RFK Jr.’s Quid Pro Quo: An Endorsement for a Cabinet Seat
Plus, the first VP debate is scheduled and Trump Media bleeds value as it pivots to streaming
RFK Jr.’s Quid Pro Quo: An Endorsement for a Cabinet Seat
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is trying to sell his endorsement for a Cabinet position in the next administration. It appears that the only party willing to even pick up the phone to hear RFK Jr. out is the Republican Party. And that’s because everything is for sale when it comes to Donald Trump, including the Kennedy political legacy.
Kennedy hasn’t done himself any favors since he launched his presidential campaign as an Independent candidate. That decision alone made him persona non grata with the Democratic Party and his own family. Kennedy even told the press that he has been iced out by the Democratic Party since he launched his campaign.
But he’s only made things much worse for himself since then. There has been a cascade of bad news for Kennedy since decided to challenge the incumbent Democratic president.
The skeletons coming out of his closet—his campaign being backed by the same megadonors that are backing Donald Trump, his Super Bowl ad fiasco, the worm that ate part of his brain, dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park, his history with domestic abuse and drug abuse, and his habit of spreading dangerous conspiracy theories and distorting the truth—underscore that Kennedy is a privileged, but deeply mentally unwell man who needs help.
Simply put, Kennedy is unfit for office in any capacity. His recent behavior is more proof that he is no public servant. He’s in it for himself.
Back in June, Kennedy unsuccessfully attempted to contact one of President Joe Biden’s advisors to convince the Democratic Party to ditch Biden and support the Independent presidential candidate instead.
The Washington Post reported that the day after the June 27 presidential debate between President Biden and then GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, Kennedy’s campaign staffers called a relative of Airbnb founder Joe Gebbia requesting that they send a message from Kennedy to Biden’s former Chief of Staff, Ron Klain. That message stated,
“The Dems should nominate Kennedy. He is the only candidate under consideration who can beat Trump. Please give it some thought. Kennedy would win, the Dems would keep the White House, and Americans would avoid the Trump reprise that so many across this nation dread.”
When asked about the message, Klain acknowledged to the Post on Wednesday that the Kennedy campaign was trying to reach him through someone else. He also stated that he did not respond.
The change in the Democratic ticket has not changed the dynamics between Kennedy and the Democratic party. Kennedy also had his campaign staffers reach out to other Democratic intermediaries, including Democratic megadonor and Hollywood talent mogul Ari Emanuel and Democratic activist and film director Rob Reiner to reach the Harris campaign.
Campaign officials with Kennedy’s campaign told the Post that they have tried sharing internal campaign polling with the Harris campaign that shows either presidential candidate would get a bump in support in 31 states if they got Kennedy’s endorsement. They used this polling to ask for a Cabinet secretary position in her administration.
But the Harris campaign and the DNC have shown zero interest in what RFK Jr. has to say. His calls to intermediaries and to the campaign directly have gone straight to voicemail.
On Thursday, Kennedy posted a long message on X that he has no plans to endorse Harris. It appears that his meeting with an unregistered foreign agent of Russia who was searched by the FBI last week was about campaign messaging to damage the Democratic Party.
Kennedy’s post on X is riddled with Russian information warfare and adopts the Trump campaign’s messaging verbatim. His canned response to comments with “fake news” also echoes the rhetoric of Russia’s number 1 asset, Donald Trump.
The willingness to be a useful idiot for the Trump campaign may be why Trump campaign advisors have publicly acknowledged that they remain in touch with Kennedy. They also told the press that they are confident Kennedy will drop out of the race and endorse Trump.
It’s also noteworthy that a source told the Post that Kennedy was spotted earlier this week at a hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida, which is near the Trump campaign headquarters (aka Mar-a-Lago).
First VP debate scheduled for October 1 on CBS
Vice-presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz will have their first debate on October 1. CBS is hosting the debate, which will be moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan.
Trump Media bleeds value as it goes all in on Truth+ streaming service
Donald Trump returned to X on Monday in a "Spaces” chat with billionaire Elon Musk, signaling that Trump’s Twitter copycat, Truth Social, was not a viable alternative. On Friday, Trump Media reported a net loss of $16.4M in Q2 and a 30% drop in revenue to just $836,900. As the market opened on Tuesday, the company’s stock continued to fall, dropping more than 3% to $24.01 per share—the company’s lowest share price since April. The company claiming to have a market capitalization of $5B also reported that it has $344M in cash and cash equivalents with zero debt. But the math isn’t mathing.
According to SEO company Search Logistics, Truth Social only has 2M daily active users. This is a drop in the bucket compared to Twitter/X with 121M DAU, TikTok with 50M DAU, and even Meta’s newcomer, Threads with 33M DAU. Statista also published data from February 2024 that shows that downloads of Trump’s social media app have hit rock bottom—roughly 40K downloads from the Apple App Store and about 57K from the Google Play Store.
The company blamed half of its loss for Q2 on legal expenses for the SPAC merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. It also claimed that it spent $3.1M on IT consulting and software licensing expenses for Trump Media’s new TV streaming service, Truth+, which launched last week. While it appears that Trump Media is expanding, the devil in the financial details points to a pivot.