President Trump’s Tariffs On Aluminum Imports Impact Price Of Beverage Makers’ Aluminum Cans

Paid-Off ‘Conservatives’ Are Fighting For Your Right To Use Food Stamps For Soda

Paid-Off 'Conservatives' Are Fighting For Your Right To Use Food Stamps For Soda

Coca-Cola

Conservatives

Department of Health and Human Services

Food

Food Stamps

Matt Walsh

Opinion

President Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Twitter

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has unveiled a new tool that allows people to look up chemical contaminants in foods from a large database.
The database was created to give Americans more transparency and &#8220;modernize&#8221; food chemical safety, a press release from Health and Human Services (HHS) said.
“HHS is committed to radical transparency to give Americans authentic, informed consent about what they are eating,” Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/hhs-fda-announce-chemical-contaminants-transparency-tool-foods">statement</a> Thursday. “This new Chemical Contaminants Transparency Tool is a critical step for industry to Make America Healthy Again.”
The tool, which can be <a href="https://www.hfpappexternal.fda.gov/scripts/fdcc/index.cfm?set=contaminant-levels" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accessed here</a>, includes tolerances, action levels, guidance levels, derived intervention levels, recommended maximum levels, and advisory levels of contaminants. Some of the contaminants included in the database are Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, a synthetic pesticide; Chlordane, an organochlorine pesticide; and Aldrin and Dieldrin, which are both synthetic chemicals in the insecticide family.
“Ideally there would be no contaminants in our food supply, but chemical contaminants may occur in food when they are present in the growing, storage or processing environments,” acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner said. “Because many of the most nutritious foods can also contain contaminants, consumers should eat a variety of nutrient-dense foods across and within the main food groups of vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy and protein to help protect from possible exposure effects.”
The agency signaled that, with Kennedy at the helm, the FDA would continue to promote &#8220;radical transparency to make sure all Americans know what is in their food and Make America Healthy Again.&#8221;
In another related move, RFK Jr. has <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/operation-stork-speed.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> &#8220;Operation Stork Speed&#8221; to help ensure safety and quality in the domestic baby formula supply.
“The FDA will use all resources and authorities at its disposal to make sure infant formula products are safe and wholesome for the families and children who rely on them,” Kennedy said. “Helping each family and child get off to the right start from birth is critical to our pursuit to Make America Healthy Again.”
The FDA announced the following actions related to the operation:
<ul>
<li>Starting the nutrient review required by law by issuing a Request for Information in the coming months to start the first comprehensive update and review of infant formula nutrients by the FDA since 1998</li>
<li>Increasing testing for heavy metals and other contaminants in infant formula and other foods children consume</li>
<li>Extending the personal importation policy</li>
<li>Encouraging companies to work with the FDA on any questions regarding increased transparency and clearer labeling</li>
<li>Communicating regularly with consumers and industry stakeholders as significant developments occur to ensure transparency, including information regarding nutrients and health outcomes</li>
<li>Collaborating with the National Institutes of Health and other scientific bodies to address priority scientific research gaps regarding short- and long-term health outcomes associated with formula feeding in infancy and childhood across the lifespan</li>
</ul>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mahas-latest-wins-on-fluoride-food-and-vaccines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MAHA’s Latest Wins On Fluoride, Food, And Vaccines</a>

Democratic Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Delivers Address To Jewish Community In New York

RFK Jr. Unveils New ‘Transparency’ Tool That Lets You Search Chemical Contaminants In Foods

RFK Unveils New ‘Transparency’ Tool That Shows Chemical Contaminants In Foods

Health

Politics

President Donald Trump said while touring the Kennedy Center on Monday that he is releasing all of the files related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy this week and that they will likely not be redacted.
Trump told reporters that the release will happen Tuesday afternoon and will include approximately 80,000 documents.
&#8220;While we&#8217;re here, I thought it would be appropriate, we are tomorrow announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;So people have been waiting for decades for this, and I&#8217;ve instructed my people that are responsible, lots of different people, put together by Tulsi Gabbard, and that&#8217;s going to be released tomorrow.&#8221;
&#8220;We have a tremendous amount of paper. You&#8217;ve got a lot of reading. I don&#8217;t believe we&#8217;re going to redact anything. I said, just don&#8217;t redact. You can&#8217;t redact,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;But we&#8217;re going to be releasing the JFK files, and that would be tomorrow.&#8221;
Trump suggested that he has not personally seen all the documents, but he has heard about them.
The president added that there will be no summaries released with the documents and that the public and the media will have to come up with their own conclusions.
&#8220;It&#8217;s approximately 80,000 pages,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So it&#8217;s a lot of stuff, and you&#8217;ll make your own determination.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 President Trump announces that the JFK Files will be released tomorrow:
&quot;People have been waiting for decades for this.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/VrXDy2saRz">pic.twitter.com/VrXDy2saRz</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1901732366617362915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

President Trump Participates In A Kennedy Center Board Meeting And Tour

Trump Releasing ‘All’ JFK Files: ‘I Don’t Believe We’re Going To Redact Anything’

