President Trump Participates in Swearing in Ceremony for the Secretary of Health and Human Services

Good. Thank you very much. And thank you all for being here on this very exciting day. This is a very exciting day for. We just had a big tariff meeting. Reciprocal tariffs should have been done 40 years ago. Wasn't. But it is now. It's a big moment, actually, and this is a tremendous moment right now. And it's going to be a real honor for me to introduce Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Take the oath of office, and officially become our Secretary of Health and Human Services, just as I promised last year. Bobby is going to lead a great national mission to make America healthy again. And he's going to do it. I think he's going to do things that will really make us very proud of this day. Like his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, Bobby has devoted much of his life to serving his fellow Americans in his campaign for president. And he was a very tough competitor. I did not like it at all. I said, let's get him on my side. But in his campaign For President in 2024, Bobby brought together a coalition of supporters across party lines. And he really worked very hard. And he got. He had tremendous support, unbelievable support. And I think a lot of that support came my way when we decided to do a little merger. And it was really great. And it was very loyal. Very loyal. Incredible people. They believe in him so strongly because he's a fierce advocate for the health of our children and for the values of free speech, democracy, and peace. And people are going to be very impressed. I have no doubt. I've known him a long time. He's been a friend of mine a long time. Perhaps most importantly, though, Bobby created a nationwide movement made up of millions and millions of mothers and fathers and young people and concerned citizens of every background who want to end in this horrible, chronic disease crisis that exists in America. He's absolutely committed to getting dangerous chemicals out of our environment and out of our food supply and getting the American people the facts and the answers that we deserve. And after years in which our public health system has squandered the trust of our citizens, and they really have. They didn't. They don't trust us. They don't trust anybody. Frankly, they've gone through hell. There's no better person to lead our campaign of historic reforms and restore faith in American healthcare, and Bobby is going to do it. The United States spends more money in health than any other country on earth, but we're growing sicker every year. We're not as healthy as countries that spend just a fraction of what we Spend. So there's something wrong. He's going to figure it out. In recent decades, we've seen staggering increases in cancer rates across all age demographics, including more than 40% increase in childhood cancer since 1975. Who can believe that? And an explosion in other chronic childhood illnesses. Not long ago, one in 10,000 people children had autism. Now it's one in 36. Think of that. One in 10,000. One in 10,000. Now it's one in 36 dot who can believe that there's something wrong. There's something wrong. And I think it's something that can be found out. In 2022, more than 40% of children had at least one chronic health condition. And today nearly 80% of young adults do not qualify for military service in large part for health reasons. We're think of that 80%. Something is wrong. And that's why immediately after Bobby has sworn in, I will be signing an executive order establishing the President's Commission to make America Healthy Again. We have some great people on that commission chaired by our new secretary. This groundbreaking commission will be charged with investigating what is causing the decades long increase in chronic illness, reporting its findings and delivering an action plan to the American people. And it's going to be a plan that people are really waiting to hear. Bobby, I want to thank you. You've gone through a lot. It's taken great courage. You've been amazing. Actually, I'd call him, I'd say you're going to be okay. And he said, I know, I really do. He's really been supported amazingly by Sheryl and his family. And it was a very tough, it was a very nasty group of people that were after him. But he was tougher and he was smarter than they are. And that's why he's here today. There are very few people that could have withstood the assault, but he was able to. So I just want to congratulate you. And we have a very special person here to swear you in. A very. A man that I think has done just. I think he's just an amazing man. And as you know, his name happens to be Gorsuch and he's a member of the Supreme Court in extremely good standing. He's highly respected by everybody. And I don't know, are you two friends or something? Or did this just happen to be the justice? Did this just happen to be the luck of the draw? What happened?

I reached out to him.

Did you reach out? Well, you reached out to a very good man. So please, if you would, thank you very much.

This has to be done first.

We're going to make this a good one, right? Okay. It's good so far. Good. It's a 10.

Go in there. Get the kids in there. Over here, please.

Would all the family like to join?

All right.

Please place your left hand on the Bible and raise your right. I, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. I, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will support and defend that.

I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of.

The United States against all enemy.

Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

That I take this obligation freely.

I take this obligation freely without any.

Without any mental reservation.

Without any mental reservation.

Or purpose of evasion.

Or purpose of evasion.

And that I will well and faithfully discharge.

And that I will low and faithfully.

Discharge the duties of the office.

The duties of the office on which.

I am about to enter.

On which I'm about to enter.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations, Mr. Secretary.

