Former President Trump expressed tentative support for former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan to remove fluoride from water.
“Well, I haven’t talked to him about it yet, but it sounds OK to me,” Trump told NBC News on Sunday. “You know, it’s possible.”
Kennedy, who ran for president but suspended his bid in August and endorsed Trump, has spread unfounded health-related conspiracies.
Kennedy posted Saturday on the social platform X that if Trump wins the election, the first day in office his administration would “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.”
“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” Kennedy’s post said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by adding minerals back into a person’s mouth that are lost during normal activity.
Low levels of fluoride have been added to drinking water and is considered one of the greatest public health achievements over the last 100 years.
The former president has declined to talk about whether Kennedy would be part of his Cabinet, should he win the 2024 election, but Kennedy said Sunday that Trump assured him he would get a White House role.
Kennedy said Monday that the former president promised him “control” of public health agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture.
Kennedy has been a leading promoter of false theories about vaccines being linked to autism. He founded an anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense, and has been speaking more about children’s health.
Kennedy has argued that the 13 separate agencies under HHS, including the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, are in desperate need of reform.
