Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Becomes Frequent Contributor to Donald Trump Campaign

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Three weeks after dropping out of his independent presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has become a ubiquitous supporter of Donald Trump, urging his loyal supporters to back the former president, who said he would give Kennedy a job if he returned to the White House.

Kennedy is hitting the road with Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman who has gained support on the right.

Many of the people who showed up to see them Saturday night in suburban Phoenix were already devoted Trump supporters. Several, like Jacob Cutler, wore clothing from the now-defunct Kennedy campaign. Cutler, an enthusiastic Kennedy supporter, saw Trump as the best person to stop Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.

“I was worried about what would happen if he won, so I felt like I had to support Donald Trump and help him win,” said Cutler, 40, who said he voted for Democratic President Joe Biden four years ago. “If anything, it’s the lesser of two evils.”

The Kennedy-Trump alliance gives the former Republican president the endorsement of a high-profile scion of the Democratic dynasty and a chance to paint his campaign as having bipartisan appeal. Even a small number of Democrats switching to Trump because of Kennedy’s support could make a difference in states like Arizona, which Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2020.

Trump’s path back to the White House relies in part on voters who distrust institutions like government, corporations and mainstream media, a group that is hard to reach, win over and motivate to vote. Kennedy and Gabbard are swaying voters who typically get their news and information from podcasts and YouTube videos.

Both Trump and Kennedy have vowed in recent weeks to “make America healthy again,” a play on Trump’s signature slogan, “Make America Great Again,” which echoes Kennedy’s frequent arguments during the campaign that chronic disease has become more common among Americans, as well as his promotion of discredited theories about vaccines.

During a Trump campaign event Saturday, Kennedy addressed family members who have criticized his support for Trump.

“I feel like people — including family members who have turned their backs on me, old friends who look at me with contempt and condemnation — are the victims of a kind of hypnosis, a psychological operation, an organized effort to keep us apart,” Kennedy told the crowd at Arizona Christian University. “Those of us who are aware need to protect the things that are valuable in this country by not going after them until they wake up and see what we have done for them.”

Guerrillas who switch sides often carry the added burden of gaining the respect of activists who once condemned them. They can become sought-after surrogates and trusted messengers.

“This is a huge, huge addition to the Trump team,” Henry Slayton, a 62-year-old engineer from Bakersfield, Calif., said of Kennedy and Gabbard. “It shows that they are all for the citizens, for the American people, and not for themselves.”

Harris has her own coalition of odd bedfellows, including the son of former GOP presidential candidate John McCain and prominent members of former President George W. Bush’s administration. Progressives even cheered Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, for endorsing Harris, a stunning change of heart for the conservative and staunch defender of the Iraq war.

Kennedy rose to fame as an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine leader. He initially challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination before leaving the party to run as an independent, accusing the party of conspiring against him.

Gabbard was known for taking positions at odds with her party’s establishment during her four terms in the House of Representatives. She was an early and vocal supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential primary, which earned her popularity among progressives.

Without seeking reelection in 2020, Gabbard ran for president herself, saying that the U.S. wars in the Middle East had destabilized the region, made the U.S. less safe and cost thousands of American lives, with Democrats and Republicans sharing the blame. She shattered Harris’ record during a pre-election debate and ultimately outlasted her in that race, which Biden ultimately won.

She used that experience to help Trump prepare for his own debate with Harris. Trump gave her and Kennedy roles in his presidential transition, potentially giving them influence to help staff his administration and shape the policies the federal bureaucracy would pursue if he returned to the White House.

“This is about us, the people who stand up for freedom,” Gabbard said Saturday. “This is about us, the people who stand up for peace.”

Kennedy argued that the U.S. should stop arming Ukrainians in the third year of a war started by Russia’s invasion, saying the West forced Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine by expanding NATO. Trump declined to answer a question in Tuesday’s presidential debate about whether he thought it was important for Ukraine to win the war.

And he presented Trump’s disregard for expert opinion and research as admirable.

He said he was moved that Trump had embraced the views of mothers who believe their children have been harmed by vaccines, even though the overwhelming majority of researchers agree that complications from childhood vaccines are extremely rare and outweigh the benefits. He described Trump as someone who has not been enslaved by “the entire establishment” and “the high priests of orthodoxy.”

“I think that’s a measure of his character,” he said.

Children’s Health Defense, which Kennedy represents, is currently pursuing a lawsuit against several news organizations, including the Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines.