Sarcastically, certainly one of Donald Trump’s greatest political liabilities can also be arguably his best achievement as president: the fast improvement of the COVID-19 vaccine. A swath of the Republican base stays overtly hostile to vaccines, which has left Trump uncovered to uncommon criticism from his MAGA supporters. In line with sources, Trump allies corresponding to Tucker Carlson and Roger Stone have been fearful sufficient in regards to the former president’s vulnerability on the vaccine challenge that they needed him to publicly disavow Operation Warp Velocity, the public-private program that launched a COVID vaccine in lower than 9 months. However Trump refused as a result of, properly, has Trump ever handed up an opportunity to assert credit score for a hit? (Carlson and Stone declined to remark.)
Consequently, sources say Carlson, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., and others helped engineer an alternate: Robert Kennedy Jr.’s determination to drop out and endorse Trump. Stone informed folks that Kennedy, whose third-party marketing campaign served as a automobile for his anti-vaccine views, was peeling off sufficient voters to tip the election to Kamala Harris. “You could have perhaps 3% of voters the place opposition to vaccines is their one challenge,” says a Republican who participated within the courtship of Kennedy.
However getting Kennedy and Trump to forge an alliance nearly didn’t occur. The 2 New York scions have famously massive egos and a historical past of viciously attacking one another. Trump beforehand known as Kennedy a “phony, radical-left idiot,” a “Democratic ‘plant,’” and a “liberal lunatic.” Kennedy, in the meantime, wrote a 2018 Newsweek op-ed that stated Trump’s “presidency has not simply discredited our nation, however the whole American experiment in self authorities.”
A breakthrough got here following the July 13 assassination try on Trump’s life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Just a few hours after the taking pictures, Carlson put Trump and Kennedy on a textual content thread collectively, in response to an individual briefed on the communications. Kennedy texted Trump that he was able to drop out and endorse him however wasn’t certain of the timing, the supply says. On a telephone name the next day, Trump courted Kennedy by endorsing Kennedy’s unproven view that vaccines damage kids. “While you feed a child, Bobby, a vaccination that’s like 38 totally different vaccines and it seems prefer it’s meant for a horse, not a, , 10-pound or 20-pound child,” Trump stated, “and then you definitely see the newborn swiftly beginning to change radically. I’ve seen it too many instances.” However the relationship hit a setback when Kennedy’s son, Robert Kennedy III, posted a video of the decision with Trump to social media.
The injury management fell to Florida financier Omeed Malik, a Trump donor and shut good friend of Don Jr. and Robert Kennedy III. (Malik’s anti-woke private equity firm, 1789 Capital, invested in Tucker Carlson’s digital video enterprise.) Malik organized an in-person meeting between Trump and Kennedy on the opening day of the Republican conference to debate an endorsement. In line with individuals briefed on the assembly, Kennedy got here in with unrealistic expectations that he might be FDA chairman or Well being and Human Providers Secretary in a Trump administration. “There have been asks,” a supply briefed on the talks tells me. (Kennedy denied this.) “The assembly concluded with out a deal,” the supply says. The Trump marketing campaign declined to remark.
Talks between Kennedy and Trump went darkish. Over the following a number of weeks, Malik labored behind the scenes to deliver Trump and Kennedy again collectively. In line with the supply, Kennedy and Trump agreed on 4 broad coverage areas: treating continual illness, opposing censorship, adopting an isolationist overseas coverage, and exposing the deep state. The supply stated the deal-breaker was that Kennedy wanted to be on Trump’s transition staff. “That was nonnegotiable,” the supply says.
“There was no quid professional quo of any type,” Kennedy tells Vainness Truthful.
On Tuesday, the Trump marketing campaign introduced Kennedy would function an honorary co-chair of the transition alongside former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. “That is going to provide Bobby the power to resolve who will get into authorities,” the supply says.
Former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg says Kennedy’s presence on the transition is a sign to anti-vax voters that Trump will likely be an ally in workplace. “That is Trump’s approach of winking to Kennedy’s supporters,” Nunberg says.
One open query is what position Kennedy’s vice presidential decide, Nicole Shanahan, would possibly play in Trumpworld. On Tuesday, Shanahan declined to say if she would marketing campaign for Trump. And he or she disputed that Kennedy dropped out of the race. “We’re technically nonetheless operating and on the poll! Simply suspended,” she texted.