Donald Trump

Executive

General

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Over the past week or so, the &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maha-update-here-are-rfks-latest-moves-on-big-food-and-big-pharma" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Make America Healthy Again</a>&#8221; movement has impacted federal and state policy regarding the fluoridation of public water, food oversight, and vaccination priorities.
Utah, for example, will become the first state in the nation to ban the addition of fluoride to public drinking water. 
Currently, only two counties in the state add the chemical to their water supply, but nearly half of all state residents live in those counties. The legislation is sponsored by Republican Rep. Stephanie Gricius, who argues that it’s expensive to add fluoride, and nixing this addition is about promoting “individual choice.&#8221; The bill notably moves to allow pharmacists to prescribe fluoride tablets to those who need the mineral. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox has said he will sign the bill into law, which would take effect on May 7. 
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the figurehead of the MAHA movement, has routinely spoken out against the practice of fluoridation. Just before the election, he posted on X that on Day One of Donald Trump&#8217;s presidency, he would advise that all U.S​. water systems remove fluoride from public water. He’s also called fluoride an “industrial waste” and says it’s associated with numerous negative effects, like arthritis, IQ loss, and thyroid disease. 
RFK Jr. has highlighted other studies and a ruling from an Obama-appointed federal judge back in October that said fluoride in drinking water presents an “unreasonable risk” and ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to respond. 
However, it’s not just Kennedy and MAHA figures debating fluoridation practices. Dr. Leana Wen, for example, has said that such a policy must be re-evaluated. Wen is notably the former president of the Planned Parenthood abortion mill and strongly opposed Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary, calling him a &#8220;conspiracy theorist.&#8221; 
&#8220;Yes, it is true that, historically, fluoridating public water saved a lot of teeth, that it was good for oral health, but times have changed and the incremental benefit is not nearly as much as it was before the widespread availability of fluoridated toothpaste,&#8221; Wen recently <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/renewed-focus-health-claims-fluoridated-water-115936425?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> ABC News. 
&#8220;There are still about three million Americans living in areas where the fluoride level is above 1.5 mg/L, where harm has been associated,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;I think there’s a good question about what should the level be? Maybe the EPA’s maximum level should be lowered. Maybe people living in areas with high fluoride concentration should be told that that’s the case. Maybe certain individuals who are particularly vulnerable, like pregnant women and young children, should be told to use fluoride water filters.&#8221;
&#8220;I definitely think that more studies are needed,&#8221; Wen added. &#8220;But in the meantime &#8230; it would not be unreasonable to give people a choice, that people in those areas might want to know if that&#8217;s the case.” 
As noted by Wen, proponents of water fluoridation <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/inside-americas-fluoride-rebellion-ab9aa524">argue</a> that it&#8217;s safe in drinking water at low levels and is important for oral health, which could impact one&#8217;s overall health. They also say that it’s particularly helpful for lower-income communities, arguing that toothpaste and mouthwash with fluoride might not be as affordable or accessible for everyone. 
A number of other states and communities have been battling out the question of fluoridation since RFK Jr.&#8217;s rise in the last election. And though Utah will be the first state to ban fluoridation, Hawaii also does not add fluoride to its water supply, though there is no ban in place.
On vaccine protocol, the National Institutes of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/03/10/vaccines-nih-rfk-research-canceled/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Health</a> will stop spending money to find out why Americans are hesitant to take vaccines. The NIH, which is part of HHS, is terminating or scaling back more than 40 related grants and has said that such spending no longer aligns with NIH priorities. 
Additionally, as previously reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kennedys-cdc-to-reportedly-study-potential-link-between-vaccines-and-autism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a>, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is also studying whether there is any link between vaccinations and the rise in autism. A CDC study from 2020 found that one in 36 children in the U.S. have been diagnosed with autism.
On food, RFK Jr. has directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revise a rule that allows companies to “self-affirm” the safety of food ingredients. Under the revision, manufacturers will have to publicly submit safety data for new ingredients. HHS says such enhanced oversight will “bring transparency to American consumers.” 
Also, on Monday, Kennedy met with executives from major food companies, including PepsiCo, General Mills, and Kellogg&#8217;s, and urged them to eliminate certain dyes from their recipes. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-make-america-healthy-again-commission-is-already-impacting-the-food-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> has previously covered the other ways the MAHA movement has impacted the food industry from the very start of President Donald Trump&#8217;s second term. 
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maha-update-here-are-rfks-latest-moves-on-big-food-and-big-pharma" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘MAHA’ Update: Here Are RFK’s Latest Moves On Big Food And Big Pharma</a>

Celebrity Sightings In New York City – July 21, 2023

MAHA’s Latest Wins On Fluoride, Food, And Vaccines

'Make America Healthy Again' Movement's Latest Wins On Fluoride, Food, And Vaccines

