RFK Jr.'s High Praise For Trump Proves He Shares Ex-President's Weak Backbone

The 2024 presidential candidates are getting their message out to voters in any way they can as election day draws near. In Donald Trump's case, that included giving two interviews to Phil "Dr. Phil" McGraw, most recently on August 28. (Alas, Trump's makeup fail during the interview reminded us of our high school days and the trend of ghostly pale lips.) The following night, McGraw aired another special interview on his "Dr. Phil Primetime" (via X, aka Twitter), this one with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Like the Trump interview, this sit-down revealed little new about Kennedy, except to confirm he's as skilled at flip-flopping his views as the man he now supports. 

Both during and after Trump's term in office, Kennedy took aim at the former president's personality and policies. Per The Seattle Times, Kennedy has called Trump "a bully" and "a terrible president," criticizing his economic policies, his handling of the COVID crisis, his relationship with authoritarian world leaders, and his disregard for the environment. He found it "appalling" when Trump tried to reverse the results of the 2020 election. Yet he expressed no such ill feelings during the Dr. Phil interview. He'd suspended his campaign, he explained, because of the "media censorship" keeping him from being more visible to voters. After that, Kennedy said, he'd had "an interesting series of meetings with President Trump" in which they shared mutual goals. Kennedy also seems to have changed his mind about Trump's being a bully. "He's a very congenial, amiable, interesting guy, and very warm," he told the TV personality.

One wonders whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might want to re-think his endorsement of Donald Trump in light of what the former president has said about him and his famous family. His past Truth Social posts (via AP News) have called Kennedy "fake" and a "Radical Left Liberal," and the Kennedys "a bunch of lunatics." But when it became clear his opponent was about to suspend his campaign, Trump was all compliments. He told CNN, "He's a brilliant guy. He's a very smart guy. ...I like him a lot. I respect him a lot." Sure enough, he appointed Kennedy to his transition team shortly after the endorsement. 

During Dr. Phil's interview, Trump once again called Kennedy "a smart guy" as well as potentially "influential in getting this country back on track." Returning the praise, Kennedy recalled that even when he once sued Trump to halt the building of golf courses on valuable watershed properties, "he ended up giving me a ride to Florida on his plane. We were friendly. We had a great time and a lot of laughs." He hopes to assist Trump in achieving their shared goals for the country, including ending chronic disease (which, in Kennedy's definition, include food allergies and autism). 

Both men have apparently forgiven all the times they tossed around accusations such as "threat to democracy" and "dumbest member of the Kennedy clan." That clan, however, isn't about to make nice. The Kennedys have sharply criticized both RFK's campaign and his support of the Republican candidate. Sister Kerry Kennedy posted the family's reaction on X, saying the endorsement "is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear."