Former President Donald Trump told podcaster Joe Rogan that pharmaceutical executives were not “thrilled” that he teamed up with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a Friday interview.
Kennedy endorsed Trump and announced the suspension of his campaign on Aug. 23, ten months after launching his independent bid, following his split with Democrats over issues including censorship, the war in Ukraine, illegal immigration, the party’s failure to hold primary debates and primary rules that gave President Joe Biden an advantage.
When Rogan asked if anyone had urged Trump not to work with Kennedy, the former president revealed some pushback from pharmaceutical company executives.
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“I would say that — and you know, I think in many ways they’ve done a good job and in many ways they’ve done a bad job — but I would say that Big Pharma wasn’t thrilled when they heard that,” Trump said, adding, “I’ve actually always gotten along very well with him [Kennedy], I’ve known him a long time.”
The social media platform Instagram banned Kennedy over his views on vaccines in February 2021, and ABC News edited out a portion of an interview where he discussed the COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy said Trump would “make America healthy again” during an August interview with Fox News host Shannon Bream.
“He’s a different kind of a guy,” Trump said of Kennedy.
“He’s very smart, great guy, and he’s very sincere about this. I mean, he really is. He thinks— we spend a fortune on pesticides, on all this stuff, and then you end up— that chart is a terrible chart, the one previous. It’s such a bad chart when you look at where we are compared to other countries that don’t spend ten cents.”
The chart showed life expectancy compared to health expenditure per capita for a number of countries, including the United States, which fell largely behind other nations despite spending more on health care and services per capita.
“I’ve had some people who aren’t exactly thrilled,” Trump said, regarding Kennedy’s involvement with his campaign. “It doesn’t affect me,” Trump said about the criticism.
