One of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s most devoted cheerleaders, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, may have an ulterior motive for supporting the vaccine skeptic’s nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a new report from The American Prospect.

Soon-Shiong has seemingly gone out of his way to boost Kennedy’s bid to head the U.S. health agencies.

In December, Soon-Shiong reportedly blocked the publication of an op-ed criticizing Trump’s Cabinet choices, including Kennedy, TAP reported.

Last week, LA Times contributor Eric Reinhert accused the legacy newspaper of making significant edits to a piece of his that was largely critical of Kennedy, recasting his warning about Trump’s pick to head HHS with a more optimistic tone. The edited version suggested that the virulent anti-vaccine advocate could help assuage the American public’s poor opinion of the health care industry. The New Republic published the original version of Reinhert’s piece here.

When Kennedy’s nomination was narrowly advanced on Tuesday, Soon-Shiong posted on X to cheer him on. “Yay!!!! The transformation of healthcare begins,” he wrote.

But it looks like the billionaire scientist’s support is ultimately self-serving. As Kennedy’s confirmation advances, ImmunityBio, Soon-Shiong’s biotech firm, has three pending drug applications in front of the Food and Drug Administration.

Soon-Shiong founded ImmunityBio in 2014, just four years before he bought the LA Times. The firm’s first commercial drug, Anktiva, which treats a form of bladder cancer, hit the market last April after it was initially rejected the year before. The snafu led Soon-Shiong to infuse an additional $400 million into the company to keep things moving, according to the LA Business Journal.

By ensuring his new buddy secures the position overseeing the FDA, Soon-Shiong can possibly avoid hitting the same expensive snag a second, third, and fourth time.

Soon-Shiong is listed as ImmunityBio’s executive chairman and global chief medical and scientific officer, and in December, his ownership share of the company was around 80 percent.

The far right, including Elon Musk, are pushing a conspiracy theory that the U.S. Agency for International Development secretly funds several mainstream media outlets, including Politico, the Associated Press, and The New York Times.

The conspiracy hatched on Tuesday after a technical glitch prevented Politico’s employees from receiving their paychecks. MAGA influencers, including Benny Johnson, Dana Loesch, and Rob Smith, all saw this as a direct result of Donald Trump suspending USAID’s programs. Johnson fueled the unfounded belief by posting screenshots from USASpending.gov showing that the federal government paid Politico $8.2 million last year, and wrongly assumed that it all came from USAID.

However, in reality, that money appears to come from Politico Pro subscriptions, which are targeted at business executives, lobbyists, and government workers, and cost more than $10,000 each. It also was the total amount of money from all government agencies, not just USAID. The service tracks legislation, votes, and lawsuits, and includes niche reporting and analysis about news from within the federal government.

Right-wing commentators then found what they claimed was evidence that USAID funneled money to the Associated Press, although much of that is due to syndication agreements between the AP and government media outlets such as Voice of America.

Ian Miles Cheong then got in on the conspiracy-mongering, posting screenshots claiming that The New York Times is being funded by the U.S. government, prompting Musk to post, “NYT is government-funded media.” The right-wing panic quickly made its way to the floor of Congress, where Representative Lauren Boebert falsely claimed during a hearing that Politico was laying off staff due to USAID’s funding being cut.

Even the Trump administration weighed in, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters at a briefing that she “can confirm that the more than eight million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayer’s dime will no longer be happening.”

“The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now,” Leavitt said.

As ludicrous as this false narrative is, the right is not likely to listen to evidence that goes against its “findings,” especially as media outlets continue to report news from the Trump administration that it dislikes. The expenditures it is decrying are a tiny fraction of the trillions of dollars in the federal budget, and go toward subscriptions and advertising. But all the right sees is an excuse to go after the media outlets that criticize it, even if some conservatives, like Johnson, took money from the Russian government.

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