Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in a space I didn’t know existed. He’s turning out to not be unhinged enough to please the Make America Healthy Again crowd he nurtured with years of anti-vaccine nonsense and crackpot health theories. But at the same time, he’s acting too loony for the always-whackadoodle Trump administration.

What’s a longtime conspiracy theorist who guzzles raw milk and swims in sewage supposed to do? 

Kennedy is stuck between an army of MAHA loyalists and wellness influencers who specialize in mistakenly thinking they’re smarter than all of science and a president who very mistakenly thinks he’s smarter than everyone.

An explosion of measles made Trump and Co. rethink RFK Jr.'s high profile

The Wall Street Journal recently reported: “Aides close to President Trump decided to take a more active role in managing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s department in the face of polling that shows his vaccine moves are unpopular.”

Turns out putting an anti-vaxxer in charge of America’s health care and then seeing the number of measles cases in the nation surge dramatically is unpopular among people who believe preventable diseases are bad. 

You’d think the MAHA crowd would be unhappy to see their movement’s leader benched, but as it turns out, the crowd wasn’t all that happy anyway. Some MAHA vegans feel betrayed by Kennedy’s meat-centric views, and Trump’s recent decision to boost national production of the herbicide glyphosate has sent the anti-chemical movement into a rage spiral.

Del Bigtree, former CEO of the nonprofit MAHA Action, told USA TODAY: “I think President Trump is making a major mistake. I think the MAHA Moms feel burned by this.”

Trump betrays MAHA. Who could've seen that coming?

Trump’s executive order on glyphosate, the primary active ingredient in Roundup, was a slap in the face to the cult of RFK Jr., particularly since the president had promised Kennedy would “play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives.”

MAHA activist Kelly Ryerson posted on social media Feb. 18: “Just as the large MAHA base begins to consider what to do at midterms, the President issues an EO to expand domestic glyphosate production. The very same carcinogenic pesticide that MAHA cares about most.”

Oh my, Trump turned his back on you? How shocking. I’m officially coining the phrase: MAHA? HAHA!

Like virtually everyone in Trump’s orbit, the health-via-doing-your-own-online-research crowd has been tossed atop the president’s funeral pyre of disposable allies.

RFK Jr. was a useful tool for Trump, but that tool may no longer be needed

Pulling Kennedy into his campaign in 2024 helped buoy Trump’s reelection chances. Putting Kennedy in charge of health then made it look like the hamburger-Hoovering Trump cares about … you know … health, or whatever.

But as soon as Kennedy’s anti-vaccine kookery started to make the president look bad, the best friend bacteria has ever had got pushed aside. And as soon as farmers told him they needed herbicides to keep food prices down, the MAHA folks got hung out to dry.

Sorry, MAHA. Your intentions may be good, but this isn't going to end well

I think Kennedy’s a dangerous, anti-science nutter and a weirdo of the highest order. The farther he is kept from America’s health policy, the better off we all are. He’s a man best ignored.

And the MAHA movement members? I believe they’re well-intentioned, even though I disagree with how they dismiss scientific and medical facts in lieu of a dangerously arrogant “this sounds to me like it makes more sense” rationale. 

But at least they’re learning an incontrovertible fact: Trump believes in nothing and values only himself.

He’s a con artist, and MAHA believers were easy marks. If they were paying attention, they would’ve seen this coming.

I truly hope there’s an all-natural cure for getting burned.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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