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate’s most experienced and tenacious investigator, finally has the attention of the corporations that took more than $9 billion from taxpayers to house illegal immigrant children in the United States.
During the Biden administration, the contractors refused to answer Congress’s questions even as hundreds of thousands of “unaccompanied minors” disappeared. In some cases, children were allegedly sexually abused by contractor staff. In other cases, contractors dropped them off to live with unvetted sponsors who refused to answer the government’s calls afterward.
Grassley said the missing children must be located — and that contractors will no longer get away with taking taxpayer money while snubbing oversight. Now that Republicans control the White House and Congress, the Iowa Republican sent document demands to 23 contractors, according to copies of the <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/2025-03-10-Grassley-to-Asset-Protection-Security-Services-LP-Contractors-and-Grantees-Follow-Up.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letters</a> obtained by The Daily Wire. The letters largely reissued the same demands he sent a year ago, which he says were met with stonewalling.
“It’s unacceptable for recipients of taxpayer funding to refuse to provide information to Congress about the use of those funds. And it’s beyond unacceptable for these federally-funded entities to refuse to answer questions designed to determine whether they protected children,” he said in letters to companies such as Cherokee Federal, Southwest Key Programs, and Asset Protection &amp; Security Services LP.
The letters ask questions like “what actions, if any, did you take to ensure that no children would be sponsored or placed in potential situations where there may be signs of criminal activity, including human trafficking? … Where questions require entire case files or contracts to answer, those case files and contracts must be provided.”
In what could be one of the largest scandals in American history, the “unaccompanied alien children” (UAC) program allowed illegal immigrant children to cross the border and remain in the United States as long as they came without their parents.
That created a class of people who were exceedingly vulnerable to exploitation by labor or sex traffickers: They didn’t speak English, they were helpless children, they had a desperate need to make money to repay coyotes who brought them here. And local and state authorities didn’t know they existed, meaning they could be killed, abused, or disappeared, and no one would know.
Children were held in centers then transported by contractors to live with “sponsors,” who were often other illegal immigrants who did not have to be relatives, and who the government did not have to see in person before handing off the children.
The program was administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, which is not a law enforcement agency and had no authority to check documents of sponsors, arrest criminals, or take children back from abusers. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Grassley that he will ensure “radical transparency” around the missing children, and White House border czar Tom Homan has pledged to mount a rescue operation for them.
“Shockingly, children were placed by HHS and one of its contractors even where they were notified of likely MS-13 gang affiliation in the household,” Grassley wrote. Grassley sent a detailed criminal referral to the FBI in January 2024 that provided leads on 100 possible human traffickers.
This week’s letters ordered 23 contractors and grantees to provide all contracts with the government, along with documents showing the process for identifying and vetting sponsors, how often and what sort of background checks or home visits were conducted, and cases where individuals sought to sponsor a large number of children.
They also must provide a list of all instances where minors disclosed physical or sexual abuse, and all records where contractors found evidence of possible human trafficking.
Grassley sent letters to the following contractors or grantees:
<ol>
<li>Asset Protection &amp; Security Services LP</li>
<li>BCFS Health and Human Services</li>
<li>Bethany Christian Services</li>
<li>Cayuga Centers</li>
<li>Center for Family Services</li>
<li>Cherokee Federal</li>
<li>Compass Connections</li>
<li>Endeavors</li>
<li>General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc.</li>
<li>Global Refuge</li>
<li>Heartland Human Care</li>
<li>Holy Family Institute</li>
<li>Morrison Child Family Services</li>
<li>Rapid Deployment Inc</li>
<li>Southwest Key programs</li>
<li>Sunny Glen Children&#8217;s Home</li>
<li>The Providencia Group LLC</li>
<li>US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Inc.</li>
<li>VisionQuest National Ltd</li>
<li>A Greater Love Foster Family Agency, Inc.</li>
<li>A New Leaf, Inc.</li>
<li>Alba Care Services Inc.</li>
<li>National Youth Advocate Program, Inc.</li>
</ol>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unaccompanied-migrant-children-were-raped-by-federal-contractors-doj-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southwest Key Partners is being sued</a> by the Department of Justice after it said children were subject to “pervasive” sexual abuse at the hands of its employees. In one case an “eight-year-old girl disclosed that the Youth Care Worker repeatedly entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private area,’ and he threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.” <a href="https://www.axios.com/2021/04/14/texas-nonprofit-border-contract-biden-official" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Family Endeavors</a> won a half-billion dollar contract after hiring a former Biden official. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblowers-detail-how-85000-unaccompanied-minors-went-missing-after-biden-admin-dropped-them-off-with-sponsors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cherokee Federal</a>, a whistleblower said, was staffed by “frankly dangerous people who had access to vulnerable children.”
A 2023 series in The New York Times unearthed internal government data that showed that in a third of placements, “sponsors” could not or would not tell the government where the child was 30 days later. At the time, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-kamalas-kids-in-cages-lie-paved-the-way-for-a-child-trafficking-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">85,000 children</a> were unaccounted for.
In August, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general said the department did not know the location of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dhs-made-no-effort-to-locate-missing-unaccompanied-alien-children-auditor-says-in-urgent-alert" target="_blank" rel="noopener">300,000 minors</a>, and “Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UCs, ICE has no assurance UCs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.”
Biden Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he was “aware of reports of children being trafficked,” but that stopping trafficking was “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mayorkas-says-stopping-trafficking-of-alien-children-is-outside-the-responsibility-of-dhs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outside the responsibility</a> of the Department of Homeland Security.”
About <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/guatemalan-traffickers-exploit-bidens-unaccompanied-alien-children-program-records-suggest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">70% of unaccompanied minors come from Guatemala</a>, a percentage that is wildly inconsistent with overall migration patterns, and suggests that cartels in that country are exploiting the program, essentially using the United States government as last-mile delivery.
The “unaccompanied minor” policy was essentially a loophole that created an open border for children, leading to a surge so vast that federal employees from unrelated agencies had to be detailed to temporary stints as border workers. Lindsey Friend was one such federal employee who served a stint at a processing facility in April 2021. She said it was so emotionally devastating that it was difficult to talk about.
“This was the most backwards way of doing things,” Friend told The Daily Wire. “A whole bunch of feds build a bunch of temporary tent cities, process them as fast as possible, with a U.S. background check and then no follow up. That&#8217;s just not a good idea.”
“Saying that unaccompanied minors can stay, that induced the family separation. The kids separated from their parents” as a result, she said.
“They were not unaccompanied. Their entire journey, they were accompanied by a coyote who left them at the border. Then they sought out a border patrol agent and had their birth certificate to show that they were a minor. So this was all deliberate.”
She said background checks were a farce, because “you&#8217;re just typing in a name, right? There&#8217;s no Social Security numbers because they&#8217;re undocumented and their name is something common.” The background check was a public website that checked only U.S. records, even though sponsors often just came to the United States recently.
Even though the government claimed the children were required to go to school, all the children said their plan was to work, she said. It would be impossible for state-run Child Protective Services or truancy officers to intervene.
“We did not notify any state or local agency that we were sending these kids there,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We did not contact the local school district.”
Some of the children wished they could be back in Guatemala with their parents. “I should not have come,” they cried. “I just want to come home.”

Southwest Key Combes is a facility run by Southwest Key Programs that houses “tender age” immigrant children who have been separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Grassley Probes Contractors Who Made Billions On Disastrous ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ Program

