Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Donald Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at a Turning Point Action campaign rally, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, in Duluth, Ga. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.


Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Kennedy made the declaration on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, “want to Make America Healthy Again,” he added, repeating a phrase Trump often uses and links to Kennedy.

It was not clear if Kennedy discussed Saturday’s post with Trump or his aides. The Trump campaign did not answer directly, and a spokesperson for Kennedy did not respond when asked.

“While President Trump has received a variety of policy ideas, he is focused on Tuesday’s election," Danielle Alvarez, Trump campaign senior advisor, said.

But the sudden and unexpected weekend social media post evoked the chaotic policymaking that defined Trump’s White House tenure, when he would issue policy declarations on Twitter at virtually all hours. It also underscored the concerns many experts have about Kennedy, who has long promoted debunked theories about vaccine safety, having influence over U.S. public health.


Robert F. Kennedy Jr., walks on the tarmac as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Romulus, Mich. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.


Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.


In his X post Saturday, Kennedy tagged Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiff in that lawsuit, the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

What role Kennedy might hold if Trump wins on Tuesday remains unclear. Kennedy recently told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Agriculture.

But for now, the former independent presidential candidate has become one of Trump's top surrogates. Trump frequently mentions having the support of Kennedy, a scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.


Kennedy traveled with Trump Friday and spoke at his rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Trump said Saturday that he told Kennedy: “You can work on food, you can work on anything you want" except oil policy.

“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything," Trump added.

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[Otterly]

OK, show me a solid study by anyone - that the average American is getting too much”

Fair enough. That kind of runs into the issue of ‘what is too much?’ I would say that too much is any deleterious effect, would you agree? So any negative effect on say IQ, or any tooth/bone issues caused by normal levels of consumption.
Here: https://apnews.com/article/096bedef61c349a3b5bf6c636c05fff2
2 out of five kids had fluorosis. This waved off as a cosmetic issue but it’s not - it’s a sign that the body has been exposed to too much. If 40% of the kids had this, that’s a clear sign of excessive exposure (and ironic as it was supposed to improve dental health.)

Thread 'U.S. government report says fluoride at twice the recommended limit is linked to lower IQ in kids'
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/u-s-g...d-limit-is-linked-to-lower-iq-in-kids.198568/
2x usual limit is extremely low, in terms of the buffer between ok and harmful. Imagine if 2x 500g paracetamol sorted your headache but 4x killed you - it’d never be approved (and I believe even with the doses that can harm today bring do close to the therapeutic dose, paracetamol would never be approved as a painkiller for ITC today.)
But anyway, it does seem to be ‘on the edge’ of that limit. So much so that fluorosis WAS starting to become a problem and some places lowered the amounts getting put in water. Remember that the big push for adding it to water was well before fluoridated toothpastes became available to the masses. Now we get it from water, toothpaste and some teas and altogether that seems to be hitting the levels at which effects are seen

https://archive.md/iWnZ5

A lot more to dig into at the link below: https://archive.md/iWnZ5
There’s probably too much fighting on this to have a real governmental look into it tbh. ‘Yeah we’ve been poisoning you all for 75 years’ wouldn’t go down well and it’s fire up a lot of the conspiracies too. It would be nice to have a good look at the thing dispassionately but I doubt that’ll happen

 

[MadStan]

It’s not hard to do a study on this. If RFK wants to get a study done, go for it. But going off “gut instinct” for health decisions by and large is flawed.

It just isn’t that complicated.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

great preview of the incoming Trump admin, just like 2016, a bunch of shit-brained politispergs obsessing over dumb shit that doesn't matter and won't improve anything

You're right. Better to focus on abortion, puberty blockers and sucking girldick.

It’s not hard to do a study on this. If RFK wants to get a study done, go for it. But going off “gut instinct” for health decisions by and large is flawed.

It just isn’t that complicated.

You've just been given a study, posted by a knowledgeable source within the magical realms of pharma and you completely ignore it.

 

[BulkForceFive]

Except when you combine that DEADLY GAS and that HIGHLY REACTIVE METAL they don't put that cute pirate flag on the bag.
View attachment 6595102

That's bagged concentrate, anything concentrated can be hazardous. Two workers were killed in 2021 after being splashed with concentrated acetic acid ie. white vinegar. 5% solution is vastly different to 95%.

