Donald Trump stood before a packed crowd in Phoenix last week as 21 pillars of fire erupted from the stage and introduced the exiled scion of Democratic Party royalty he hopes can reset the 2024 campaign.
“If he'd been allowed to participate in the Democratic primary, he would have easily beaten Joe Biden,” Trump told the packed audience, referring to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who took the stage prepared to support Trump over the objections of his own family. “But they wouldn't let him.”
Kennedy's endorsement of Trump follows weeks of momentum from Vice President Kamala Harris. With President Joe Biden out of the race, Kennedy's popularity has risen and the Trump campaign expects it to continue after last week's high-profile Democratic National Convention.
Kennedy ran for president as a Democrat before becoming an independent, but last week he dropped out of the race altogether to endorse Trump. The Phoenix rally, which kicked off with the kind of strobe lights and fireworks you'd expect at a concert or monster truck rally, was Kennedy's splashy debut into Republican politics.
The Kennedys have openly viewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a thorn in their side because of his commitment to right-wing conspiracy theories (he was a particularly vocal anti-vaccination advocate) and his position well outside mainstream Democratic politics.
But the Trump campaign saw Kennedy's endorsement as a major win, even though it came from someone Trump himself called a “liberal” when he was running for president. The Trump campaign hoped that Kennedy's endorsement would attract more attention than any of its previous endorsements, helping to persuade disillusioned Democrats and skeptical conservatives to join them.
Beyond the rock-star welcome Kennedy received in Phoenix, social media accounts aligned with Trump and his campaign have been heavily touting Kennedy's endorsement for some time.
The outrage was so intense that some social media accounts run by Trump allies with huge followings joked that Trump-Kennedy was the real Republican nominee, rather than the actual running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
“The most powerful anti-establishment candidate in American history,” tweeted Benny Johnson, a right-wing social media influencer with 2.7 million followers.
The infamous “distracted boyfriend” meme was also reused to show Trump pining for Kennedy while a hapless Vance looks on. Vance laughed off the meme when told about it in an interview on Tuesday.
“I don't care about the memes at all,” he told NBC News on the plane. “I've never worried about my relationship with him, and I've never worried about whether I can win this campaign. I have to do my part, and if that means RFK gets more headlines in any given week, good for him.”
Trump himself has repeatedly posted about Kennedy's endorsement on his social media pages, and Trump and his supporters have used the endorsements of Kennedy and former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as evidence of a generational “realignment” of American politics.
Like Kennedy, Gabbard, who has helped Trump prepare for the debates, is seen as out of step with mainstream Democratic politics, but the Trump campaign says her and Kennedy's support is evidence that Trump can attract Democrats dissatisfied with the status quo in his party.
Both men were named to President Trump's transition team this week, but Kennedy was the only one to receive a rock-star welcome from the Trump camp after announcing his endorsement.
Kennedy has previously said his top policy priorities would be to end government censorship, especially on social media platforms, to end foreign wars, and to focus on improving the health of the nation, especially children. Part of his welcoming message to the Trump campaign was to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Vance told reporters on Tuesday that these are perfect focal points for Kennedy's campaign and the Trump transition team.
“I think RFK talks about a lot of things that, frankly, the media doesn't talk about, like why we have one of the highest obesity rates in the world,” Vance said. “Why do we have such serious health problems for our children and why are our rates of mental abuse and addiction soaring?”
Vance and Trump campaign spokespeople have speculated about what role Kennedy might play in a Trump administration, but a Trump campaign official said the former president is in agreement with Kennedy on most of his top policy priorities. Though the two disagree on some issues, such as abortion, they say their new alliance is about addressing larger existential threats to the nation.
Longtime Republican activist and Trump supporter Roger Stone said Kennedy's involvement in the campaign could help address what he sees as a weakness in Trump: the COVID-19 vaccination program the Trump administration rolled out while in the White House is now deeply unpopular among Republicans and that Kennedy has vocally opposed.
Another area where Stone thought Kennedy could help is balancing the fact that Trump has appointed people to key posts who are now deeply unpopular among Trump supporters, such as FBI Director Christopher Wray and former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, and are seen as part of an earlier era of Republican politics that supported U.S. involvement in foreign wars over domestic interests.
“I think he has a different set of values,” Stone said of Kennedy. “If you think one of the complaints that some people have about President Trump is his handling of the (COVID-19 vaccine rollout) and the pandemic, and his appointments of neo-conservatives, Kennedy is clearly critical of vaccines and those people.”
“I think he can reassure voters,” Stone added.
Kennedy's vaccine skepticism is well-known, but Vance told NBC News that while his three children have received the “standard vaccines,” he likes Kennedy's “general skepticism” of public health bureaucracy.
“I don't agree with him on every issue, but I do think he should be a little more willing to challenge public health officials in the wake of COVID,” Vance said.
Trump's endorsement of Kennedy drew predictable backlash not only from the Democratic National Committee, which has lobbied to bar Kennedy from running in several states and issued a memo of opposition to him last Friday, but also from Kennedy's own family, which has long opposed his political views.
“My brother Bobby's decision today to support Trump is a betrayal of our father and the values our family holds most dear,” his sister, Kerry Kennedy, and four other family members said in a statement released by X.
The DNC memo mentioned “disqualifying conduct,” a reference to a series of bizarre stories that have surfaced about Kennedy in recent weeks, including his famous dumping of a dead bear cub in Central Park and his use of a chainsaw to cut off the head of a dead whale.
One potential sticking point is that while Kennedy has said he is not running for president, he is likely to remain open in up to 24 states – he has said he will remove his name from the ballot in 10 states he sees as close races, but has not yet said which ones.
Judges in the key battleground states of Nevada and Pennsylvania have approved removing Kennedy's name from the ballot, while judges in the key “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota have ruled that his name can appear on the ballot in those states.
A memo from Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio published shortly after Kennedy's endorsement said Kennedy's withdrawal gave Trump an advantage in seven key battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
“Based on 2020 turnout models, states like Arizona would have a net vote count of over 41,000 votes, nearly four times the number Biden would win,” Fabrizio wrote. “In Georgia, the net vote count would be over 19,000 votes, nearly double the number Biden would win.”
“This is simply good news for President Trump and his campaign,” he added.
