Jan. 17, 2026Updated Jan. 21, 2026, 11:26 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The undisputed architect and leader of the Make America Healthy Again movement has arrived for a rare interview.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. an attorney and activist, has spent his first year in office radically transforming the intersection of government and healthcare. Under his leadership, the nation’s vaccine guidelines have been rewritten. He’s literally flipped the food pyramid and withheld billions of dollars in grants.
We are here to question Kennedy about his MAHA movement, as part of our research for Episode Two of Extremely Normal, a show that examines how movements, ideas and leaders once considered fringe have now become integral to mainstream American politics.
Perhaps nobody better embodies this trend than Kennedy. Once ridiculed and dismissed for his nonconformist views on vaccines, nutrition, and exercise, Kennedy now leads a vast legion of followers and acolytes.
About 4 in 10 parents identify as MAHA supporters, according to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post.
And its popularity crosses party lines. Although 8 in 10 Republicans identify as MAHA parents, 1 in 6 Democrats do, too. About one-third of parents who identify as independent support the movement, the poll found.
We are here, primarily, to discuss vaccines and nutrition, but also Kennedy’s innate distrust in the U.S. government’s approach to healthcare and science. Episode Two of Extremely Normal drills into this movement, hoping to understand the concept of “Crunchy Moms.”
“Crunchy” used to be a proxy for liberal, progressive beliefs. Not any more. These days, it’s a synonym for conservatives who don’t trust the scientific establishment. And Kennedy, who has courted the new crunchy movement, is revered by it.
Over the next 26 minutes, we will touch on everything from the benefits of cooking with cast iron pans, to the possible dangers of cell-phone towers, to the health benefits of injecting peptides.
There will be revelations, new details and tidbits hinting at Kennedy’s views and beliefs.
Among them:
- Kennedy only eats meat and fermented food. Every day.
- He attributes this “carnivore diet” to losing 20 lbs.
- He last got a vaccine in 2005.
- He stopped taking flu shots because he suspects that side effects from them damaged his voice.
- He’s concerned about 5G cell towers.
- He won’t feed his children seed oils.
- He doesn’t wash his cast-iron pan.
And there are other juicy slices of news that Kennedy serves up during our conversation, not least his staunch views on vaccines and their safety, which will be showcased in Extremely Normal Episode Two.
Twenty minutes in, Kennedy’s staffers (and USA TODAY’s producer) are slicing their hands in front of their necks.
Cut. It’s time to cut.
But I have one more question.
I ask, leaning in:
“Are you ever worried? Do you ever have any concerns? Do you ever sort of lie awake at night thinking whether the things that you’re putting in place could have ill effects to health, could lead to people dying.”
At first, Kennedy’s answer is pretty standard:
“My job as HHS secretary is to tell the truth to people and then to let them make up their own minds. But for an agency like this to be effective, it has to have public credibility.”
He continues:
“We don’t tell noble lies. We tell the truth, whatever the impacts are.”
Fair enough.
But what if following the truth has ill effects down the line? I ask. Even if you didn’t intend them?
Now, Kennedy pushes fiercely back.
“What is the other choice? That I’m going to manipulate people?” he says. “You are urging me now to manipulate people and to lie to people for their own good. And that is not something that I think is a legitimate government function.”
USA TODAY filmed the entire interview, and it will be available next week. You’ll see Kennedy argue against seed oils, in favor of red meat, and give his thoughts about microdosing hallucinogens.
Many will agree with what he says. Many will disagree.
Will Carless covers extremism and emerging issues for USA TODAY. This story is part of a new docuseries “Extremely Normal,” exploring the new frontlines of extremism nationwide.
