Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been among the most targeted by Democrats of President Donald Trump’s cabinet members since taking office in February.
Yet despite all the rhetorical slings and arrows, the leader of the Make America Healthy Again movement is the most popular cabinet official in the administration.
CNN data analyst Harry Enten reported the polling results on Thursday, as RFK Jr. appeared before the Senate Finance Committee.
Enten aggregated the results among multiple surveys and found that the HHS secretary is at a -7 percent net favorability rating, compared to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who’s at -10 percent, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who’s polling at -14 percent.
🚨 JUST IN: CNN is now reporting that even in BIASED POLLING, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “THE MOST POPULAR OFFICIAL in Trump’s Cabinet.”
The attempts to make him resign must fail.
RFK Jr. needs all the support he can get.pic.twitter.com/usC0IQRssV
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 4, 2025
“RFK Jr. is not a drag on President Trump. He’s not the most embattled. In fact, he is the most popular official in Trump’s cabinet, at least according to the polling,” the CNN data expert said.
An Axios/Ipsos American Health Index survey released in July found a majority back the core of Kennedy’s MAHA food safety efforts.
Fifty-six percent said “chemicals or unsafe additives in foods are a large or moderate risk to their health right now.”
Do you support the job Kennedy is doing at HHS?
Further, 67 percent say “they agree that they do not think foods that contain pesticides or artificial food dyes in them are safe to eat, even if they are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”
On the subject of childhood vaccination — which Kennedy wants to leave more to parents’ discretion — 77 percent of poll respondents said they believe parents should follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended immunization schedules for getting their children vaccinated.
“However, fewer Americans strongly agree with this sentiment (40%) compared to the previous wave of the Axios/Ipsos American Health Index (51%), fielded February 28-March 3, 2025. This softening has taken place across the political aisle,” Ipsos noted.
Enten highlighted that there has been a 30 percentage-point drop since 1991 in support for governments mandating a vaccination schedule for children.
In 2019, support had already fallen to 62 percent.
“Now, a bare majority say the government should, in fact, require kids to be vaccinated against infectious diseases,” Enten said. “The American public has become increasingly skeptical of the idea that the government should require kids to be vaccinated.”
Fact check: RFK Jr. is actually the most popular member of Trump’s admin.
His time at HHS come as there’s been a 30 pt drop since 1991 in people wanting the gov’t to require kids to get vax’d.
Also comes at a time when most people say public health officials lied about Covid. pic.twitter.com/vbmcKVj7F4
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) September 4, 2025
Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, who is a licensed OB-GYN, supported Kennedy’s belief that children are getting overvaccinated.
Kennedy got backup firepower from Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) — a licensed OB-GYN — when he silenced the room by revealing the shocking number of shots kids are expected to take by age 18.
“On day number one, they get their first jab, a hepatitis vaccine. By the time… pic.twitter.com/PQRUlM8Oc4
— Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) September 4, 2025
Displaying a chart that he identified as the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine recommendations for children at Thursday’s committee hearing, the senator said, “On day number one, they get their first jab, a hepatitis vaccine. By the time they’re 18 months, they’ve had 18 jabs. By the time they get to be able to vote, they have 76 jabs.”
RFK Jr. told Marshall, “We don’t understand the risk profile, because vaccines are the only medical intervention, medical device, or pharmaceutical drug that are exempt from pre-licensing safety studies.”
Dr. Marshall explained that he doesn’t see the point in vaccinating every newborn on the first day of life for Hepatitis B when the mother tests negative, leaving no plausible risk to the child.
This opened up the opportunity for Kennedy to hammer that point even further,… pic.twitter.com/si6a12kAGC
— Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) September 4, 2025
Regarding his recent decision to fire CDC director Dr. Susan Morarez and others at the agency, Kennedy said, “We are the sickest country in the world. That’s why we have to fire people at the CDC.”
RFK Jr: “We are the sickest country in the world. That’s why we have to fire people at the CDC.”
“They did not do their job. This was their job to keep us healthy, and I need to fire some of those people to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” pic.twitter.com/vwuyD2QAGS
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 4, 2025
“They did not do their job,” he added. “This was their job — to keep us healthy — and I need to fire some of those people to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
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