After suspending his campaign and endorsing Donald Trump last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced he will be joining the Trump-Vance transition team. In that role, he told Tucker Carlson on Tuesday, he will “help pick the people who will be running the government” in a second Trump term. Kennedy’s environmentalist bona fides are welcome news for Republicans who feel their party should return to the commitment to stewardship and conservation once spearheaded by GOP notables such as Theodore Roosevelt.
But for anyone who shares the basic Trumpian populist commitment to rebuilding the US industrial base, RFK Jr.’s long history of opposing energy abundance should raise serious concerns. Putting Kennedy anywhere near the levers of energy policy would mean putting America last.