Chuck Grassley

Department of Homeland Security

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reportedly studying if there is any link between vaccinations and the rise in autism.
Sources told Reuters that the CDC, which is under the purview of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is planning a large study into vaccines and autism. A CDC study from 2020 found that 1 in 36 children in the United States have been diagnosed with autism.
The Daily Wire reached out to HHS about the report, but has yet to receive a reply.
Over the weekend, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-cdc-plans-study-into-vaccines-autism-sources-say-2025-03-07/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the department will leave &#8220;no stone unturned&#8221; while studying the rise in autism.
“As President Trump said in his Joint Address to Congress, the rate of autism in American children has skyrocketed,&#8221; he said. &#8220;CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening. The American people expect high quality research and transparency and that is what CDC is delivering.&#8221;
National Institutes of Health (NIH) director nominee Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has said he doesn&#8217;t believe there is a link between vaccines and the rise in autism, but would back &#8220;a broad scientific agenda&#8221; looking into the matter.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t generally believe there is a link, based on my reading of the literature. But we do have a sharp rise in autism rates, and I don&#8217;t think any scientist really knows the cause of it,&#8221; Bhattacharya said during a confirmation hearing. &#8220;I would support a broad scientific agenda based on data to get an answer to that.&#8221;
Kennedy is currently tackling a measles outbreak in Texas, where 198 cases have been identified since late January, largely among the Mennonite population. In an op-ed published this month, RFK said the <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/cdc-team-assisting-texas-measles-outbreak-case-total-rises">outbreak</a> must elicit a “<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/robert-f-kennedy-jr-measles-outbreak-call-action-all-us">call to action</a>” for all of us to affirm our commitment to public health.
The secretary said he’s harnessing HHS to support Texas communities and the state&#8217;s health department by making the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine readily available. HHS has sent 2,000 doses of the vaccine to West Texas. Kennedy also said he’s focusing on educating parents on post-infection treatments and nutrition. 
&#8220;What we’re trying to do is really to restore faith in government, and to make sure that we are there to help them with their needs and not particularly to dictate what they ought to be doing,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6369595673112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maha-update-here-are-rfks-latest-moves-on-big-food-and-big-pharma" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘MAHA’ Update: Here Are RFK’s Latest Moves On Big Food And Big Pharma</a>

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Visits “The Faulkner Focus”

Kennedy’s CDC To Reportedly Study Potential Link Between Vaccines And Autism

Trump Administration

Vaccines

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is continuing to advance his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-make-america-healthy-again-commission-is-already-impacting-the-food-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;Make America Healthy Again&#8221; movement</a> this coming week, reportedly meeting with top executives from major food brands.
Kennedy, as highlighted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-make-america-healthy-again-commission-is-already-impacting-the-food-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a>, has already impacted the food industry and made several vaccine-related moves as HHS secretary.
RFK is expected to meet with executives from General Mills, PepsiCo, and other big-name brands on Monday, according to a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/08/rfk-jr-food-industry-meeting-00219631" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from Politico. The meeting was apparently encouraged by the White House &#8212; President Donald Trump reportedly wants department heads to meet with leaders from the industries they oversee.
Kennedy has voiced concerns about seed oils, dyes, preservatives, and other ingredients often found in processed foods and sugary drinks. Reports suggest food companies will be on board with some related changes, though it&#8217;s expected there will be a lot of pushback over axing seed oils, since they are so inexpensive and versatile.
Additionally, there&#8217;s been a stronger push from state reps and the federal government to limit sugary and highly processed food and drink options for government food benefits, called SNAP. Specifically, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), as well as lawmakers in Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Texas, and Wyoming, are looking to restrict SNAP.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has also previously said she&#8217;s working with RFK to advance the MAHA movement, and specifically mentioned restricting SNAP. Though, according to The Wall Street Journal, President Trump is skeptical of restrictions or bans since they are typically unpopular with the public. And, notably, Trump himself is an <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/01/21/diet-coke-button-donald-trump/77856559007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">avid lover of Diet Coke</a>. 
On vaccines, Kennedy has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/childhood-vaccines-schedule-kennedy-trump-hhs-4d5e6c52c602f5edbcd837748605e9d0">indicated</a> that he’ll effectively be reviewing the childhood vaccination schedule. As the head of the &#8220;MAHA Commission,&#8221; Kennedy said he’ll investigate vaccines, as well as pesticides, food additives, microplastics, and antidepressants, to see if they have contributed to a rise of chronic illness.
The HHS secretary has also halted the CDC’s “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/19/nx-s1-5302906/cdc-flu-vaccine-campaign-terminated">Wild to Mild</a>” campaign <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/26/rfk-jr-vaccines-informed-consent-cdc-messaging-vaccinations/#:~:text=Health%20and%20Human%20Services%20Secretary,campaign%20promoting%20the%20flu%20vaccine.">promoting</a> the flu vaccine. Kennedy wants advertisements going forward to promote the idea of “informed consent” in vaccine decision-making, which would include giving people <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/26/rfk-jr-vaccines-informed-consent-cdc-messaging-vaccinations/#:~:text=Health%20and%20Human%20Services%20Secretary,campaign%20promoting%20the%20flu%20vaccine.">information</a> about the adverse events associated with vaccines.
Additionally, citing conflicts of interest, RFK is preparing to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2025/03/01/rfk-jr-readies-cdc-for-changes-in-vaccine-policies/">remove</a> several members of the external committee that advises the FDA and CDC on vaccine approvals and other key public health decisions. Recommendations from that committee, known as ACIP, are almost always followed by HHS and could impact the childhood vaccination schedule. Kennedy has <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/adult-non-flu-vaccines/scheduled-meeting-cdc-vaccine-advisers-postponed#:~:text=The%20postponing%20of%20the%20ACIP,committees%20likely%20to%20be%20targeted." target="_blank" rel="noopener">postponed</a> ACIP’s first panel to &#8220;accommodate public comment in advance of the meeting.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-make-america-healthy-again-commission-is-already-impacting-the-food-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How The ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Commission Is Already Impacting The Food Industry</a>

