Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, is making it crystal clear: he’s not running for president in 2028, and any suggestion otherwise is a swamp tactic to divide him from the president.

In a lengthy post on X, Kennedy blasted Washington insiders for spreading lies about his political ambitions. “The swamp is in full panic mode,” he wrote. “DC lobby shops are laboring fiercely to drive a wedge between President Trump and me, hoping to thwart our team from dismantling the status quo and advancing @POTUS’ Make America Healthy Again agenda.”

Kennedy insisted that his only mission is to carry out Trump’s vision, not carve out his own. “They’re pushing the flat-out lie that I’m running for president in 2028. Let me be clear: I am not running for president in 2028. My loyalty is to President Trump and the mission we’ve started,” he said.

The comments came after a Politico report suggested that his deputy chief of staff, Stefanie Spear, was “laying the groundwork” for Kennedy to pursue a White House run. Kennedy defended her fiercely, calling her “a fierce, loyal warrior for MAHA who proudly serves in the Trump administration.” He said the fact that critics are targeting her shows “we’re over the target” and pledged to keep delivering victories despite the smear campaign.

Kennedy praised Trump’s presidency in sweeping terms, crediting him with ending wars, protecting free speech, and rebuilding the American middle class. “President Trump is delivering on every promise beyond my wildest dreams — ending war, protecting free speech, rebuilding American industry and the American middle class, delivering transparency and gold standard science, and breaking the grip of entrenched interests,” Kennedy said.

He even went further, suggesting his role under Trump fulfilled a prayer he had carried for decades. “The president has made himself the answer to my 20-year prayer that God would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic — and that’s exactly what my team and I will do until the day he leaves office,” Kennedy wrote.

The background for these rumors is Kennedy’s history. He ran an independent campaign for president in 2024, before ultimately aligning with Trump. His appointment as HHS Secretary was one of Trump’s boldest moves in his second term, especially since Kennedy has long been a critic of the pharmaceutical industry and federal health agencies.

That stance was on display just days earlier when Kennedy made waves by firing all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, known as ACIP. He argued the committee had lost the trust of the American people and needed a total reset. “Today, we are taking a bold step in restoring public trust by totally reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices,” Kennedy explained in a Wall Street Journal editorial.

For Kennedy, this is all part of a bigger battle — not just over health, but over who controls Washington. He made it clear the same entrenched interests that tried to block Trump’s agenda are now trying to divide their partnership. “We’ll keep moving forward, we’ll keep delivering wins, and no smear campaign will stop us,” Kennedy vowed.

The rumors may continue to swirl, but Kennedy’s declaration leaves little doubt: he’s not eyeing Trump’s job. Instead, he’s standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the president in what he calls a fight to save the country’s health, economy, and future.

And in his words, that fight won’t stop “until the day President Trump leaves office.”