Did Trump Really Consider Making RFK Jr. His VP Pick? (2024)

early and often Apr. 16, 2024

By Ed Kilgore, political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015

Did Trump Really Consider Making RFK Jr. His VP Pick? (2)

Trump-Kennedy? Yikes! Photo: Richard Vogel/AP

In many respects, it was a ho-hum development on Truth Social when Donald Trump posted a video of himself rambling about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week.

The Trump take is that Kennedy is “the most radical left candidate” who is nonetheless “a better man than Joe Biden” and who Trump would himself vote for were he a Democrat. He called RFK Jr. a threat to Joe Biden, though, which he appreciates (“It’s great for MAGA; I hope he continues to run”). But he also warned that “the communists” (his term for Democrats lately) will try to keep the wiggy anti-vaxxer off the ballot, which is probably the one true thing he said in this typical bit of logorrhea from Mar-a-Lago:

Instead of ignoring the 45th president, however, Kennedy fired back with a tweet asserting that Trump’s “emissaries asked me to be his VP,” an offer he “respectfully declined.” RFK Jr. actually first made the claim that Team Trump “reached out” to him back in January. Trump factotum Chris LaCivita dismissed it back then and quoted himself when Kennedy brought it up again:

So was this all just a stupid game between two presidential campaigns? Maybe, but it’s worth noting that the New York Post independently reported the overtures allegedly made by Team Trump before Kennedy started bragging about it:

People close to former President Trump made preliminary overtures to Robert F. Kennedy about the possibility of serving as his running mate, The Post has learned.
“Trump operatives expressed an interest in Kennedy early on, but it was all premature,” said one person familiar with the matter, adding that it was “right out of the box when Bobby announced” in April 2023 he was running for president.
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“Anything’s possible. I wouldn’t write it off by any means,” the insider continued.

So perhaps it’s worth considering whether America may have avoided a true ticket from hell matching the erratic 45th president and the wayward nephew of the 35th. Keep in mind that Trump has been known to think unconventionally about possible ticket mates, such as ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who was a robust supporter of Bernie Sanders the year Trump was elected president. In some respects, Kennedy makes more sense than Gabbard.

Let’s count some ways in which Trump and RFK Jr. think alike, aside from their disdain for Biden and the Democratic Party:

• They both intensely despise the “deep state” of federal agencies … Trump because of their independence from him, and Kennedy because they have allegedly been “captured” by the industries they are supposed to regulate.

• They are both very prone to support and spread conspiracy theories on a wide range of topics.

• They both (in Trump’s case rather retroactively) have attacked state-level COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and the cautious mainstream science on which they were based.

• They both purport to hate overseas military commitments that run the risk of “forever wars.”

• They both, however, are staunch supporters of the current war being waged in Gaza by Israel.

• They have both been all over the place on the federal role in regulating abortion. Anti-abortion movement hero Trump has recently refused to endorse a national abortion ban and pretty clearly doesn’t want to talk about the subject until he’s back in the White House. The allegedly pro-choice Kennedy had this to say in an interview with the Washington Post:

Kennedy did not say whether he would protectabortionaccess, arguing that while he believes women should “have the right to choose,” he thinks “there is a limitation on what the Constitution says.”
Asked what he would do to protect abortion access and reproductive rights if he were elected president, Kennedy said: “I don’t know, you tell me. What should I be doing?”

• They both support a crackdown on southern border crossings and more border-wall construction.

Perhaps a Trump–RFK Jr. combination isn’t as unimaginable as it might initially appear.

The biggest barrier to an alliance between these two demagogues would be Kennedy’s reputation as a serious environmentalist. But there are some environmentalists who believe RFK Jr.’s anti-science posture and hostility to the EPA has deeply undermined his commitment to the cause and don’t think he is at all committed to steps necessary to fight climate change.

Presumably this Trump–RFK Jr. ticket isn’t happening now, but it’s worth making a mental note about this apparent flirtation in case Kennedy is forced to drop out and/or express a preference for one of the two major-party candidates in states where he’s not on the ballot. RFK Jr.’s conservative street cred was pretty strong not long ago, when Fox News was featuring him regularly and he was running against Biden as a Democrat. And not that many Republicans raised eyebrows when Ron DeSantis (during his hard-core right-wing presidential campaign) talked about offering him a Cabinet post. Kennedy could agonize his family even more by putting a thumb on the scales in favor of the Republican nominee, whom he is already helping in the polls.

Did Trump Really Consider Making RFK Jr. His VP Pick? (2024)

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