‘MAHA’ Update: Here Are RFK’s Latest Moves On Big Food And Big Pharma

Prescription Drugs

U.S.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kenned Jr. emphasized the importance of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine for children on Sunday as a Mennonite community in Texas faces a &#8220;measles outbreak.&#8221;
Kennedy wrote a 700-word <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/robert-f-kennedy-jr-measles-outbreak-call-action-all-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">op-ed</a> for Fox News Digital urging parents to talk to their doctors about the MMR vaccine for children. According to the <a href="https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-feb-28-2025#:~:text=There%20has%20been%20one%20fatality,area%20and%20the%20surrounding%20communities." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas Department of Health</a>, 146 measles cases have been identified in the South Plains region since January, mostly among unvaccinated children. One unvaccinated school-aged child in the area died from the respiratory illness while 20 people have been hospitalized.
&#8220;Parents play a pivotal role in safeguarding their children’s health. All parents should consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine,&#8221; Kennedy wrote. &#8220;The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.&#8221;
&#8220;The current Texas outbreak has predominantly affected children, with 116 of the 146 cases occurring in individuals under 18 years of age,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The DSHS reports that 79 of the confirmed cases involved individuals who had not received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, while 62 cases had unknown vaccine status. At least five had received an MMR vaccine.&#8221;
Kennedy added that &#8220;good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses,&#8221; saying that parents should focus on vitamin-rich and balanced diets.
&#8220;The measles outbreak in Texas is a call to action for all of us to reaffirm our commitment to public health. By working together — parents, healthcare providers, community leaders, and government officials, we can prevent future outbreaks and protect the health of our nation,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Under my leadership, HHS is and will always be committed to radical transparency to regain the public’s trust in its health agencies.&#8221;
Last week during the first cabinet meeting of the new Trump administration, the HHS secretary said that the measles outbreak in Texas was &#8220;not unusual.&#8221;
&#8220;Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. Last year, there were 16. So it’s not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year,&#8221; he said.
In the 16 measles &#8220;outbreaks&#8221; in 2024, there were a total of 285 reported cases of the illness, most of which were in children. Of the 285 measles cases, 40% required hospitalization last year. The death of a Texas child last month is the first death attributed to measles in the U.S. since 2015.
Kennedy said he directed federal agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to work with the Texas state government and offer &#8220;technical assistance, laboratory support, vaccines, and therapeutic medications as needed.&#8221;

RFK Addresses ‘Measles Outbreak,’ Touts MMR Vaccine’s Effectiveness

Measles

Texas

With Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm, President Donald Trump&#8217;s ambitious “Make America Healthy Again Commission&#8221; is already impacting the food industry.
The “MAHA Commission,&#8221; established in an executive order, asks for a strategy to “Make Our Children Healthy Again” in about six months from now &#8212; but changes from the private sector already seem to be in motion.
<a href="https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/27722-maha-commission-may-shine-public-health-spotlight-on-food-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According</a> to Robert Moskow, a food industry analyst for investment bank TD Cowen, food and beverage brands will proactively start to remove artificial flavors and preservatives that they believe won’t pass new standards. 
Some big-name restaurants have already publicized their health swaps. For example, the food chain Steak &#8216;n Shake famously announced last month that it would start cooking its fries in beef tallow. RFK has promoted beef tallow over vegetable and seed oils. Sweetgreen and Blue Collar Restaurant Group have also replaced seed oils. There was also RFK signaling to McDonald&#8217;s, the largest fast food chain on the globe; he said after his swearing-in that the corporation should be “incentivized&#8221; to use beef tallow. 
Americans will also likely see changes at Mondelēz International, one of the largest snack companies in the world, which owns brands like Oreo, Ritz, Chips Ahoy!, Clif Bar, Cadbury, and others. 
Mondelēz CEO Dirk van de Put <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/mondelez-ceo-says-kennedy-agenda-product-re-formulations-will-mean-price-hikes-2025-02-18/">said</a> on Tuesday at a conference that due to pressure from RFK, the company would likely swap out some ingredients and food dyes it currently uses in favor of its European recipes. Europe has stricter standards for its food. 
Van de Put added that consumers would see price hikes over the changes. 
<div class="text__text__1FZLe text__dark-grey__3Ml43 text__regular__2N1Xr text__small__1kGq2 body__full_width__ekUdw body__small_body__2vQyf article-body__paragraph__2-BtD" data-testid="paragraph-5">&#8220;It&#8217;s work that needs to be done,&#8221; the CEO said, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/mondelez-ceo-says-kennedy-agenda-product-re-formulations-will-mean-price-hikes-2025-02-18/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Reuters. &#8220;It&#8217;s cost that will come.&#8221;</div>
Though companies seem willing to make adjustments to items like dyes and preservatives, Moskow said there would be strong push-back over seed oils since they are so inexpensive and versatile. Constituents of the agribusiness industry will likely present studies at upcoming hearings to make the case that the oils are safe, the food analyst said. 
Kennedy has also signaled incoming changes for SNAP, which are government-funded food benefits, and the federally-subsidized school lunch program. Those changes could impact the food industry based on the scope of those programs. In fiscal year 2023, the government spent more than $112 billion on SNAP, and about $17 billion on the National School Lunch Program. 
Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said last week that she would work with RFK to reform SNAP. 
“I look forward to working with Bobby Kennedy as we figure out, do we have the healthiest choices &#8212; so when a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they okay with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious,&#8221; Rollings told the press. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins welcomed RFK Jr.’s help to reform SNAP to cut “bad food and sugary drinks.”
“When a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they okay with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who need something more… <a href="https://t.co/5Vh0aMHIzG">pic.twitter.com/5Vh0aMHIzG</a>
— American Values 🗽 (@AVPac_US) <a href="https://twitter.com/AVPac_US/status/1891150735791751240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
“We shouldn&#8217;t be giving 60% of the kids in schools processed foods that are making them sick,&#8221; RFK <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URQ2MxVbPBc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> during his confirmation hearing. 
Speaking to his HHS staff earlier this week, RFK addressed the department&#8217;s ambitious agenda and underscored the challenges Americans are currently facing.
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“In the U.S., six out of every ten adults have at least one chronic disease, and four in ten have two or more,&#8221; Kennedy said. &#8220;The U.S. has the highest age-standardized cancer incidence rate among 204 countries in the world.&#8221;
&#8220;Asthma and autoimmune diseases are far more common in the U.S. than in any other part of the world,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Autism now affects one in every 36 kids, a more than four-fold increase over past decades. The sperm counts and testosterone are down about 50% in American boys, and our girls are reaching puberty six years earlier than historical generations.” 
RFK stressed during his address that his goal is to earn back the public’s trust and accomplish that through transparency. Trust in institutions and scientists has significantly <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/trend/archive/fall-2024/americans-deepening-mistrust-of-institutions">dropped</a> since COVID. 
“I want the agencies under HHS to earn that back, that level of global trust,&#8221; Kennedy said. &#8220;And what is the path to public trust? The path to trust is always through transparency. Transparency is the foundation of science, and it is the foundation of democracy.”

