President Trump is quietly distancing himself from his controversial Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to a new report citing multiple White House sources — and Kennedy’s closest allies are starting to sweat.
The sidelining has been subtle, but the signs are everywhere. Trump recently pulled the nomination of Kennedy’s preferred Surgeon General pick, Casey Means, and replaced her with Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and Fox News contributor who has long criticized Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stances. Kennedy, the de facto leader of the Make America Healthy Again movement, had little role in the selection, according to sources.
Insiders describe it as Trump “shortening the leash” — no longer letting Kennedy “go wild” at HHS, a shift that comes as the president’s approval rating continues to tumble with November’s midterms on the horizon.
A Rift Between MAHA And MAGA
The tension boils down to a tricky political math problem. The White House doesn’t want to fire Kennedy outright — the MAHA coalition he brought to the table is too valuable to alienate — but officials are increasingly uncomfortable with his polarizing public profile. Internal polling showed that the administration’s vaccine messaging under Kennedy has become too divisive for comfort, sources say.
Michael Wolff, Trump’s longtime biographer, summed up the bind on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast on Saturday, May 9.
“They are now stuck with RFK Jr. and the anti-vax face,” Wolff said. “Now what I’m hearing is that they’re trying to get rid of him, and they are trying to get him, the way this was put to me, they are trying to get him to go.”
Despite the chatter, there’s no indication Kennedy is at serious risk of being fired — a notable contrast to the fates of former Attorney General Pam Bondi and former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, both of whom Trump dismissed this spring. Kennedy himself revealed last week that Trump didn’t seek his input when choosing the next CDC director, Dr. Erica Schwartz, who brings a more conventional medical background than most of Kennedy’s allies.
Vaccines, Weedkiller And A Court Setback
Vaccines aren’t the only sore spot. Trump recently sided with major agricultural corporations to accelerate domestic production of glyphosate, the controversial weedkiller that Kennedy and MAHA activists have campaigned against. In April, Trump hosted MAHA influencers in the Oval Office to soothe the resulting tensions. Alex Clark, a TPUSA podcaster and top MAHA activist, said he pressed Trump face-to-face about the stalled Means confirmation. Trump responded enthusiastically — and then pulled the nomination weeks later anyway.
The administration also took a major hit in court. On Monday, a U.S. District Court judge granted a preliminary injunction against the CDC’s January 2025 move to gut the Child Vaccine Schedule from 17 recommended shots down to 11, eliminating guidance for influenza, Rotavirus, and Hepatitis A and B. The ruling, which critics had called reckless and “likely illegal,” also stayed actions taken by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices after Kennedy fired all its members and replaced them. HHS quickly fired back, saying the agency “looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned.”
The legal fight comes against a worrying public health backdrop. There are now 1,362 confirmed measles cases reported across the country, and state officials have identified a fresh outbreak in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Vaccination rates among young children in Michigan dropped sharply during the first year of the Trump administration — an early signal of how Kennedy’s approach has rippled through the system.
The Political Tightrope Ahead
White House spokesman Kush Desai insisted Kennedy still has a seat at the table, saying “Making America Healthy Again has been a Day One priority for President Trump, and Secretary Kennedy continues to play a central role in the Trump administration’s whole-of-government effort to deliver on the President’s MAHA agenda.”
Still, Arizona GOP strategist Barrett Marson warned that mishandling the situation could cost Trump the MAHA coalition entirely. Others are less convinced of the movement’s clout, with one official telling reporters MAHA “has always been a paper tiger.”
Bigger Cracks at HHS
The Kennedy drama is unfolding inside a department already strained by upheaval. HHS has been among the hardest-hit agencies by the workforce overhaul, which slashed roughly 300,000 federal jobs in 2025. According to federal workforce data, Black women, who make up 6% of the overall U.S. labor force and 12% of the federal workforce, accounted for 33% of those cuts. More than 2,000 NIH grants were canceled or frozen during the same period, and the cost of fresh vegetables is up 48% compared to a year ago — driven by a combination of supply chain disruptions and reduced FDA inspection capacity.
For now, Kennedy remains in his post, but his close allies have raised fears that he’s being marginalized inside the administration. The leash, it seems, just keeps getting shorter.