The Irony of MAHA
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promises to promote health don’t align with staff cuts & Trump administration actions
By Steven Hoffman
I met Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. once, in 2001, when he was speaking at a sustainability conference. At the time, I was publisher of the LOHAS Journal, covering the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability market. At the event, I gave Kennedy a copy of our magazine and expressed my admiration for his work as a leading environmentalist with Riverkeeper, a group that helped clean up the Hudson River, and for being an outspoken advocate for removing toxic chemicals from our food.
Today, Kennedy has built a large following based on these views, with the acronym Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, as the rallying cry for his base, many of whom are leaders in the natural health movement.
Since my interaction with him in 2001, however, Kennedy has also become synonymous with the anti-vaccine movement. This single voter issue, based in large part on misinformation and mistrust, drove a significant number of natural health advocates to back Kennedy when he declared in 2023 as an independent third-party candidate for president. When he ended his candidacy and endorsed Donald Trump in August, many of these natural health voters went with him in hopes that he could change the food and healthcare system for the better as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the new administration.
Unfortunately, Kennedy’s rhetoric is often profoundly at odds with his actions, and with the actions of the wider Trump administration. To cite just one example, while Kennedy says he seeks to improve Americans’ health by bettering their diet, the administration he serves is gutting programs that provide local and organic produce to schools and low-income residents. Likewise, promises to make Americans “healthy again” is at odds with the administration’s roll-back of regulations designed to limit pollution.
Then there are Kennedy’s ideas about vaccines.
Vaccines and vitamins
About the time I met Kennedy, it was reported that the U.S. had eliminated measles due to widespread vaccination efforts. Since then, the anti-vax movement has picked up steam, encouraged in part by Kennedy’s anti-vaccine comments over the years. Now, in 2025, under his watch as head of HHS, the disease has reappeared in the U.S., spreading from a community in Texas to more than 700 cases throughout the U.S. and two reported deaths. Moreover, Kennedy was an anti-vax advocate during a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019, which killed 83 people in a population of 200,000.
Frankly, no amount of vitamin A—a nutrient Kennedy touted in a March 4 interview on Fox News as a treatment for measles—will stop its spread. Yet, a week after the interview, when he touted the “very good” results of treating measles with vitamin A-rich cod liver oil, demand for the product skyrocketed in Texas, Yahoo News reported. Now, a number of measles patients in Texas are showing signs of vitamin A toxicity, according to the New York Times, which noted that children being treated for measles at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, included “a handful of unvaccinated children who were given so much vitamin A that they had signs of liver damage.”
Kennedy’s conflation of anti-vaccine messaging and unsubstantiated claims about using nutritional supplements as a cure for highly infectious diseases does a major disservice to the dietary supplement industry, the health care industry—and to consumers.
In fact, the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) was so concerned about how the credibility of nutritional supplements might be affected that it issued a statement on March 26: “While vitamin A is an essential nutrient that plays a critical role in supporting vision, growth, reproduction and immune function, it is not a substitute for vaccination. While vitamin A plays an important role in supporting overall immune function, research hasn’t established its effectiveness in preventing measles infection.”
Andrea Wong, senior vice president, scientific and regulatory affairs for CRN, said, “Measles is a serious and highly contagious viral disease that can lead to severe health complications. Treatment and care for measles should always be conducted under the guidance of a qualified healthcare practitioner. Consumers must make informed decisions and consult qualified health professionals before giving supplements to children—especially in large doses.”
Citing that it was becoming difficult to work with the new HHS secretary, the FDA’s top vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks, submitted his resignation on March 29, saying he was willing to address Kennedy’s concerns about the safety of vaccines but concluded that it was not possible. “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks wrote in his resignation letter. Marks oversaw the FDA’s rapid review and approval of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic and is credited with coining the name and concept for “Operation Warp Speed” under President Trump’s first administration.