Sodium chloride also has a lethal dose too, just significantly higher than sodium fluoride but still absolutely possible for a human to ingest. Not to mention long-term negative effects from too much salt in your diet.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

i think lead piping being used for plumbing is more of a concern than the minuscule amount of fluoride you'd be getting in the water because the lead piping is going to do far more damage to you

 

[Otterly]

i think lead piping being used for plumbing is more of a concern than the minuscule amount of fluoride you'd be getting in the water because the lead piping is going to do far more damage to you

Both are pretty bad tbh. Lead piping tends to associate with the kind of local council who got a grant to remove it and spent it all on crack whores and/or drag queens. You usually find they were told about and told to remove it but didn’t because it’s not a visible or cool priority and can easily be shelved.
See also: drainage ditches being dredged properly, etc.
clean water should not be a problem in rich western countries - the fact that it is blows my mind. There was a march on Westminster yesterday for clean water (our water companies have decided to just pump sewage out into previously clean watercourses to make sure their directors get bigger bonuses.) their CEOs should be made to drink a glass a day of water from such rivers - that might sharpen minds
All this money on net zero and we can’t even get clean water right.

 

[Rei is Shit.]

Reminder that Americas Greatest Ally doesn't put fluoride in their water.

 

[Devout Muslim]

Is anyone going to tell RFK well water can have much greater concentrations of fluoride than municipal water supplies? Is he going to go after farmers and homesteaders and make them treat their wells?

That is a news to nobody who has done any research on the topic. The majority of the research looks at the impact of fluoride levels which are significantly above those associated with intentional fluoridation. However, as the casual mechanism is unknown, no “safe limit” can be assigned. So why are we intentionally adding it to the water when it’s already in our toothpaste?

 

[Spud]

There's an optimal amount of Flouride.

Yes there is. In my toothpaste, I don't need extra in my water.

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

If you want flouride so bad, add your own. How much tap water do you actually drink? Do you think it's some magical chemical that the tiny amount that splashes on your teeth when you brush makes a massive difference? If you brush and floss regularly, taking fluoride out of your tap water will make no difference.

What really depresses me about this is the rote, predictable way the AP goes after Kennedy here. It's a preview of rhe next 4 years if Trump wins, how the media will turn the #RESIST up to 11 and be relentless in sabotaging anything Trump and his team does by deboonking and arguing against it.

Even though in the back half of the article they show the studies saying fluoride is bad, they lead with

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims

And then smugly state what they consider an unassailable fact

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

We can look forward to 4 years of the media hardcore advocating and simping for Big Pharma and Industrial Food, trying to destroy the MAHA agenda. It's demoralizing.

Putting it in the water is extremely silly, when you consider you cannot control the dosage people are getting. Honestly, it was probably just a way for a corporation to get free money from the government.

It is. It was a way to get rid of industrial waste byproducts.

Edit: Also it worries me that Kennedy is throwing out these proclamations and doing stuff like setting up a website for people to nominate administration appointees. Him getting too big for his britches might piss Trump off. He doesn't have a cabinet position until the Cabinet is formed, and he passes Senate confirmation. There's a real chance Trump is just using him for the endorsement and campaigning and promising him a position, but will drop him after the election. Maybe make him a "Special Advisor" or put him on a "Blue ribbon Panel" to study shit instead of giving him authority.

 

[Overly Serious]

Putting it in the water is extremely silly, when you consider you cannot control the dosage people are getting. Honestly, it was probably just a way for a corporation to get free money from the government.

Yes. I drink almost exclusively water. Not sodas, not fruit juice. On rare occasions I'll have a milkshake or something. Basically unless I'm out socialising I drink water.

And I drink a fair bit of it. My dosage of fluoride would be way higher than many other peoples. Though I have one of the better water filters and I think it filters it out.

 

[Snazzy Sneedy Snake]

Yes. I drink almost exclusively water. Not sodas, not fruit juice. On rare occasions I'll have a milkshake or something. Basically unless I'm out socialising I drink water.

And I drink a fair bit of it. My dosage of fluoride would be way higher than many other peoples. Though I have one of the better water filters and I think it filters it out.

Which filter are you using? We drink a lot of water too, and I don't want us getting sick from too much fluoride :/

 

[Cybertonia]

Probably a good thing that someone is just daring to ask the question if putting fluoride in water supplies is even still relevant, given that it's a practice that was started over 80 years ago when "dental hygene" for most people was dipping a horsehair brush in some baking soda and mechanically grinding the enamel right off your teeth, and your average dentist at the time had a playbook that largely consisted of "knock your stupid ass out with some chloroform, and then grip and rip and hope that your mandibular nerve doesn't get mangled in the process"

 

[Overly Serious]

Which filter are you using? We drink a lot of water too, and I don't want us getting sick from too much fluoride :/

When I researched, this range was the best I could find. Seemed substantially better than the all-pervasive Britta filters. The refills are more expensive but not actually that bad. IMO.

https://zerowater.co.uk/

 

[_squall]

Arguments for mass fluoridation are just as retarded as those for mass circumcision. "But it's good for your teeth!" "But it's cleaner and safer!" Not an argument for anyone who practices even basic hygiene. I have a hard time believing it has good motives behind it, and even if it does, I should have bodily autonomy and the water I drink is part of that.