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Posted by Nicholas Florko

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/03/robert-f-kennedy-jr-meme-laundering/686515/?utm_source=feed

Millions of people have watched Robert F. Kennedy Jr. body-slam a man dressed up as a Twinkie. In an AI-generated video that Kennedy posted to X last week, he walks into a wrestling ring—shirtless, shredded, wearing his signature blue jeans. His opponent is smiling and holding a sign that reads I ♥️ Junk Food before Kennedy plants his foot into the Twinkie’s chest and suplexes the oversize treat into the mat. After a barrage of punches, kicks, and throws—all set to a Limp Bizkit song—the 72-year-old flexes his muscles while flames shoot out around him.

America’s health secretary has been on a meme blitz. Last month, the real-life Kennedy stripped down to his jeans to pump iron, cold plunge, and drink whole milk with Kid Rock. Thanks to AI, Kennedy has also been depicted as a character in the Nintendo game Super Smash Bros. who launches a frosted donut into oblivion, and as an action figure complete with “waterproof jeans” who protects kids from artificial food dyes. On Christmas Eve, Kennedy posted an AI-generated clip in which he calls Santa Claus to persuade him to put down the cookies, jump on the treadmill, and start chugging whole milk.

The memes are PSAs made for the TikTok age. Many of them explicitly mention Kennedy’s new slogan: “Eat real food.” They are absurd, juvenile, and, one has to acknowledge, pretty funny in their commitment to the bit. Many politicians have turned to memes to spread their message in ways that come off as embarrassing or out of touch (Hillary Clinton once urged her fans to “Pokémon Go to the polls”). But Kennedy—or his team, at least—seems to recognize the advantages of being in on the joke. A crusading 72-year-old with a six-pack, let alone one who works out in jeans, makes for prime internet silliness.

The recent memes are reportedly conceived of and made by a group of young staffers. Liam Nahill, Kennedy’s 26-year-old digital director, had a donut slapped out of his hand by Mike Tyson for one video. The approach is especially notable in the context of the Trump administration’s broader hunt for virality. The White House and other agencies have leaned into using social media to double down on the president’s antagonistic messaging—attacking opponents and making cruel jokes about volatile political issues such as war and mass deportations. The White House’s official X account has recently tried to promote the war in Iran by splicing footage of missile strikes with clips from Call of Duty and Wii Sports. Last year, the White House shared the image of a sobbing immigrant in handcuffs and turned it into an AI cartoon; Border Patrol posted a video of immigrants in shackles set to the song “Closing Time.”

[Read: The gleeful cruelty of the White House X account]

Kennedy’s memes, while over-the-top, offer a much more sanitized message: Be healthy. (At least, as far as Kennedy would define healthiness.) “The tonality of it doesn’t have quite the same emphasis on dominance, control, and fear,” Donald Moynihan, a professor at the University of Michigan who has written about the Trump administration’s approach to social media, told me. The memes are clearly invested in portraying Kennedy as an avuncular, larger-than-life cartoon hero. The health secretary moonlights as a falconer and follows a “carnivore diet.” In January, the HHS X account wished Kennedy a happy birthday by posting a photo of him cutting into a steak adorned with birthday candles. In the meme of Kennedy as an action figure, he changes from a suit into jeans to go rescue a peregrine falcon.

What Kennedy’s memes are not addressing is telling. Since taking office, Kennedy has attempted to dramatically rejigger America’s vaccine system. Though those efforts have recently been met with legal resistance, the result has been a kind of vaccine purgatory, in which it’s unclear who exactly is setting the country’s immunization policy. Kennedy’s meme campaign is happening at the same time that the Trump administration is reportedly trying to rein in the secretary’s anti-vaccine advocacy ahead of the midterm elections. Late last year, a prominent Republican pollster published a memo stating that “vaccine skepticism is bad politics.” It’s likely not a coincidence that there are no HHS memes about measles or autism.

Emily Hilliard, an HHS spokesperson, did not answer questions about strategies to divert attention away from Kennedy’s anti-vaccine efforts. “Secretary Kennedy is the most-followed Cabinet Secretary in the Administration across all platforms,” Hilliard told me in an email. “Our content is designed to reach broader audiences, meet people where they are, and reinforce practical, everyday steps.”

While Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views remain unpopular, his critiques of the food supply have broad bipartisan support. A February poll found that nearly 70 percent of Americans think the government should do more to discourage unhealthy eating. On that front, however, Kennedy and his team haven’t actually accomplished much. The health secretary came into office pledging to “end the chronic-disease epidemic,” but several of the policies he promised—such as removing ultra-processed foods from school lunch—are not even within his purview as health secretary. In a YouTube video posted shortly before he was picked to lead HHS, Kennedy decried the fact that America hadn’t yet banned certain artificial food dyes, promising that “President Trump and I are going to stop the mass poisoning of American children.” Instead of eradicating synthetic food dyes, which is within his purview as health secretary, Kennedy has focused on using his bully pulpit to pressure food companies to voluntarily remove them.

[Read: America’s convenience-store conundrum]

Amid prodding from the secretary, some food companies have said they will do so, but many of those pledges do not go into effect until next year or later. Doritos is one the few brands that has already introduced dye-free versions of its chips, and yet the company also still sells the bright-orange version. Although the administration has also released new dietary guidelines, telling people to “eat real food” and getting them to actually do so are separate challenges entirely.

This middling progress—the actual work of government, of public service—is obscured by Kennedy’s online persona. Twinkies might still be on supermarket shelves, but the health secretary will meme his way to the notion that he is laying the smackdown on the junk-food industry nonetheless.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/03/robert-f-kennedy-jr-meme-laundering/686515/?utm_source=feed