Trump signals support for RFK Jr. fluoride remarks

Energy & Environment

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Trump signals support for RFK Jr. fluoride remarks

Former President Trump expressed tentative support for former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan to remove fluoride from water.

“Well, I haven’t talked to him about it yet, but it sounds OK to me,” Trump told NBC News on Sunday. “You know, it’s possible.”

Kennedy, who ran for president but suspended his bid in August and endorsed Trump, has spread unfounded health-related conspiracies.

He posted Saturday on the social platform X that if Trump wins the election, the first day in office his administration would “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.”

“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” Kennedy’s post said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by adding minerals back into a person’s mouth that are lost during normal activity. The agency said in a statement earlier this year that “expert panels … have not found convincing scientific evidence linking community water fluoridation with any potential adverse health effect.”

However, the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program found in August that higher levels of fluoride exposure is linked to lower IQs in children and a federal judge recently ruled that the EPA needs to address the potential impacts of fluoride.

The former president has declined to talk about whether Kennedy would be part of his Cabinet should he win the 2024 election, but Kennedy said Sunday that Trump assured him he would get a White House role.

Read more from our colleague Lauren Irwin at TheHill.com.

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