With his endorsement of Donald Trump, former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy is now all aboard the GOP candidate’s campaign train, boasting that he's been picked to help the former president draft policy for his next term in office. He has also suggested that Trump would join him in seeking to criminalize the spraying of "chemtrails," promoting a debunked conspiracy theory about the government releasing toxic chemicals into the air to kill off undesirable elements of the population.
The Trump campaign, meanwhile, is declining to condemn Kennedy's latest conspiratorial remarks, instead telling Salon that its "proud" to have him on the former president's "transition team."
“As President Trump’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands across partisan lines, we are proud that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team," Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said in a statement. "We look forward to having their powerful voices on the team was we work to restore America’s greatness.
The Trump campaign's comment comes a day after Kennedy seemed to suggest that the government is spraying population-control chemicals into the air — and that Trump would criminalize the practice.
The term "chemtrails" first appeared in the 1990s when U.S. Air Force published a research paper about potential weather modification, the Telegraph reported. It has since been adopted by conspiracy theorists who baselessly allege that the government is indeed spraying chemicals, visible as trails of condensation from planes, as part of a scheme described variously as being aimed at controlling minds, reducing the population or increasing extreme weather events.
As per the conspiracy theory, the condensation trails left by high-flying aircraft in the sky are actually chemical or biological agents being sprayed by the government without public knowledge and with ill intent — you know, like population control, the Washington Post reported.
"We are going to stop this crime," Kennedy posted Monday on X, responding to a 60-second video in which a purported "Chemtrail Pilot Whistleblower" says chemicals are being sprayed and "killing off unwanted or leaching aspects of America and the world."
Two hours after his post, former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson shared an interview in which Kennedy described his new role as part of Trump’s team.
“We’re working on policy issues together. I’ve been asked to go on to the transition team, to help pick the people who will be running the government, and I’m looking forward to that,” Kennedy told Carlson.
As the Washington Post noted, there is no guarantee that Trump’s micro-managerial tactics will afford Kennedy any real autonomy should the former president win the election. But it is also possible that the embrace of Kennedy, and refusal to condemn his more outlandish claims, from chemtrails to anti-vaccination pseudoscience, is intended as a signal to other conspiracy theorists that Trump is on board with their agenda.
