By Scottie Andrew, CNN
(CNN) — The day after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Services on a self-described mission to “Make America Healthy Again,” the vegan podcast host and animal rights activist Bob Linden posted a missive in several vegan Facebook groups, declaring it a “beginning” and an “opportunity.”
“as Vegans, we need to make sure that we have a place at the table to Make America Healthy ‘Again’(?)” he wrote in February 2025.
Fellow vegans in the comments were incredulous — what of the bear cub carcass Kennedy claimed to have dumped in Central Park or his lifelong interest in hunting? But Linden saw in Kennedy a potential vegan ally who, despite his carnivorous diet, promised to advocate against vaccine mandates, end animal testing and encourage Americans to quit processed foods.
A year later, Kennedy has made “real food” a pillar of his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) framework. But his new nutrition guidelines and inverted food pyramid place a much stronger emphasis on red meat, whole milk and other animal products than previous government-issued nutritional suggestions.
“I feel like it’s a betrayal,” Linden said in January. “I believe these new dietary restrictions are anti-American.”
Linden said he defines the MAHA acronym differently now: “Meatheads are hijacking America.”
A plate of birthday steak
Kennedy has never represented himself as a vegan — his infamous brain worm was likely a pork tapeworm larva — but his emphasis on whole, natural foods and his hostility to vaccines, which some vegans view as the epitome of animal-tested medicine, suggested an opportunity to bend policy in a more animal-rights-friendly direction. The former Democrat, prominent vegan and vaccine opponent Alicia Silverstone, for instance, threw her support behind Kennedy’s failed presidential campaign.
“I’ve always been on board with the ‘real food’ movement,” said Brian Turner, a vegan bodybuilder and trainer. “When RFK Jr. started focusing on cutting out ultra-processed junk, dyes and added sugars, I thought it was a great step forward, and it’s something most of the vegan community and the MAHA movement can actually agree on.”
But with the MAHA tent reserving a prominent space for beef and dairy farmers and carnivorous conservatives, the vegans who hoped he’d give them a voice are being squeezed out.
Kennedy’s status as perhaps the highest-profile vaccine opponent in office was exciting to Linden, who said he’s “anti-vax.” Most vaccines are tested on animals before they progress to human trials and can contain “animal-derived pro