Trump to appoint United Healthcare-funded lobbyist to top position in apparent rebuke of RFK Jr’s agenda
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Don Dempsey reportedly in frame to serve as Office of Management and Budget’s leading health offical, a role that would hand him sweeping powers to rein in Kennedy’s ambitions. Donald Trump is reportedly set to appoint a prominent healthcare industry lobbyist to his new administration in a move that could potentially tee up a power struggle with Robert F Kennedy Jr, his controversial nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dempsey is the current head of policy and research at Better Medicare Alliance, a lobby group that advocates for an alternative to the federal Medicare program and that is funded by insurance companies, including UnitedHealth and Humana. Should he be offered the position of the OMB’s health program associate director and accept it, Dempsey would hold sway over the US’s $1.8trn healthcare budget and have responsibility for 13 separate divisions and agencies, a prospect seemingly at odds with Trump’s promise to Kennedy that he would be free to run “wild” across government with his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
Dempsey is also seen as a representative of the US healthcare establishment, whereas RFK Jr is a persistent critic of Big Pharma. However, it is by no means certain that Kennedy will be confirmed by the Senate, given his long history of entertaining conspiracy theories and expressing scepticism towards vaccines and other matters of scientific consensus – not to mention the many bizarre anecdotes from his personal biography that emerged last year during his failed run for the presidency as an independent candidate.
