Overview

A quantitative analysis of the information environment around Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reveals a split within the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement between those most focused on “Big Pharma” and those most focused on “Big Food.” This split suggests that the main competition within health care policy will be whether to prioritize constraining the power of pharmaceutical manufacturers or that of the food and agriculture industry. 

Key Findings

• Out of the top-15 external Influencers on Secretary Kennedy and his advisors (“RFK Jr. Influencers”), six are more concerned about “Big Pharma,” another four are more focused on “Big Food,” with the remaining handful representing a middle ground. 
• The RFK Jr. Influencers serve as a benchmark for the views and positioning of the MAHA movement. Their perspectives on heath and nutrition both reflect and shape those held by Secretary Kennedy and his advisors. 
• The RFK Jr. Influencers embody the MAHA movement’s big tent. Prominent conservative leaders Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk appear with MAHA activists Holden Culotta and Vani Hari alongside anonymous X-savvy accounts like Chief Nerd. 
• No RFK Jr. Influencer is affiliated with an establishment media organization. Their independence from elite institutions has allowed their populist criticism of major companies in the pharmaceutical and food industries to proliferate without constraints. 
• Influencers tend to be leading indicators of policy developments while Congress and the federal bureaucracy typically lag behind. Debates and ideas circulating among RFK Jr. Influencers likely foreshadow future health care decision making in the second Trump administration.

Methodology

Baron deployed the firm’s Influencer Analytics research platform to quantify the information environment around now-Secretary Kennedy and his advisors during his involvement in the Trump campaign, the presidential transition period, and the beginning of his nomination process. This revealed the top individuals with the strongest measured linkages to Secretary Kennedy in the public debate. Specifically, Baron: 

• Defined an initial universe of 13 individuals associated with Secretary Kennedy. These include Secretary Kennedy himself, his former running mate Nicole Shanahan, and nearly a dozen of his closest advisors. 
• Collected almost 2,900 citations made between September 1, 2024 and January 31, 2025 by members of the initial universe from X, LinkedIn, podcasts, and other sources. 
• Scored external Influencers using an algorithm that controls for frequency, consistency, and reach. 
• Identified top RFK Jr. Influencers. 

Top-15 RFK Jr. Influencer’s Views on Key Issues

Insights

Competition over MAHA’s chief priorities of reforming the pharmaceutical industry and the American food system could define health care policy during Secretary Kennedy’s leadership of HHS. For instance, Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk has advocated for numerous reforms to drug makers’ business model such as “get[ting] Big Pharma ads off the TV” while offering much less specific, albeit still critical, commentary on the food and agriculture industry.¹ On the other hand, Vani Hari, who describes herself as the “#1 Public Enemy of Big Food,” paints American nutrition as an existential crisis, and has made a career of educating consumers and developing food products free of added chemicals.² Although all the RFK Jr. Influencers want to see reforms in both industries, these differing priorities will carry important implications for law making on Capitol Hill, Secretary Kennedy’s cooperation with other agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and an already resource-constrained U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that will need to strike a balance between its namesake responsibilities.

The RFK Jr. Influencers reflect the diverse MAHA movement consisting of MAGA conservatives, “MAHA Moms,” former independents and Democrats, and many others. Some Influencers have supported Secretary Kennedy since the launch of his presidential bid and concentrate almost entirely on health and nutrition issues. End Tribalism in Politics and Holden Culotta, for example, were already vocal supporters of Secretary Kennedy’s presidential bid in 2023 and now aim to steer the Trump administration toward MAHA policies. Other RFK Jr. Influencers are longstanding supporters of President Donald J. Trump – in fact, Kirk and Jack Posobiec were originally critics of Secretary Kennedy’s campaign fearing he would take away votes from President Trump, but both began to support him after he endorsed President Trump at an August 2024 rally.³ Rather than working to steer the administration toward MAHA policies, MAGA leaders like Kirk and Posobiec capitalize on MAHA’s political momentum to support the White House.

