Using the theme “Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy is on the campaign trail for the Republican nominee after dropping out and endorsing Trump.
At a campaign stop in Michigan this week, where he was interviewed by Real America’s Voice, Kennedy urged his own supporters to vote for Trump in November even though his name will be on the ballot.
“The only way that I'm gonna get to Washington and have an effect on this agenda of Making America Healthy Again,” Kennedy said, “the only way that that's gonna happen is if president Trump gets elected.”
Kennedy attempted, but failed, to get his name removed from the ballot in the vital battleground state.
A longtime critic of corporate greed, Kennedy published a video this week where he is surrounded by popular junk food brands. Around the planet, he says, other developed countries that ban dangerous ingredients do not suffer from early deaths and chronic diseases like the American population.
“Like the frog and the slowly boiling water, we didn't really notice as we got sicker and sicker,” Kennedy says. “We've grown now to accept chronic disease conditions as normal.”
Among the most damning examples, Kennedy said tartrazine was originally derived from coal tar but you can find it listed on food ingredients as Yellow 5, a food dye for adding color.
“What you may not know,” Kennedy states, “is that this dye was originally made out of the sludge that's left over when you turn coal into coke for blast furnaces.”
AFN found a WebMD story confirming Yellow 5 does contain tartrazine. It is found in everything from sodas and yogurt to toothpaste and shampoo, but the article cites studies that have downplayed its dangers or found testing inconclusive.
A related story on food additives by The Daily Mail, published in 2023, said European countries often include warning labels but don’t ban many controversial ingredients completely. One food ingredient banned in Europe is potassium bromate, a suspected carcinogen. A second ingredient banned there is titanium dioxide, used in candy such as Skittles and Starbursts.
Kennedy’s vow that a second Trump administration will crack down on unhealthy food additives is causing debate among conservatives over the proper role and reach of the federal government.
“Parents need to make these decisions, not the government,” one X user wrote this week.
“Preventing our people from being poisoned is exactly one of the things we have a government for,” another X user replied.
In a second similar exchange, an X user said everyone knows junk food is unhealthy and nobody is being forced to eat potato chips and candy bars.
"People can exercise self control," someone replied, "but there are ingredients that should never be approved to be in our food."
