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Former President Donald Trump said Sunday that he expected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to have a “big role” in a second administration, and acknowledged the possibility that he could take action against two major public health successes — vaccines and the fluoridation of water — if he won the presidency.

The remarks, in an interview with NBC News, suggest that Kennedy, a former independent candidate, has assumed an elevated role in Trump’s orbit, and that Trump is keen, in the waning days of the presidential campaign, to appeal to a segment of his base that is deeply skeptical of such public-health interventions.

Kennedy has been a forceful surrogate for Trump on the campaign trail in recent weeks. In a call last week with supporters, Kennedy said Trump had “promised” him control of the nation’s public health agencies, an assertion the Trump campaign called premature.

Trump, however, said at his recent rally in New York that he would let Kennedy “go wild on health,” and on Sunday, Kennedy reiterated to Fox News that he was in talks with Trump about a high-level policy role. “I want to be in the White House, and he has assured me that I’m going to have that,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy asserted Saturday that a second Trump administration would move swiftly to stop the fluoridation of drinking water. He is also a prominent critic of vaccines, particularly the childhood vaccination schedule, and has frequently claimed that some vaccines are linked to autism and other health issues, despite years of studies showing no such connection.

Trump’s remarks Sunday about vaccines came in response to a question about whether “banning certain vaccines might be on the table,” given Kennedy’s opinions on the subject. Trump responded: “Well, I’m going to talk to him and talk to other people, and I’ll make a decision, but he’s a very talented guy and has strong views.”

Trump has voiced misgivings about vaccines in the past, including in a 2015 Republican primary debate and in a leaked phone call between him and Kennedy in July, as the former president tried to coax Kennedy to back his campaign. It is an issue that animates a portion of his base, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic — even as his administration poured billions of dollars into developing COVID-19 shots.

On Saturday, Kennedy posted on the social network X that a second Trump administration on Jan. 20 would “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.” The treatment of public water with small amounts of fluoride has been widely hailed as one of the most important public health interventions of the past century; the American Dental Association has said that it has reduced dental decay by at least 25%.

Fluoridation has been the subject of conspiracy theories dating to the 1950s, and it has not been entirely without controversy. Some recent studies suggest that excess exposure to fluoride — at levels twice the amount recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency — could harm infants’ developing brains. But scientists, including those at the federal government’s National Toxicology Program, say more research is needed to understand whether lower exposure to fluoride has an effect.

In response to a question from NBC News reporter Dasha Burns about Kennedy’s post about fluoridation, Trump said: “Well, I haven’t talked to him about it yet, but it sounds OK to me. You know, it’s possible.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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