Trump nominates conspiracist and anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health

Donald Trump picks vaccine opponent and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making this the latest provocative nomination of a future Republican president.

Trump announced he was "thrilled" to nominate Kennedy.

Since his election last week, Trump has embarked on a rapid campaign of political shock and awe as he establishes an administration that aims to upend - and in some cases literally destroy - the U.S. government.

Several of Trump's picks for top jobs - including a TV news anchor to head the Pentagon and an ally embroiled in sexual assault allegations to be attorney general - have alarmed Washington.

Kennedy, a scion of the famous political family known as RFK Jr, is a longtime environmental activist who gave up a marginal run for the presidency to support Trump against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

Trump has said he wants Kennedy to "run wild" on health care change.

Kennedy, 70, argues that a fundamental change is needed in the way Americans eat, exercise and use medicine.

If confirmed by the Senate, which is controlled by Trump's Republican Party, he would take over the Department of Health and Human Services, a huge institution with a budget of nearly $2 trillion.

In his statement, Trump said Kennedy would "make America great and strong again!"

The 78-year-old president-elect echoed many of Kennedy's theses, saying that "Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and the pharmaceutical companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation and disinformation."

"Mr. Kennedy will restore these agencies to the tradition of gold-standard research and beacons of transparency to end the epidemic of chronic disease," Trump said.

The nomination will face serious resistance, given Kennedy's history of promoting medical conspiracy theories - including the debunked claim that childhood vaccines cause autism - and claiming the Covid-19 vaccine is deadly.

He has also been linked to a series of colourful and even bizarre stories about his personal life.

Among them is his statement that a worm once entered his brain, ate part of it and then died.

This year's admission that he was behind the long-unsolved mystery of a dead bear dumped in New York's Central Park a decade ago raised eyebrows, as did subsequent revelations that the married politician had a sexual relationship with a famous female journalist.

Trump has not yet chosen the heads of the Treasury and Commerce departments to conduct tax and trade policy. Nor has he revealed his choice for education, a department he wants to abolish. | BGNES