It’s safe to say the corporate-captured ‘MAHA Summit’ starring RFK Jr, VP Vance and health insurance executives did little to impress longtime MAHA activists, or anything to win back the rural MAHA followers who say “Trump hasn’t improved health of their communities.” When the most memorable moment from the whole ‘restricted’ affair was Russell Brand cracking wise about his rape charges – earning a hearty laugh from Dr. Oz – they’ve lost the plot.
- Washington Examiner: MAHA activists upset over corporate sponsorship for summit featuring RFK Jr. and Vance: Kelly Ryerson, who goes by the moniker “Glyphosate Girl” online, has been a staunch critic of the Trump administration’s approach to MAHA since the Justice Department sided with Bayer, the maker of the pesticide glyphosate, in its effort to shield the company from liability for failing to warn consumers about the risk of cancer from using its product. Ryerson said the event “should be hosting panels of regenerative ranchers, pesticide and PFAS experts, EMF scientists and integrative nutritionists.” She also said it was “off-target” for the MAHA Center to invite David Friedberg, a champion of genetically modified crops, to address the coalition on food reform policies. “Give me a break – could not be less MAHA,” Ryerson said.
- New York Times: : “It’s all a grift,” said Dr. Robert Malone, a critic of mRNA Covid vaccines. Dr. Malone served briefly as vice chair of a vaccine advisory committee appointed by Mr. Kennedy, but resigned in March after a judge ruled that he and other committee members lacked essential qualifications. “Why were none of the founding women of the movement involved?” asked Alex Clark, a podcaster with the conservative group Turning Point USA, referring to the so-called MAHA Moms. One of them, Vani Hari, who calls herself “the Food Babe” and has worked closely with Mr. Kennedy, attended as a guest but was not on the program.
- Washington Sun: Some MAHA activists had criticized organizers for including insurance industry executives in the event. Stefanie Spear, counselor to Kennedy, moderated a panel about food with the executives of Walmart, Steak ‘n Shake and Sweetgreen. Leaders of major health insurers UnitedHealthcare and AHIP, the insurer association, participated in a panel about affordability. “I think it’s a little bit of a challenge that the presentations on the stage seemed to be about bureaucracy being big business,” said Kate Johnson, a Florida nurse and mom of four who attended the White House event last year announcing its MAHA report. “That’s not the core of what the MAHA movement is.”
- MS Now: At MAHA Summit, RFK Jr.’s base asks if its champion is selling out: Dr. Robert Malone, a Covid-19 conspiracy theorist who sat on Kennedy’s remade vaccine advisory panel, called the MAHA Summit “a betrayal.” “MAHA rose to prominence by condemning precisely this convergence of money, access, industry influence, and government power … Who exactly is MAHA for now?” he wrote on Substack.
- STAT News: At MAHA Summit, a grassroots movement goes corporate: Some longtime supporters of the MAHA agenda were appalled. “There are a lot of people very upset about it,” said Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the MAHA-aligned Brownstone Institute. “It’s just this weird attempt to capture the reins of the MAHA label for something that doesn’t seem to have much to do with MAHA.” Tucker suggested it could be the movement succumbing to the ways of Washington — perhaps as a means of reform. “Maybe this is just a brilliant, sneaky way to undermine the system from within,” he said. Several influential voices across the movement spoke out against the summit. Mary Talley Bowden, a Texas physician and fixture in the world of vaccine skeptics, wrote on X that MAHA had “devolved into a cesspool of corporate interests.” Robert Malone, previously vice chair of Kennedy’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, published a searing blog post titled “The Capture of MAHA,” where he pointed out the conflicts of interest on display.
- Financial Times: Maha split shows all is not well with Kennedy’s US health revolution: Divisions within Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Make America Healthy Again movement risk damaging Republicans just as Maha prepares to test its political power for the first time at the midterm elections. Grassroots supporters say the group they founded has been hijacked by corporate interests, while mainstream Republicans worry Maha’s anti-vaccination message could endanger the party’s candidates in close races. The fight has burst into the open ahead of Maha’s health conference in Washington on September 29, in which nine public companies are scheduled to speak — more than double the number from last year — along with Trump administration officials. Corporate speakers also include artificial intelligence companies OpenAI and Anthropic, which are pursuing trillion-dollar public listings, and insurance company UnitedHealth. Some have expressed shock that Maha, which includes tax-exempt organisations as well as a political fundraising arm, requested up to $300,000 from corporate sponsors to speak on a panel and attend private gatherings with administration officials. “That’s not Maha,” said Kelly Ryerson, a Kennedy devotee and co-founder of a regenerative agriculture non-profit. “Some of these things creeping in feel like classic lobbying and co-opting of a very popular movement. That’s frustrating.”
- New York Post: Accused rapist Russell Brand stars in MAHA summit, cracks joke about unwanted touching to Dr. Oz: Comedian Russell Brand, ex-husband of singer Katy Perry, moderated a panel at the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) summit and made a head-turning joke ahead of his rape trial next month. In response to a slight delay in Brand taking the stage to steer a panel on reforms to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), its administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, noted that the comedian had been hugging Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins backstage. “She initiated that contact; I should make clear,” Brand said to laughs. The quip comes as Brand is set to stand trial starting Oct. 12 in the United Kingdom on multiple charges over accusations of rape, oral rape, sexual assault, and assault from six different women spanning 1999 through the 2000s.
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