Welcome to Power Players, The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers and experts take an in-depth look at the key figures in American politics as the US reshapes itself and the world. • The most powerful woman in the world you’ve never heard of• The ‘swamp creature’ eclipsing JD Vance in the race to succeed Trump• The greatest hope of the Trump resistance is a 34-year-old immigrant• The 28-year-old Trump attack dog ripping up the Washington playbook• The ‘pro-white nationalist’ whose power over Trump grows every day• Trump’s military cheerleader who is learning about war the hard way• The right-wing judge who put Trump above the law

Welcome to Power Players, The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers and experts take an in-depth look at the key figures in American politics as the US reshapes itself and the world.

• The most powerful woman in the world you’ve never heard of• The ‘swamp creature’ eclipsing JD Vance in the race to succeed Trump• The greatest hope of the Trump resistance is a 34-year-old immigrant• The 28-year-old Trump attack dog ripping up the Washington playbook• The ‘pro-white nationalist’ whose power over Trump grows every day• Trump’s military cheerleader who is learning about war the hard way• The right-wing judge who put Trump above the law

It’s common to refer to the Kennedys as American political royalty. The analogy works as far as it goes. The Kennedys in many ways symbolise the aspirations of this nation: a blue-collar family that overcame prejudice against both the Irish and against Roman Catholics to attain the loftiest heights of our society.

But as with many royals in the modern era, America’s relationship with the clan is best described as “love-hate.” The glamour and triumphs hide tragedies, scandals and heartbreaks that seemingly follow this family like a shadow. The “Kennedy curse” weighs heavily upon every Kennedy.

So it is with Robert Francis Kennedy Jr, now America’s 26th Secretary of Health and Human Services. He was six years old when his uncle was elected president and his father became JFK’s attorney general. He was just shy of his 10th birthday when that uncle was felled by an assassin’s bullet on national television. His father, later elected senator from New York, seemed on his way to claiming the presidency in his own right when he, too, was killed by an assassin. RFK Jr was just 14 years old.

RFK seemed primed to lead the third generation of Kennedys into public service, beginning his legal career in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. In 1983, however, he was arrested for possession of heroin and sentenced to probation with community service. For Kennedy, however, it became, improbably, a turning........

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