By Liz Essley Whyte and Kristina Peterson
WASHINGTON—Soon after taking over as President Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. marked a small victory for his food agenda, congratulating burger chain Steak ’n Shake “for being the first national fast-food chain to begin the transition away from seed oils.”
Later that same day, the social-media post was quietly deleted, after it sparked internal consternation over whether the post showed too much favoritism to one company and stole the thunder of a bigger push on seed oils, people familiar with the matter said.
The moment was an early sign of the tension that has marked the first three weeks of Kennedy’s tenure at the Department of Health and Human Services, where secrecy and turmoil have curbed many initiatives.
Entering office in mid-February while promising radical transparency and an ambitious effort to rid America of chronic disease, Kennedy has instead spent his early tenure defending his handling of a measles outbreak in Texas, fending off cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency and making no visible progress on his signature policy goals despite goodwill from the White House. One of his top aides, a political appointee vetted by a White House that has been carefully screening all such hires for loyalty, quit after roughly two weeks on the job.
“So far the new team has not taken a single action to make our food safer,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president for the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that shares some of Kennedy’s aims to overhaul the food supply.
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