COMBO-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-KENNEDY

How The ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Commission Is Already Impacting The Food Industry 

How The ‘Make America Healthy Again Commission’ Is Already Impacting The Food Industry 

Health and Human Services

Imagine we&#8217;re back in the late 1980s or early 1990s. You&#8217;re feeling depressed and no one wants to talk to you, so you pay a psychiatrist to listen to your problems. But even after talking things out with your shrink, you&#8217;re still not feeling great. All hope seems lost. Then the shrink tells you not to despair, because you have the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial for a new class of drug that has the potential to cure all of your symptoms, called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, or SSRIs.
If you enter the trial, you have a chance of getting the new SSRI drug, or you could get a placebo that does nothing. You&#8217;re told it&#8217;s a win-win: If you participate in the clinical trial, Big Pharma will get some more data on whether this new class of drugs actually works. And you have a chance of being cured. If you&#8217;re not cured, then in all likelihood, the worst-case scenario isn&#8217;t a big deal. Either you get a placebo and nothing changes, or you get the real drug, which has relatively modest side effects — like dry mouth, nausea, dizziness, and so on. And in exchange for enduring those side effects, your depression might go away. So what do you have to lose?
This was the process drug companies used to convince the world that SSRIs worked. After running a bunch of &#8220;double-blind&#8221; clinical trials, they found that people who took the SSRIs ultimately reported that they felt better than people who received the placebo. Therefore, we were told that the whole &#8220;serotonin theory of depression&#8221; must be true. After all, when people took SSRIs and had more serotonin in their brains, their depression went away. The people who took the sugar pill didn&#8217;t do as well. So there you have it. Science wins again.
There&#8217;s a major problem with this whole methodology, however. It&#8217;s a problem that somehow didn&#8217;t occur to any of the media outlets or physicians who pushed SSRIs for decades. You might have to think about it for a few minutes, but eventually it becomes obvious. Here&#8217;s the issue: In practice, these clinical trials weren&#8217;t actually double-blind. The vast majority of patients were able to &#8220;break blind,&#8221; as they say in the industry. And that means they were able to figure out whether they got the real SSRI or the placebo. That&#8217;s because, in most cases, the patients who got the real drug very quickly noticed they were experiencing some of the side effects. After all, if you take a pill and you start experiencing dry mouth or nausea or something like that, then you&#8217;ll probably conclude that you&#8217;re taking an active medication. And that&#8217;s exactly what happened in many of these trials. In fact, in one study, <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4172306/#c25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conducted</a> by researchers at Columbia, 89% of participants correctly guessed that they were on the SSRI. That&#8217;s an extremely high number for a clinical trial.
Now you can probably see the issue. If the studies aren&#8217;t really double-blind, then we have no way of knowing if the SSRIs actually improved people&#8217;s moods. It&#8217;s quite possible that these patients were actually feeling better because they thought they were taking a wonder drug. And then they convinced themselves that it was working, so they told the therapist they were improving. This is commonly referred to as the &#8220;placebo effect,&#8221; and the only way to defeat it — particularly when you&#8217;re trying to assess the effectiveness of psychoactive drugs — is with double-blind studies. And that didn&#8217;t happen with SSRIs.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1539-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
This is not some crackpot theory, by the way. A few years ago, a researcher at Harvard named Irving Kirsch <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4172306/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found:</a>
<blockquote>Analysis of the published data and the unpublished data that were hidden by drug companies reveals that most (if not all) of the benefits are due to the placebo effect &#8230; The relatively small differences between drug and placebo in antidepressant trials are at least in part due to &#8216;breaking blind&#8217; and discerning that one is in the drug group, because of the side effects produced by the drug.</blockquote>
Kirsch goes on to suggest that, instead of SSRIs, maybe all patients should be given a placebo. After all, based on the FDA&#8217;s data, less than 45% of SSRI trials showed a statistically significant benefit of the SSRI over a placebo. And the placebo, of course, has no side effects.
But as we all know, there&#8217;s no money in prescribing sugar pills. So instead, doctors and the pharmaceutical industry pushed SSRIs. Based on these garbage clinical trials — which fall apart under the slimmest possible scrutiny — the use of SSRIs among teenagers and adults in this country increased by almost 400% from the early 1990&#8217;s to 2006. And it kept going up. By 2014, one in ten adults was filling an SSRI prescription. From 2015 to 2021, SSRI use increased by another 35%. We&#8217;re talking about tens of millions of prescriptions here.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans suffering from depression has kept increasing. According to Gallup, in 2023, &#8220;The percentage of U.S. adults who report having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime reached 29.0%, nearly 10 percentage points higher than in 2015.&#8221; In other words, we&#8217;re more depressed than ever, and at the same time, we&#8217;re taking more antidepressants than ever.
These prescriptions have continued even after one of the most prominent medical journals on the planet admitted that actually, doctors no longer think low serotonin levels are linked to depression. In other words, if these drugs actually work, then no one can actually explain why. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Quoting</a> from the journal Molecular Psychiatry: &#8220;Our comprehensive review of the major strands of research on serotonin shows there is no convincing evidence that depression is associated with, or caused by, lower serotonin concentrations or activity. Most studies found no evidence of reduced serotonin activity in people with depression compared to people without. &#8230; This review suggests that the huge research effort based on the serotonin hypothesis has not produced convincing evidence of a biochemical basis to depression.&#8221;
I&#8217;ll say that again. &#8220;This review suggests that the huge research effort based on the serotonin hypothesis has not produced convincing evidence of a biochemical basis to depression.&#8221; This was a paper published in the summer of 2022, by one of the top journals in the entire field of medicine. No serious person disputes it.
And yet, to this day, if you suggest that depression isn&#8217;t related to a chemical imbalance, as I did this week, you will be dogpiled for doing so. It’s been impossible to have anything approaching an honest conversation about depression and SSRIs because many of the people on these drugs will lash out with blind rage if you even suggest that depression might have causes that go deeper than “chemical imbalances.” If you try to talk about the problem of despair with any depth or nuance at all, you are screamed out of the room by drug addicts who don’t know they’re drug addicts. The truth is, though, that none of the support for SSRIs is based in reality. This whole class of drugs has been peddled to tens of millions of people based on complete fabrications. It&#8217;s not an overstatement to say that this is one of the great medical scandals of our time.
What&#8217;s changing now is that, finally, someone in a position of authority is finally willing to investigate these drugs — and many other drugs like them. A few days ago, via executive order, the Trump administration established something called the &#8220;Make America Healthy Again Commission,&#8221; or &#8220;MAHA,&#8221; and it&#8217;ll be headed by RFK Jr. The purpose of the commission, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/establishing-the-presidents-make-america-healthy-again-commission/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the White House, is to determine why Americans have shorter life expectancies than people living in other nations — as well as higher rates of chronic diseases like cancer and asthma. Part of this effort means assessing the, &#8220;prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs.&#8221; Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
