Can RFK Jr. put an end to the revolving door between government and industry?

One of the most remarkable aspects of the populist alliance between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump is that it puts the incoming Republican administration at loggerheads with the very Big Pharma, Big Food and Big Agricultural interests that have been traditional bastions of Republican support.

President-elect Trump’s pledge to “let Bobby go wild” on his Make America Healthy Again agenda has corporate lobbyists in these industries convening emergency conference calls and burning the midnight oil to stop Kennedy in his tracks.

This is largely because Kennedy has explicitly promised to end the “corporate capture” of government regulatory agencies by which, according to his analysis, the industries control the very agencies that are supposed to be regulating them. Kennedy’s vow to “slam shut the revolving door” where regulators and heads of federal agencies move into industry positions (and often back again) threatens to disrupt this lucrative norm, which has become the standard operating practice and a major source of corporate lobbyist influence over policy.

One need look no further than the Food and Drug Administration to see how this dynamic has played out. Since 2006, nine out of 10 FDA commissioners went on to work for Big Pharma companies. That includes Scott Gottlieb, FDA head in the first Trump administration, who is currently on Pfizer’s board of directors. Since approximately 75 percent of the FDA’s budget for drug review comes from the pharmaceutical industry, the conflict of interest is obvious.

The accusation that regulatory agencies give favorable treatment to companies in exchange for lucrative future positions at those very companies (where they continue to collaborate with their old agencies) is both well documented and expected as a matter of course by officials serving at federal agencies who plan to cash out in the private sector. A study released in 2022 found that 19 of the 20 members of a government-run committee responsible for establishing dietary guidelines for Americans had ties to Big Food, Big Ag or Big Pharma.

Another, more subtle tactic employed by the Big Food lobby, for instance, is to coopt prominent health initiatives and their public-facing representatives in order to neutralize potentially negative effects on sales of their products. This is precisely what happened to Michelle Obama’s Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, established to further the work of her “Let’s Move” campaign as First Lady. That organization includes on its board the CEOs of PepsiCo, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, General Mills, Shearer’s Snacks and Nestle, in addition to the president of Coca-Cola North America — all of whose companies also fund the foundation. The premier product of Obama’s drink company, PLEZi, marketed to children as a health drink and part of the campaign to “end childhood obesity,” is composed of water, sugar, stevia and “natural flavors.”

Last week, industry leaders huddled on an emergency conference call to discuss strategies to keep Kennedy from being tapped as Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services, a position he reportedly wants. According to some reports, the pharma lobby is pressuring friendly senators to push former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) — a former HHS official under George W. Bush, whose policy positions are less threatening to the industry — for the position as an acceptable alternative.

This time the tactics may not work. Although HHS secretary is a position requiring Senate confirmation, RFK Jr. is widely viewed by campaign insiders as having been essential in putting Trump over the top with the delivery of his enthusiastic “Make America Healthy Again” coalition. His influence, and that of his allies, with Trump remains strong.

With a public more skeptical of America’s health establishment than ever before after the debacle of the pandemic, the time is seemingly ripe for a drastic overhaul of that establishment. Kennedy may be just the person to help Trump slam the revolving door shut.

Brian Robertson served for over a decade in the Senate as a senior policy advisor and worked for the Trump administration at both HHS and the Department of State.