Most RFK Jr. Influencers prefer not to identify as Republican or Democrat and, instead, often identify as independent. Ten of the top-15 Influencers shun party labels: Culotta specifically says he is an “Independent,” Joe Rogan has become an ally of the Trump administration, but insists “it doesn’t make sense to be on a team,” and Aaron Everitt calls himself a “liberty minded individual.”⁴ Even though the MAHA movement has found a political home in the Republican Party, only five RFK Jr. Influencers are known for explicitly championing conservative causes: Kirk, Posobiec, Tucker Carlson, Scott Presler, and Calley Means (now a special government employee advising Secretary Kennedy). 

Media attention has centered on Secretary Kennedy’s views on vaccines, yet RFK Jr. Influencers represent a wide range of vaccine stances. Within MAHA, there is a divide between narrow criticism of mandated COVID vaccines – as top-ten Influencer Camus put it, “I believe in vaccines, just not in this one” – and broad skepticism of vaccines.⁵ However, none of the RFK Jr. Influencers have expressed the same level of opposition to vaccines as Secretary Kennedy’s nonprofit Children’s Health Defense or his confidant Aaron Siri, for example. Conservatives Carlson and Means have taken a less aggressive approach than MAHA’s fervently anti-vaccine wing by sharing their mistrust of the vaccine schedule – especially the frequency of vaccines administered during early childhood.⁶ Others target manufacturers’ legal immunity and the alleged opaqueness of the vaccine development process, such as Kirk who expressed his concern during Secretary Kennedy’s nomination that “many [Americans] already don’t trust vaccine manufacturers who enjoy legal immunity for any injuries they cause.”⁷ Finally, several Influencers embrace some combination of these perspectives, or simply resort to partisan critiques. Presler, a devoted pro-Trump campaign strategist, has said: “We will never forget (or forgive) the Democrats for trying to force us to get the vaccine.”⁸ 

Despite their political and ideological differences, the RFK Jr. Influencers form a tight-knit community, speaking on each other’s podcasts, retweeting each other’s posts, and citing each other often. Since August 2024, Carlson has hosted fellow top-five Influencer Means on “The Tucker Carlson Show” to discuss “how Big Pharma keeps you sick” as well as fellow top-ten Influencers Glenn Greenwald and Russell Brand, with whom he also discussed “Big Pharma” among other topics.⁹ Carlson also hosted Secretary Kennedy himself on his show just a few days after he endorsed President Trump in August 2024.¹⁰ 

The top Influencers’ independence from establishment media has provided them platforms to candidly question the corporations they believe have contributed to America’s poor health. Rather than newspapers and cable news, they depend on X, podcasts, independent news sites, and blogs. They use their independence from traditional media to, in fact, call out those same publications for allegedly being captured by “Big Pharma” and “Big Food.” For example, Carlson famously began discussing the influence of pharmaceutical advertising after his departure from Fox News, asserting on a December 2023 episode of the “All-In” Podcast that “if Pfizer is sponsoring your show, you’re not going to question the facts… and of course, that’s why they are the biggest advertisers.”¹¹

RFK Jr. Influencers are passionate about reforming American medicine and nutrition, nevertheless they hold no known government experience or formal health care training. In contrast to previous Baron analysis of top health care policy Influencers, most RFK Jr. Influencers have little to no policy background and none are affiliated with elite institutions. A 2022 Baron Influencer Analytics study found that 17 of the top-20 health care “Super Influencers” were academics (including six at Harvard University), with many also practicing medicine.¹² Furthermore, several of the health care Super Influencers had senior government or industry experience, such as former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb who now serves on the board of Pfizer. RFK Jr. Influencers’ autonomy from the power structures of Washington facilitates their criticism of industry influence on government as well as the industry’s shaping of academia through grant making and other methods.

