As 21 columns of fire shot from the stage, Donald Trump appeared before a burgeoning crowd in Phoenix last week to introduce the exiled descendant of the Democratic royal family he hopes will once again reset his 2024 campaign.
“If he had been allowed to enter the Democratic primary, he would have easily defeated Joe Biden,” Trump told the large crowd of Robert Kennedy Jr., who stood on stage preparing to endorse Trump over his own family’s objections. “But they didn’t let him.”
Kennedy’s Support for Trump It comes after weeks of momentum from Vice President Kamala Harris. President Joe Biden’s exit from the race gave him a boost in the polls even Trump’s team It expects to continue after last week’s widely watched Democratic National Convention.
Before becoming an independent, Kennedy ran for president as a Democrat, but then last week dropped his candidacy altogether and endorsed Trump. Opening with the flash lights and pyrotechnics expected of a concert or monster truck rally in Phoenix, the rally was Kennedy’s breakthrough speech in Republican politics.
The Kennedy family clearly viewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as their black sheep, as they both flirted with right-wing conspiracies, particularly a vocal voice in the anti-vaccination movement – and was well outside the political mainstream of the Democratic Party.
But for Trump’s campaign, Kennedy’s endorsement was seen as a major victory — even though it came from someone Trump himself called “liberal” when Kennedy was still running for president. The Trump campaign oxygenated Kennedy’s endorsement perhaps more than any other endorsement to date, hoping it might convince some disenchanted Democrats and skeptical conservatives to come on board.
Aside from Kennedy’s rock-star welcome in Phoenix, Trump and his campaign-friendly social media accounts have had plenty of time. admiration confirmation.
There is so much intensity that some social media accounts run by Trump allies have joked that Trump-Kennedy is the real Republican ticket of Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, not the real candidate.
“The Strongest Anti-Establishment Ticket in American History” he tweeted Benny Johnson, a right-wing social media influencer with 2.7 million followers.
Notorious “Distracted Boy” meme It was also set to show Trump pining for Kennedy as the unhappy Vance looked on. Speaking about it in an interview Tuesday, Vance laughed off the meme.
“The meme stuff doesn’t bother me at all,” he told NBC News aboard the plane. “I was never worried when I was with him [Trump]and I never worried whether we would win this race. I just have to play the role I can. And if that means RFK gets more headlines in a given week, good for him.
Trump himself has repeatedly posted on social media about Kennedy’s endorsement, and he and his supporters have used the endorsements of both Kennedy and former Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii as evidence of a generational “correction” of American politics.
Like Kennedy, Gabbard, who helped Trump prepare for the debates, is seen as an outsider to mainstream Democratic politics, but the Trump campaign is proof that her and Kennedy’s support can attract disaffected Democrats in the state. from his own party.
Both were named to Trump’s transition team this week, but only Kennedy was welcomed as a rock star to Trump’s team following his confirmation.
Kennedy has long said his top policy priorities are ending government censorship — especially on social media platforms — ending foreign wars and focusing on strengthening the nation’s health, especially among children. Part of his welcome message to the Trump campaign “Make America Healthy Again.”
Vance told reporters Tuesday that they are the perfect focal point for a Kennedy campaign or a Trump transition team.
“I think RFK, to be honest, talks about a lot of things that the media doesn’t talk about, like why do we have the highest obesity rate in the world?” Vance said. “Why do we have so many bad health problems with our children, a rapid increase in mental abuse, a rapid increase in addiction?”
Vance and Trump campaign spokesmen would speculate on any role Kennedy would play in a potential Trump administration, but one Trump official said the former president is aligned with Kennedy on most of his top policy priorities. Both have differences of opinion on some issues, most importantly abortionbut said their new alliance is about bigger existential threats to the country.
Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative and Trump supporter, said Kennedy’s involvement in the campaign would help offset Trump’s perceived weaknesses, mainly the fact that his administration created a Covid-19 vaccine program while in the White House that was wildly unpopular among Republican base voters. can do Something Kennedy was clearly opposed to.
Another area where Stone thinks Kennedy could help is balancing the fact that Trump has appointed people to key positions, such as FBI Director Christopher Wray and the former national security adviser. HR McMaster — who are now very unpopular among Trump supporters. They are seen as part of an earlier era of GOP politics that supported US involvement in foreign wars over domestic interests.
“I think it has several different values,” Stone said of Kennedy. “If you think about it, one of the complaints some people have about the Trump presidency is the handling of this issue [Covid vaccine rollout] and appointing the pandemic and the neo-cons, Kennedy openly criticizes the vaccine and these people.
“I think he has the ability to reassure voters,” Stone added.
In Kennedy’s famous vaccine skepticism, Vance told NBC News that his three children receive “standard vaccines,” but he likes Kennedy’s “general skepticism” of the public health bureaucracy.
“That doesn’t mean I agree with him on every point, but I think we should be a little more willing to challenge public health authorities post-Covid,” Vance said.
Trump’s embrace of Kennedy drew an expected backlash from the Democratic National Committee, which has been trying to keep Kennedy on the ballot in several states and said it opposes him. memory last Friday, but also from Kennedy’s own familyhas been opposed to his political views for a long time.
“Our brother Bobby’s decision to support Trump is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear,” his sister Carrie Kennedy and four other family members said in a statement. On X.
The DNC memo cited “disqualifying actions” — a series of strange stories that have surfaced about Kennedy in recent weeks, such as being behind a famous incident in which a dead bear cub was killed. Thrown into Central Parkand another a used by Kennedy chain saw cutting off the head of a dead whale.
A potential challenge going forward is that it will likely be on the ballot in two dozen states, even if Kennedy says he has withdrawn his candidacy. Kennedy has said he will remove his name from the ballot in 10 states, but has not yet specified which states.
Judges in Nevada and Pennsylvania upheld the removal of Kennedy’s name from the ballot. By contrast, judges in the key “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota they ruled Kennedy’s name will appear on the ballot in those states.
A memo A Trump poll released shortly after Kennedy’s endorsement, Tony Fabrizio, showed that his exit from the race helped Trump in seven key states: Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania, as well as Wisconsin and Michigan.
“In a state like Arizona, the net vote based on just the 2020 turnout model would be more than 41,000 votes, nearly four times Biden’s margin of victory,” Fabrizio said. “The net gain in Georgia would be more than 19,000 votes, nearly double Biden’s margin.”
“This is good news for President Trump and his campaign — plain and simple,” he said.