RFK Jr.'s Fox News Interview Has Everyone Saying The Same Thing About Michelle Obama

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s bid for the White House in 2024 was decried by members of his family, and he eventually dropped out of the race and endorsed Donald Trump for president. Now, the frequent promoter of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories has been confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. As such, he has control over agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. During the 2024 election, RFK Jr. talked a lot about the idea of "Making America Healthy Again," and one of the ideas that he floated on Fox News recently to help with that goal sounds a lot like an idea that Michelle Obama supported when she was first lady. However, her take on it earned her nothing but condemnation from the right while RFK Jr.'s position seems to be met with support, and the hypocrisy of the situation is being pointed out on social media.

Here's the basics of the two ideas. In an appearance on Fox News on Laura Ingraham's show after having been confirmed by the U.S. Senate, RFK Jr. said: "The one place that I would say that we really need to change policies is ... school lunches. ... We shouldn't be subsidizing people to eat poison," via Fox News. Ingraham didn't push back against any critique of school lunches nor the idea that the government should have a say in the situation.

Back in 2010, Michelle was promoting the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. In a fact sheet from the Obama White House about the act, it was described as providing "significant improvements that will help provide children with healthier and more nutritious food options, educate children about making healthy food choices, and teach children healthy habits that can last a lifetime." Sound familiar?

Social media has lit up with people comparing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s talk about reworking school lunches to make them healthier with Michelle Obama's work. "Remember when Republicans had absolute hissyfits when Michelle Obama wanted to provide fruits and vegetables to school kids lunches?" one person said on X (formerly known as Twitter). Another said, "They called her a communist, and said America was becoming a police state because she wanted children to have healthy choices in school."

Some of them seem to think that the support that RFK Jr. is getting from the right compared to the response Michelle got comes down to an issue of race. One person wrote on X: "Funny. When Michelle Obama said the same thing, and tried to initiate a Healthy America program, MAGAs screamed bloody murder and said no one has the right to tell me what my kid should eat. Wonder white it's different this time?"

Others see a different angle to the hypocrisy with RFK Jr. They shared the picture of RFK Jr. eating McDonald's with Donald Trump and Elon Musk during the 2024 campaign. Perhaps it's a "do as I say, not as I do" situation? Trump's love affair with fast food is legendary, so we're curious how he will respond if or when RFK Jr. limits access to food in schools that Trump likes.

It's true that the legislation that Michelle Obama helped promote required schools to, among other things, provide more servings of fruits, veggies, and whole grains and that Republicans, by and large, hated it. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that helped spearhead Project 2025, a plan to reshape the federal government during Donald Trump's second term as president. Back in 2014, a former senior research fellow at the foundation wrote about Michelle and school lunches. Some of the complaints noted included the cost of the program, food waste, and seemingly the fact that Michelle thought she should have a voice in the conversation. "Michelle Obama thinks she knows what your children should eat. ... the underlying assumption is that federal technocrats and educated individuals such as her need to act on your behalf to meet the best interests of your children," via The Heritage Foundation.

A scientific study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2020 found that the program did help provide access to healthier food to students, particularly those from low-income families who might not have easy access to healthier food outside of school. Trump rolled back some of the standards put in place during Barack Obama's administration. Only time will tell just exactly how Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plans will differ from the ones promoted by Michelle, if at all.