The independent presidential candidate, who reportedly held talks with Trump last month about endorsing the Republican’s campaign and taking a job in a hypothetical second Trump administration, made disparaging remarks about the former president in text messages sent to an unidentified recipient, according to The New Yorker . In one message, Kennedy called Trump: “The worse [sic] president ever and barely human.”
In July, Kennedy’s son Bobby Kennedy III posted and then quickly deleted a video of his father speaking on a phone call with Trump. In the clip, Trump could be heard telling Kennedy he would “love” for him “to do stuff,” seemingly referring to a possible administration job if Trump wins in November. “We’re going to win,” Trump said in the call. “Yeah,” Kennedy replied. In an X post , Kennedy said he was “mortified” the footage was posted and apologized to Trump.
A subsequent Washington Post report claimed Kennedy—a vociferous vaccine skeptic—and Trump had explicitly spoken about Kennedy taking a job in a second Trump White House in which he would oversee a “portfolio of health and medical issues.” At the time, Kennedy told the Post he was willing to talk to either party if they were ready to discuss “children’s health and how to end the chronic disease epidemic.”
Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, Kennedy’s daughter-in-law and campaign director, has now confirmed to The New Yorker that Trump had alluded at the Republican National Convention to the possibility of Kennedy dropping out of the race. “They said, ‘You know, we know that you take more from us than you take from Biden [...] Is there something that you would want to do?’” Kennedy Fox recalled Trump and his team as saying.
She said Kennedy isn’t opposed to serving in a Trump administration and claimed secretary of health and human services “is an incredibly interesting one.” She also told the magazine that Kennedy would be open to offers from Kamala Harris .
In the text exchange attacking Trump, Kennedy had reportedly also described President Joe Biden as “more dangerous to the Republic and the planet.”
The magazine article Monday came the day after Kennedy released a bizarre video online in which he admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park in Manhattan a decade ago. Kennedy made the confession to comedian Roseanne Barr , explaining that he’d been asked about the episode by New Yorker fact checkers, saying he was hoping to get ahead of what would be “a bad story.”
The article said Kennedy found the black bear cub in upstate New York, loaded it into his car, and then drove it to Manhattan. It cited a person familiar with the incident in reporting that Kennedy, under the cover of darkness, dumped the carcass and a bicycle in Central Park because he thought it would be funny to make it seem like the animal had been killed by a cyclist.
The piece also included a photo of Kennedy with his fingers in the dead bear’s mouth, pretending it was biting him. Asked for comment about the event, Kennedy told The New Yorker : “Maybe that’s where I got my brain worm .”
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