Like the lizards did. I want to begin by thanking President Trump for giving me this extraordinary opportunity. And I want to introduce my family and thank them for being here. My wife, Cheryl. My cousin Anthony Shriver. My daughter Kik. My other daughter, Kira Karolina, Catalina Shriver, Joey Shriver, Jackson Hines and Amaryllis Kennedy. And I want to thank all of you for your support and throughout this whole two and a half year journey. My first time in this Oval office was in 1961, and I came here to meet my. 1962, I came here and I had a meeting with my uncle who was president, where we talked about the environment. He was involved deeply, as we all know, in restoring physical fitness in this country. He challenged. At one point during his administration, he challenged Americans to do a 50 mile walk, which I ultimately did. But I remember the day that my father completed his walk. We were staying up at Camp David, and my father came in after 18 hours walking on the CNO towpath with his feet bleeding and blisters on them. My father had a. One of his best friends was Al Lowenstein. Al Lowencino, ultimately was a congressman from New York who was assassinated himself in 1980. Al Owenstein had started the Dump Johnson movement to get rid of President Johnson and end the Vietnam War. And at the time that he started it, people just thought it was a fool's errand. And ultimately he asked my father to run for president against Johnson. My father wouldn't do it at that time. And he asked Gene McCarthy. McCarthy did it, and he joined that campaign. And my father ultimately ran, and Johnson then dropped out. So Al Owenstein succeeded. And although Al Owenstein was on the other side now, running against my father with Gene McCarthy, my father wrote him a note, a quote from Emerson, where he said, if a single man plant himself firmly on his own ideal, and there abide the whole wide world will come round to him. Or 20 years I've gotten up every morning on my knees and prayed that God would put me in a position where I can end the childhood chronic disease epidemic in this country. On August 23rd of last year, God sent me President Trump, and he gave me. He's now given me. He's kept every promise that he's made to me. He's kept his word in every account and gone way beyond it. I'm so grateful to you, Mr. President. A lot of people told me that I couldn't trust President Trump, that I better get it in writing. And we did a handshake, and everything that he told me he was going to do, he has done. And I'm so grateful to him. And I've told you before, I genuinely believe that you are a pivotal historical figure and you are going to transform this country. At a time when we see all of the indicative democracy now in tatters in our country, we see the rise of the military industrial complex, the rise of totalitarianism, these attacks on our Constitution, and this breathtaking epidemic that is disabling our people. President Trump has promised to restore the American dream. In this country, a healthy person has a thousand dreams. A sick person only has one. 60% of our population has only one dream, that they get better. President Trump has promised that he's going to restore America's strength. But we can't be a strong nation if we have a weak citizenry. If. If people are sick, 60% of our people are sick, 77%, as President Trump mentioned, of our children cannot qualify for military service. And we need a man on a white horse now. We need somebody who is willing to come in and has the spine and the guts and the strength to challenge orthodoxies, to stand in the way of vested interests, and to break institutions that have turned against our democracy. President Trump has shown again and again that he is that hero. Most recently, I greatly appreciate and I called you the day that you announced the termination of USAID. My uncle started USAID in 1961 for humanitarian purposes, to put our country on the side of the poor. It has been captured by the military industrial complex. It has become a sinister propagator of totalitarianism and war across the globe. And very few people understand how sinister this agency really is. And President Trump saw that, and he stood up to it with a masterstroke. And we want to do the same thing with the institutions that are stealing the health of our children.

We want.

We need a revolutionary figure. And you are that figure. And I'm very grateful for you for giving me this opportunity. I want to. I just. I want to recognize some of the allies that I've had in this battle for a long time. Senator Rand Paul, Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Roger Marshall, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Buddy Carter, who've all been champions of the maj and before I even came along. And I'm very grateful for you for standing strong. Thank you very much, President Trump. Mr. Secretary, if I could ask, what.

Plans do you have immediately at HHS.

Now that you're sworn in?

He's going to be running it. He's going to do a great job. What would you like to do first? Find out a lot of secrets that have been maybe kept from us. But he's going to come up with some solutions to some big, big problems, health problems. I think he's going to go down in the record books. I really have confidence. This group has great. Even Rand has confidence.

If I ask you, Mr. Secretary, do.

You plan to fire anyone immediately or what are your plans on day one, which I guess is today?

Our plans are radical transparency and returning gold standard science. Nih, FDA and cdc. Ending the corruption, ending the corporate capture of those agencies, getting rid of the people on those panels that have conflicts of interest. We can do unadored and unimpeded science rather than the kind of product that is coming out of those agencies today. Mr. Secretary, may I ask, how do.

You address concerns that some Americans may have their stance on vaccine?

When people actually hear what I think about vaccines, which is common sense, which is vaccines should be tested, they should be safe, everybody should have informed consent. People. People are reacting because they hear things about me that aren't true. They hear characterizations of things that I've said that are simply not true. When they hear what I have to say, actually about vaccines, Everybody supports it. Mr. Kennedy, Kara Kashtanova from Lyndale TV, what's your message to Democrats in the Senate that fought so hard to get. Keep you from taking this position? And congratulations, by the way, President Trump has promised to be the president for all Americans. And he has said to me that he understands that there's no such thing as Republican children or Democratic children. All of our children need to be protected. And whether you're in a blue state or red state, I'm going to do everything I can to work with you, whether you're Democrat or Republican. Restore child's health in this country. Mr. Secretary great job.

Thank you all very much.