Influencers identified through Influencer Analytics tend to be leading indicators of future activity in Congress and the executive branch. The administration’s April 4, 2025 decision not to allow expanded Medicare and Medicaid coverage of weight loss drugs such as Ozempic should come as no surprise given RFK Jr. Influencers’ deep skepticism of GLP-1 drugs.¹³ This carries significant implications for future policy making and regulatory action. New regulations on food additives, pharmaceutical advertising, and vaccines – especially for COVID-19 – could be on the horizon if RFK Jr. Influencers continue to vocally advocate for these issues even if the exact prioritization remains to be seen. Analyzing these Influencers, their deeply held beliefs, and the communities in which they exist is a powerful method of anticipating Secretary Kennedy’s efforts to Make America Healthy Again.

About Baron

Baron has guided clients through the most challenging political terrain for almost two decades. Focused on mastering the strategic competition of interests, the firm has advised some of the nation’s most prominent organizations, including members of the Fortune 10, several of America’s largest privately held businesses, and the U.S. Department of Defense. Baron has advised clients in the health care sector for over a decade, with industry clients including insurers and pharmacy benefit managers as well as integrated health systems and medical device firms. Influencer Analytics has supported clients across a wide range of sectors and has been featured by Bloomberg Businessweek and Chief Executive.

Endnotes

1 Charlie Kirk [@charliekirk11], “Honestly, it’s time to get Big Pharma ads of the TV…,” X, February 13, 2025, https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1890110980488908870.

2 Vani Hari [@thefoodbabe], X, https://x.com/thefoodbabe; and Vani Hari, LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/vani-hari-9ab2552.

3 Charlie Kirk [@charliekirk11], “I explain here why RFK running could hurt Trump.,” X, September 29, 2023, https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1707860869198275027; and Jack Poso [@JackPosobiec], “RFK can’t win but he can deny Trump the White House and hand it to Dems,” X, September 29, 2023, https://x.com/JackPosobiec/status/1707870479275438591.

4 Holden Culotta [@Holden_Culotta], X, https://x.com/Holden_Culotta; “Joe Rogan Experience #2261 – Warren Smith,” PowerfulJRE, YouTube, January 23, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Hrq8WL1-g, 33:50; and Aaron Everitt [@loanly_hipster], X, https://x.com/loanly_hipster.

5 Camus [@newstart_2024], “This thing was just couple months ago called conspiracy theory…,” X, February 4, 2021, https://x.com/newstart_2024/status/1357396937893425152.

6 Calley Means [@calleymeans], “A lot of Americans care about our compromised food supply…,” X, October 17, 2024, https://x.com/calleymeans/status/1846914698697970124.

7 Charlie Kirk [@charliekirk11], “I believe this was a sincere moment from Chairman Bill Cassidy…,” X, January 30, 2025, https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1885038873027494304.

8 ThePersistence [@ScottPresler], “We will never forget (or forgive) the Democrats…,” X, January 2, 2024, https://x.com/ScottPresler/status/1742366652753170563.

9 “Calley & Casey Means: How Big Pharma Keeps You Sick, and the Dark Truth About Ozempic and the Pill,” Tucker Carlson, YouTube, August 16, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUH4Co2wE-I; “Glenn Greenwald: Dangerous New Escalation in Russia, & Our Blackmailed Politicians,” Tucker Carlson, YouTube, November 20, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKh4txSD0eQ; and “Russell Brand on his Baptism, Big Pharma, Donald Trump, and the Globalists’ Attempt to Become God,” Tucker Carlson, YouTube, September 5, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYGEwkZ9e4o.

10 “RFK Jr: Teaming up With Trump, Pavel Durov’s Arrest, CIA, and the Fall of the Democrat Party,” Tucker Carlson, YouTube, August 26, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O-ZM0RxG4g.

11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pLY1X46H1E, 4:00.“In conversation with Tucker Carlson, plus OpenAI chaos explained,” All-In Podcast, YouTube, December 1, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pLY1X46H1E, 4:00.

12 For more information on this data, please contact [email protected].

13 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Contract Year 2026 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage Program, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program, Medicare Cost Plan Program, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly,” Federal Register, vol. 90, no. 71, https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2025-06008/medicare-and-medicaid-programs-contract-year-2026-policy-and-technical-changes-to-the-medicare.