Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may be falling out with the MAGAverse. On Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. made the case that the Democratic scion is caught up in a conspiracy designed to undermine his father. “It legitimately always felt like it was a Democrat plant to hurt the Trump thing,” he said of Kennedy at the Trump campaign’s Iowa headquarters. “He wouldn’t be there if the Democrats didn’t want him,” the Trump son added, according to NBC News.
Members of Trumpworld previously cheered on Kennedy’s campaign with gusto: They hoped that the presidential hopeful, an anti-vaxxer who has embraced a number of conservative policy planks, would badger Joe Biden and ultimately weaken his political standing in the general election. But that calculus appears to have changed a little over two weeks ago, when Kennedy dropped out of the Democratic primary in favor of a third-party bid.
While Kennedy could still hurt Biden in a general election, some polling suggests that Trump is at higher risk of losing votes. A Quinnipiac University survey taken in September found that Kennedy has much higher favorability marks among Republicans (48%) than Democrats (14%).
Trump Jr., for what it’s worth, has argued that the opposite is true. “He should be much more of a threat to Joe Biden than to us,” he said of Kennedy. Still, he urged conservatives against viewing the independent hopeful as an ally. “Once you actually look at his voting record, you’re like, no, he’s just a liberal that is anti-vax,” Trump Jr. continued. “Being anti-vax, I don’t think that’s enough.” (The Kennedy campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
That Trump Jr. would be so concerned about vaccines is noteworthy, given that vaccine skepticism is perhaps the one issue in which Kennedy could outflank Trump from the right. Kennedy has spent years as a face of the anti-vax movement. The former president, meanwhile, has been somewhat ambivalent toward anti-vaxxers, and—likely much to their displeasure—even sought to take credit for the development of the COVID-19 vaccines. His vulnerability on the issue has already provided ammunition for Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and Trump’s main rival in the GOP primary: “You have another wrinkle now with RFK Jr. as a third party,” DeSantis said earlier this month. “RFK Jr. will be a vessel for anti-lockdown and anti-Fauci voters if Trump is the nominee. He would hurt Trump.”
Trump Jr.’s comments represent a significant departure from his father’s view on Kennedy a few months ago. “He’s a very smart guy,” Trump said in July, before musing about how the then Democratic candidate might hamper Biden’s reelection campaign. “He’s hit a little bit of a nerve. And a lot of Democrats I know want to vote for him.”
