowed to destroy.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is a possibility for secretary of the Department of Agriculture. Massie has advocated for fewer regulations around farm and food issues such as raw milk. Trump criticized him in 2020 for his antics around passing the coronavirus stimulus bill—but Massie found his way back into Trump’s good graces following the 2020 election by voting against reaffirming the peaceful transfer of power.

Honeycutt said she was particularly excited about the prospect of Massie, whom she described as “honest and smart and funny and really cares about people, and has a huge amount of experience with ranching and farmers and politics.” She said she’s aware of several other people who have been talking to the Kennedy team about potential roles, but she declined to name them. She did note that they nearly all had in common “the courage to speak out and speak up for health and be a part of the food movement.”