Trump tries to ease concerns about Kennedy — while remaining open to his ideas

President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his pick to lead HHS, wouldn’t be “radical” in his health policies — a concern for many Senate Republicans who will decide his confirmation.

“I think he’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” Trump said during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago. “He’s going to have an open mind, or I wouldn’t have put him there.”

But in the same press conference, Trump suggested he was open to Kennedy’s more radical ideas, and dodged a question about whether he believes vaccines cause autism, a claim research has repeatedly debunked.

“We’re looking to find out,” he said, later suggesting pesticides, also a target of Kennedy, could be leading to rising autism diagnoses. “Something bad’s happening.”

Trump wouldn’t back long-standing vaccines for children going to school, either.

“I don’t like mandates,” he said.

But on the polio vaccine? “I’m a big believer in it,” Trump said. “You’re not going to lose the polio vaccine.”

Why it matters: Trump’s comments come as Kennedy is set to meet with Senate Republicans this week about his nomination. Some lawmakers have signaled concern about Kennedy’s views, especially his vaccine skepticism and misinformation.

Trump previously softened Kennedy’s position that the regulatory agencies need significant reforms, saying his nominee wouldn’t upset the current system and would work with the pharmaceutical industry.

As an example, Trump said Monday that in an earlier meeting with Kennedy, CMS nominee Mehmet Oz and pharmaceutical executives spent more time on drug costs than anything else.

On that front, the president-elect said he would target pharmaceutical “middlemen,” the shorthand policymakers have used recently in their push to further regulate pharmacy benefit managers. PBMs negotiate drug prices for insurers and employers.

“We’re going to knock out the middleman,” Trump said. “I don’t know who these middlemen are, but they are rich as hell.”

What’s next: Trump said policy changes wouldn’t happen quickly, saying he wanted to see data Kennedy brings to him on vaccines.