“He's an inspirational leader who's able to communicate. But he's not a manager,” said Jeff Hutt, spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again political action committee and Kennedy’s former national field director.

As HHS secretary, Kennedy has the authority, working with the FDA commissioner, to reorganize the agency without congressional approval. He says he wants to fully eliminate “entire departments” at the FDA, listing as a top target the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, which he says can’t be trusted to do its job.