Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. is attacking the coffee brands Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, saying the Trump administration should limit people’s coffee intake because of the sugar content. The response has been less than savory, with Massachusetts Governor Healy posting, “COME AND TAKE IT” on social media platform X.
Robert F. Kennedy is an American politician, author, and conspiracy theorist. He loudly supports anti-vaccines and has
been the Health and Human Services Secretary since 2025 under the Trump Administration. He started as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan and focused on environmental protection in the mid 80s. Throughout his career, he became a enviornmental professor, founded a litigation clinic, and a nonprofit environmental group. He first got involved with Donald Trump in 2024 when he ran for president in an individual campaign, but later dropped out to support Trump.
But something doesn’t quite add up. If RFK Jr. has done all these things involving improving the environement why is he the Health and Human Services Secretary? It started in 2005 when he started promoting vaccine misinformation and public-health conspiracies, such as the chemtrail conspiracy (the white lines that are left behind by planes are actually chemicals sprayed onto the earth for nefarious reasons), HIV/AIDS denialism, and the belief that vaccines cause autism. He then became the founder and chairman of Children’s Health and Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group and pusher of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. Trump has admitted that he didn’t nominate him for the position because of his qualifications, but rather to fulfill a campaign promise to dismantle the “industrial food complex” under the agenda of “Make America Healthy Again,” a play on “Make America Great Again”. Trump supported Kennedy’s desire to re-evaluate vaccine policies and reform the “industrial food complex”.
Previous changes Kennedy has made include removing and replacing members on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with skeptics of vaccines, updating federal dietary guidelines to emphasize “real food”, modifying dietary guidelines to remove daily limits on alcohol consumption, redirecting $500 million in funds away from mRNA and COVID-19 research, and initiating actions against glyphosate and atrazine. Not all of the issues are set into law since legal challenges against these policies are still ongoing.
This all brings us to now, with Kennedy’s sudden strike against coffee shops. At a rally in Austin, Texas, he stated,: We’re going to ask Dukin Donuts and Starbucks, Show us the safety data that shows that it’s ok for a teenage girl to drink an iced coffee with 115 grams of sugar in it.” This statement is interestingly phrased, focusing on teenage girls’ consumption rather than ALL of Dunkin’s and Starbucks consumers. With the war started in Iran, choosing to attack something that gives women joy gives the impression that they are trying to find more ways to take control, even if it is over small things.
While it is unlikely to result in an all-out ban since it would require new legislation and regulations, and the FDA can’t ban sugar from drinks, it is still important to look at the situation in a zoomed out lense. Everything the government does is planned and has more than one purpose or outcome. What would be the purpose of banning a sugary drink that has a platform of 56.6% young women during a time of war, where the government is rapidly losing popularity and support? Kennedy may have a passion to protect American citizens from consuming unknown and unsafe ingredients, but he isn’t focusing on things that will benefit people nationwide.
