Joseph Ladapo passed up for RFK Jr. to helm HHS despite Ron DeSantis’ advocacy

Florida’s Surgeon General won’t end up in Donald Trump’s Cabinet, according to multiple reports and the President-elect’s son.

Donald Trump Jr. announced that Robert Kennedy Jr. will be Health and Human Services Secretary, as news of the impending selection broke Thursday afternoon.

“Promises Made Promises Kept,” Trump Jr. said.

The President-elect is “thrilled” to make the announcement, meanwhile.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health. The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” Trump said.

A week ago, DeSantis floated a trial balloon for Dr. Joseph Ladapo for the same position. “Retweet if you’d like to see this man — Dr. Joseph Ladapo — serve as the Secretary of HHS in the new Trump administration,” DeSantis wrote in a post on X.

Ladapo, who is the second Surgeon General under the DeSantis administration and is also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida, has been vocal about COVID vaccines and their side effects, among other issues, since he took over for Scott Rivkees during the pandemic.

Ladapo also appeared on the campaign trail last year with DeSantis at a “Medical Freedom Town Hall” in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Ladapo recounted the circumstances of his hiring on that occasion.

“They told me they had a vacancy coming up. They were looking for a new Surgeon General,” Ladapo recalled, saying the call struck him as “awfully strange.”

“A day or two later I had a job interview,” Ladapo said, and after the “fun interview” with DeSantis and former Chief of Staff Adrian Lukis, he got the job offer the next day.

Ladapo described DeSantis as “willing to do what he believed is right despite the opposition.” He also noted that he met Trump and that, while he has “nothing against” the former President, “there’s no one running in this election who has the critical qualities” DeSantis has.

DeSantis talked about Kennedy regularly while a candidate for President against Trump last year. He suggested he might “sic him on the  Food and Drug Administration (FDA), if he’d be willing to serve, or sic him on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),” before amending his position to say he’d put Kennedy on a “task force.”

He also thought he’d get the votes of anti-vaxxers backing Kennedy for President.

“RFK Jr. will be a vessel for anti-lockdown and anti-Anthony Fauci voters if Trump is the nominee. If I’m the nominee, they all go to me because I stood up against Fauci,” DeSantis said in New Hampshire.

While Ladapo has been passed over for this key role, which was the only ask DeSantis had of the President-elect post-election, intrigue remains in the form of the political future of Republican National Committee Chair Lara Trump.

The President-elect’s daughter-in-law is lobbying heavily for the Senate seat being vacated by Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio. DeSantis has yet to announce an appointment. He’s in Italy through Friday.