Trump appoints Leavitt as White House spokesman. The anti-vax Robert Kennedy Jr to Health

Kennedy is today and for many years now primarily known as a defender of heterodox therapies and has in numerous instances espoused a range of conspiracy theories, claiming for example that vaccines are useless and indeed cause autism, despite extensive and decisive denials by scientific studies. He is against fluoride in drinking water, a method widespread in many countries as a prevention against tooth decay in children and which he claims instead lowers the IQ. He claims that wi-fi causes tumours and leaky brain, a serious brain disease called systemic syndrome of increased capillary permeability. Not only that: according to him chemicals in water are the reason for children becoming transgender, the HIV virus is not the cause of Aids

He also promised to dismantle drug and food regulatory agencies, such as the Fda, which he considers subservient to corporate interests. And to block all research into infectious diseases for eight years (the National Institute of Health, the preeminent public research institute, is part of the ministry). All convictions that portend harsh clashes with the medical and research community, and that have sown nervousness and panic among scientists.

It is unclear whether the Senate will confirm a controversial nomination, despite the Republican majority, as is the case with other controversial nominees, from Matt Gaetz at Justice to Pete Hegseth at Defence. Trump might otherwise try to push through risky nominations by asking the Senate Republican leader, John Thune, to declare a recess in parliamentary work that would allow him to decree them on his own authority for a period of two years.

Trump announced Kennedy's nomination on his Truth Social, touting the message of change. "For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial-food complex and pharmaceutical companies that have misled the public. The safety and health of all Americans is the priority of every administration. Kennedy will return the ministry's agencies to the tradition of the best scientific research and transparency to end the epidemic of chronic disease and make America Great and Healthy Again."

In a recent interview with NPR public radio, Kennedy anticipated the mandate given to him by Trump with these words: 'He gave me three instructions. He wants corruption and conflict out of the regulatory agencies. He wants them to return to empirical, factual science that used to be the norm. And he wants to do away with chronic diseases with measurable effects within two years.

Kennedy had made headlines in recent months more than for his policies for statements that were curious to say the least. He had disclosed that a parasite, later found dead by doctors, had eaten part of his brain. Ten years ago, he recounted, he had also loaded into his car a bear cub run over and killed by a friend in New York in order to skin it and store its meat in the refrigerator, but then he had been too busy and had abandoned the carcass in Central Park, generating a mysterious scandal only now resolved.