A combative Senate hearing Thursday exposed growing cracks in Republican support for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has set off panic across the public health world with his moves to curb vaccine access, approval and research.
But despite the efforts of some key GOP senators to drive a wedge between President Trump and his health secretary, Trump has continued to embrace Kennedy and remains reluctant to alienate his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) coalition that helped deliver him to the White House.
Trump, during a dinner with some of the nation’s leading tech CEOs Thursday night, said he heard Kennedy “did very well” at the hearing, though he hadn’t watched it.
“It’s not your standard talk, I would say,” Trump said of Kennedy. “And that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what’s going on in the world with health, and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different.”
Kennedy showed no signs of backing down from his most divisive decisions during Thursday’s hearing. He aggressively defended his moves to oust the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director and impose new restrictions on COVID-19 vaccine eligibility, confronting members of both parties. And he deflected questions by saying senators were “making stuff up,” even going after Republicans.
“Is this a question, Sen. Cassidy? Or is this a speech?” Kennedy asked at one point, after being pressed by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate’s Health Committee, on his support for Trump’s Operation Warp Speed.
Following the hearing, Trump allies said Kennedy’s appearance delivered the kind of combativeness the president appreciates.
“Bobby Kennedy came out at the beginning breathing fire,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, said during his “War Room” podcast, arguing that the White House needs to be more forceful in its defense of Kennedy.
“They’ve been trying to tear Bobby Kennedy apart in [the] process of trying to fire him as Secretary of HHS,” Bannon said, before adding that by the end of the hearing, “Bobby Kennedy I think gave better than he got.”
Kennedy was once a fierce critic of the first Trump administration. He later suspended his own presidential campaign in 2024 and endorsed Trump in exchange for being put in charge of the nation’s health agencies.
Kennedy has described the position as his dream job, though he has continued to face criticism from conservatives skeptical of the MAHA movement. He announced last month that he was not going to run for president in 2028, pledging loyalty to Trump in carrying out the president’s vision.
“The president has made himself the answer to my 20-year prayer that God would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic — and that’s exactly what my team and I will do until the day he leaves office,” Kennedy said in a post on social platform X.
One source close to the White House argued Kennedy was brought into the fold for a reason and was unlikely to face significant heat from the president.
“I know how it’s circling the news now, but the reason he’s going to stick with him is the MAHA agenda overall is very popular, and he’s the most popular Cabinet member, at least in polling,” the source said.
“I think there’s going to be some trial and error, but the whole reason Trump picked him for this position was to clean house, and that’s what he’s doing,” the source added.
Polls show Kennedy is indeed among the most popular of Trump’s Cabinet members, though the numbers are overall unfavorable. A CBS News/YouGov poll found Kennedy has a 45 percent job approval rating and a 55 percent disapproval rating. A Gallup poll from the beginning of August showed Kennedy with 42 percent favorability.
During Thursday’s hearing, Senate Democrats noted the White House’s apparent favoritism toward Kennedy.
“I’m not surprised Stephen Miller credited you with being the crown jewel of the Cabinet. In my observation about the ‘crown jewel of the Cabinet’ and the policies of folks who get rewarded, are the ones who fire those in service that speak truth to power,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said.
Calls for the secretary to resign or be fired are mounting from Democrats and public health groups.
A coalition of medical organizations and societies called for his resignation on the day of the hearing, saying the recent fracas at the CDC is a “final exclamation point on a term defined by repeated efforts to undermine science and public health.” Eleven of 12 Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee made the same demand.
But political analysts note it’s going to take more than angry words from fired staffers or a few unhappy GOP senators to sway Trump.
“While Republican criticisms of Secretary Kennedy are heightening, ultimately he has an audience of one: President Trump,” Raymond James analyst Chris Meekins, a health official in Trump’s first administration, wrote in a note after the hearing. “We believe RFK is on more sure footing than many in D.C. and investors appreciate.”
And despite the turmoil, conservative voices say it still makes sense for Trump to back Kennedy; his value is in his disruption. Kennedy has won over many conservatives who initially questioned his views on abortion and environmental activism.
Jay Richards, director of the DeVos Center for Human Flourishing at the Heritage Foundation, said Trump was too beholden to the administrative state in his first term. Now, the “traditional” guardrails are gone.
“This sort of second Trump term, I think he understands the problems much better,” Richards said. “And I think he recognizes in Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both a discernment and a willingness to take on precisely those same forces in the entrenched bureaucracy.”
According to Richards, if Kennedy moves “faster than President Trump thought he ought to” on vaccines, that could cause tension. But he thinks the secretary has acted deliberately and carefully so far.
“I think that the path that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is steering is precisely the middle ground,” Richards said. “It might seem controversial, simply because the Uniparty is uniformly up in arms over the modest reforms that he’s making. But I don’t think that the sort of pace at which he’s proceeding is putting him at risk at all with President Trump.”
Brett Samuels contributed reporting.