Office exodus
The same day, Kennedy announced he was cutting an additional 10,000 jobs from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees several agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest cuts come after the departure of roughly 10,000 employees over the past few months as a result of the drive by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut jobs throughout the federal government. In total, the cuts amounted to approximately 25% of HHS’s total workforce being eliminated.
The job cuts, allegedly designed to improve efficiency, may well end up costing the government money. “There’s this narrative being spun that somehow by eliminating jobs and functions that taxpayer dollars are going to be saved or that programs will be more efficient,” a staffer with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services who asked for anonymity told Politico. “The reality is the exact opposite.”
Previous cuts to the FDA by DOGE, led by billionaire Elon Musk, resulted in the resignation in February of James Jones, FDA’s Deputy Commissioner in charge of food safety and nutrition, including dietary supplements, following what he called “indiscriminate” layoffs of dozens of food safety inspectors. Jones said the cuts would make it “fruitless” to continue in his role. “I was looking forward to working to pursue the department’s agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food,” Jones wrote.
Following news of DOGE’s February cuts at the FDA, which included a number of staff firings at the FDA’s office of Dietary Supplement Programs, CRN expressed concern about the federal agency’s ability to effectively oversee dietary supplements and food safety. “As the FDA deputy commissioner steps down, it’s critical that the agency maintains adequate staffing and expertise to uphold consumer confidence in the food supply,” CRN said in a statement.
“While staffing changes can occur during any presidential transition, it is critical that the FDA maintains the resources, expertise and staffing levels necessary to ensure effective dietary supplement oversight that undergirds consumer confidence in the supplement market,” said Jeff Ventura, CRN’s vice president of communications.
Growing problems
Meanwhile, at USDA, pauses and cuts to funding for school lunch programs, supplemental nutrition assistance programs and organic farming initiatives run counter to MAHA’s avowed efforts to improve public health. Pauses in funding for organic transition and soil conservation programs are leaving farmers on the hook for millions of dollars they invested on the promise of reimbursement, while “accidental” firings of bird flu researchers have raised concerns that the beginnings of a new pandemic may go undetected.
According to reporting by E&E News by Politico in February, federal officials have been withholding funding for two major organic agriculture programs that make payments directly to farmers, jeopardizing millions of dollars in funding ahead of the 2025 planting season. “The pause on the $85 million Organic Market Development Grant program and the $100 million Transition to the Organic Partnership Program has jolted farmers, nonprofits and businesses struggling to make planting and hiring decisions. Even if the pause on funding is lifted, it could put farmers out of business,” wrote reporter Marcia Brown, who noted that the USDA has yet to release funding for the programs, even though federal courts ordered an end to the across-the-board freeze.
USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp program, is under DOGE scrutiny, while the House of Representatives budget plan seeks to cut up to $230 billion from SNAP. Such funding cuts would affect sales for natural and organic food producers, including for such healthy staples as organic dairy and plant-based foods that are frequently purchased by SNAP recipients.
On March 10, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the cancellation of $1 billion in federal funding that gave schools and food banks money to purchase food from local farms and ranchers. According to Kevin Hardy, a reporter with Stateline, the funding boosted business for more than 8,000 farmers, providing local food to food banks and schools. “The Trump administration is killing the programs, despite HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign against processed food, which he says is poisoning Americans,” Hardy wrote.
When it comes to our food system, we are all for getting the chemicals out of food, and the FDA’s announcement in January that it would ban Red Dye No. 3 from food products is to be celebrated. Now, if only Kennedy and the Trump administration could start focusing on the other 9,999 questionable chemicals allowed in commercial food production.
Overall, it is difficult to square Kennedy’s rhetoric with the on-the-ground actions of the administration he serves. And that, to me, is the painful irony of MAHA.
Steven Hoffman is Managing Director of Compass Natural, providing public relations, brand marketing, social media and strategic business development services to natural, organic, regenerative and sustainable products businesses. Contact steve@compassnaturalmarketing.com.