HHS Secretary RFK Jr. pledges “NOTHING is gonna be off limits” in chronic disease investigation
“The childhood vaccine schedule, electromagnetic radiation, glyphosate, other pesticides, ultra processed foods, artificial food additives, SSRI and other psychiatric drugs, PFAs,… <a href="https://t.co/kWV2LHuqTG">pic.twitter.com/kWV2LHuqTG</a>
&mdash; Holden Culotta (@Holden_Culotta) <a href="https://twitter.com/Holden_Culotta/status/1891888695185375248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
As of right now, as you heard, RFK&#8217;s commission is going to be focused on gathering data. They&#8217;re not banning anything outright. They&#8217;re not punishing doctors for prescribing anything. Instead, they&#8217;re doing what the government should&#8217;ve done several decades ago. They&#8217;re looking at the existing evidence and determining whether it&#8217;s valid or not. They&#8217;re not going to simply accept &#8220;clinical trials&#8221; without looking closely at them. They&#8217;re going to see whether it makes sense to keep prescribing these drugs to so many Americans, particularly young people.
You have to wonder what kind of person would object to a fact-finding effort like this. After all, if SSRIs (and the other drugs he mentioned) actually work as advertised, then the extra scrutiny wouldn&#8217;t be a problem at all. But RFK Jr. has received a lot of push back already. Newsweek, for example, recently took aim at RFK&#8217;s claim that antidepressants can be more addictive than heroin. They cited a Stanford professor as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/rfk-jr-antidepressants-ssris-drugs-maha-2032297" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a>: &#8220;Antidepressants and heroin are in different universes when it comes to addiction risk. In my 35 years in the addiction field, I&#8217;ve met only two or three people who thought they were addicted to antidepressants versus thousands who were addicted to heroin and other opioids.&#8221;
So we&#8217;re meant to conclude that RFK is a conspiracy theorist for even suggesting that SSRIs can cause dependency. Just a few years ago, however, that was not a conspiracy theory at all. It was settled science. In 2018, the New York Times published an article entitled, &#8220;Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit.&#8221; Here&#8217;s some of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/health/antidepressants-withdrawal-prozac-cymbalta.html?rsrc=ss&amp;unlocked_article_code=1.s04.GyfR.MCfR9TrwZ4dZ&amp;smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;referringSource=articleShare" target="_blank" rel="noopener">relevant findings</a>: &#8220;In New Zealand, where prescriptions are at historic highs, a survey of long-term users found that withdrawal was the most common complaint, cited by three-quarters of long-term users. &#8230; In a recent survey of 250 long-term users of psychiatric drugs — most commonly antidepressants — about half who wound down their prescriptions rated the withdrawal as severe. Nearly half who tried to quit could not do so because of these symptoms. In another study of 180 longtime antidepressant users, withdrawal symptoms were reported by more than 130. Almost half said they felt addicted to antidepressants.&#8221;
Now, if you compare those numbers to the percentage of heroin users who become addicted within a month of using the drug, you&#8217;ll find that RFK actually has a point. By one <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2681168" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimate</a>, up to 38% of new heroin users become dependent within a year. That&#8217;s a lot, obviously, but it&#8217;s less than the number of antidepressant users who reported feeling severe withdrawal symptoms.
This is why RFK&#8217;s commission is an important step. It&#8217;s clear we have a lot of evidence that antidepressants are causing far more harm than most people realize. But they&#8217;re not seeing the evidence because it&#8217;s being suppressed. A transparent commission can solve that problem. It can also address this objection, which was <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/kennedy-rfk-antidepressants-ssri-school-shootings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">just published</a> by the Left-wing outlet Mother Jones.: &#8220;In a 2023 livestream on X with Elon Musk, [RFK] claimed that &#8216;tremendous circumstantial evidence&#8217; suggested people taking antidepressants were more likely to commit school shootings. (Actually, most school shooters were not taking those drugs, evidence shows.).&#8221;
This is another common refrain you hear from defenders of SSRIs. They say &#8220;most school shooters&#8221; were not taking SSRIs. As we&#8217;ve previously discussed, there are two major problems with this line. First of all, we don&#8217;t know what drugs a school shooter was taking unless the family discloses it. The police and hospitals won&#8217;t tell anyone, citing privacy laws. And in pretty much no case does the family definitely state that the shooter wasn&#8217;t taking any kind of medication. Secondly, a lot of &#8220;mass shootings&#8221; are really gang violence, and those incidents get lumped in with school shootings. So they flood the data set, and make it hard to determine whether SSRIs are influencing a certain kind of shooting.
Anecdotally, of course, you&#8217;ll find plenty of evidence that SSRIs might be linked to school shootings. From Columbine to Northern Illinois University to the Navy Yard to the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, to the black church in Charleston to the Old National Bank in Kentucky, the shooters were all confirmed to be on antidepressants. In response to these shootings, you might say that correlation doesn&#8217;t prove causation. After all, these shooters were taking SSRIs because they were unstable. That doesn&#8217;t necessarily prove SSRIs made their condition worse.
And that&#8217;s true. But there is additional, affirmative evidence to believe that SSRIs are in fact making these shooters&#8217; condition worse. For one thing, there&#8217;s the FDA black box label on these drugs, which indicates that they can &#8220;increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior.&#8221; And then there&#8217;s this. A few years ago, researchers writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5066537/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that antidepressants doubled the risk of suicidality and violence, when they&#8217;re given to healthy people with no mental health disorders. From the journal: &#8220;Antidepressants double the occurrence of events in adult healthy volunteers that can lead to suicide and violence.&#8221;
How is that possible? The truth is we have no idea. We have no clue why these drugs supposedly work in the first place. And we have no idea why they might turn normal people into violent maniacs. It&#8217;s obviously a very concerning finding, especially given how much doctors are over-prescribing these drugs to any patient who claims to be depressed.
Doctors would rather prescribe those drugs than tell patients the truth about their depression, and how to deal with it. I can say that, in my personal life, I have known many people who take antidepressants. And in almost every case, there are glaringly obvious things in their lives that would cause any normal person to be depressed. Depression is a totally rational response to their circumstance. Instead of making lifestyle changes or dealing with the underlying trauma, however, they are given drugs that effectively numb their brain. It’s like giving someone a painkiller to make it hurt less when they put their hand on a hot stove. The stove is still burning them. The pain from the stove is not the problem. Their hands and nervous system work just fine. It’s where they’re putting their hand, that’s the problem.
The reason the medical establishment and Democrats are panicking over RFK&#8217;s commission is simple. The moment people realize they have agency — when they realize they can take their hand off the stove — they become a lot harder to control. They also become a lot harder to monetize. For Big Pharma and corporate media outlets that sell advertising space to Big Pharma, the implications are obviously dire. Nevertheless, for Americans hoping to reverse this country&#8217;s long-standing public health decline, after a generation of junk science and fake clinical trials, it&#8217;s a change that&#8217;s long overdue.

Secretary Of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Visits “The Ingraham Angle”

Democrats Enter Panic Mode As RFK Sets Out To Make America Healthy Again

Big Pharma

Depression

Science

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said this week that Americans who are receiving food stamps may soon be banned from using them to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha" target="_blank" rel="noopener">purchase junk food</a>.
Rollins made the remarks while answering questions from reporters outside the White House on Friday about working with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reform the SNAP program.
&#8220;I look forward to working with Bobby Kennedy as we figure out, do we have the healthiest choices?&#8221; she said. &#8220;So when a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they okay with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious?&#8221;
She said that she looked forward to working with DOGE to see where the SNAP program is wasting money and if it is meeting the metrics required to hit its goals.
&#8220;Oftentimes, these government programs are started with the idea that you&#8217;re going to help people — it&#8217;s not a handout, it&#8217;s a hand up — and then years later, the programs are even bigger, and you&#8217;ve got more people on them,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And are we really giving people a hand up, or is it instead a handout? So if we can have a whole other group of really smart people looking at SNAP and other programs at USDA, that will allow us to ensure, what are our metrics for success? Are we meeting those metrics for success?&#8221;
&#8220;Will we ever take food out of a hungry child&#8217;s mouth? Of course not. This is the United States of America,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;But truly, this program has grown so large, especially in the last administration. Under Biden, I think SNAP, grew almost 30% more than before.&#8221;
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According to the USDA, more than 42 million people received SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2023, costing the country well over $110 billion per year.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins welcomes RFK Jr.’s help reforming SNAP to cut “bad food and sugary drinks”
“When a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they okay with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who need something more… <a href="https://t.co/nFeooY3fkM">pic.twitter.com/nFeooY3fkM</a>
— American Values 🗽 (@AVPac_US) <a href="https://twitter.com/AVPac_US/status/1890865937936711863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Can Food Stamps Buy Junk Food? How DOGE Could Save Billions And MAHA</a>

US-Secretary-of-Agriculture-Press-Conference

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins Suggests RFK Jr. Could Ban Food Stamps Being Used On Junk Food

Agriculture

Economy

Shortly after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday, President Donald Trump announced the establishment of the “Make America Healthy Again Commission.”
Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/establishing-the-presidents-make-america-healthy-again-commission/">executive order</a> on Thursday that establishes the commission — and dives into the American health crisis in detail, arguing that 90% of the nation’s $4.5 trillion in annual healthcare expenditures are for people with chronic or mental health conditions, and that 77% of young adults don’t quality for the military based, in part, on their health scores.
All of these items are points of personal interest to the new HHS secretary.
“In short,” the order says, “Americans of all ages are becoming sicker, beset by illnesses that our medical system is not addressing effectively. These trends harm us, our economy, and our security.”
“To fully address the growing health crisis in America, we must re-direct our national focus, in the public and private sectors, toward understanding and drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease,” the executive order continues. “This includes fresh thinking on nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts, and food and drug quality and safety.”
Trump’s order further argues that his administration seeks to “restore the integrity of the scientific process by protecting expert recommendations from inappropriate influence and increasing transparency regarding existing data,” and ensure that “our healthcare system promotes health rather than just managing disease.”
The “Make America Healthy Again” commission will be chaired by Kennedy. The assistant to the president for Domestic Policy will serve as the executive director of the commission, and a slew of other members of Trump’s cabinet will be included as well, including the Education Secretary, the OMB director, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, and the Director of the National Institutes of Health.
Trump’s goal with the commission, according to the executive order, is first and foremost to fight childhood disease, but also address the overall health of Americans.
Within 180 days of the order, the commission is ordered to submit a strategy to “Make Our Children Healthy Again,” based on their findings from a “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment” that they will conduct.
“The Strategy shall address appropriately restructuring the Federal Government&#8217;s response to the childhood chronic disease crisis, including by ending Federal practices that exacerbate the health crisis or unsuccessfully attempt to address it, and by adding powerful new solutions that will end childhood chronic disease,” the order states.

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