As one food industry lobbyist put it, Kennedy has “taken on a whole life of his own in the last few weeks.”

Over the weekend, Trump told podcaster Joe Rogan he was 100 percent committed to including Kennedy in his administration, with a focus on health. On Monday, Kennedy claimed at a virtual event that Trump promised him “control of the public health agencies,” which he said included the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. “And then also the USDA,” Kennedy continued, “which, you know, is key to making America healthy because we’ve got to get off of seed oils and we’ve got to get off of pesticide-intensive agriculture.”

Banning pesticides — not to mention food additives, seed oils or ultra-processed foods, as Kennedy has also advocated — would completely upend the existing U.S. food system. And if Trump truly lets Kennedy “go wild” on food and health, as he promised in remarks at a recent campaign rally, it would represent a 180 degree reversal from the agriculture agenda during his first term, which included rolling back pesticide restrictions and other food-related regulations.

Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick said on CNN Wednesday night that Kennedy “is not going to be in charge of HHS,” though he suggested the noted anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist could get a role examining health and vaccine data. People familiar with the transition conversations say Trump would be more likely to name Kennedy to some sort of food and health “czar” role that does not require Senate confirmation.

Kennedy declined to answer questions for this report, but said in a statement that he’s grateful to the former president for his commitment to end chronic disease.

The one-time independent presidential candidate has not been shy about campaigning for a senior role in a future Trump administration. After dropping his erstwhile bid and endorsing Trump in August, Kennedy and his allies launched a “Make America Healthy Again” Super PAC “to unite Robert Kennedy Jr. supporters in voting for Donald J. Trump to Make America Healthy Again.”

He has since used that MAHA initiative as a platform to promote himself and his food and health agenda — taking direct aim at the country’s powerful corporate agribusinesses and pharmaceutical companies, which he and his supporters blame for worsening rates of chronic disease and environmental abuse.

That broad critique of the American food system is shared by many on the left as well as the right. But Kennedy has gone further, embracing scientifically dubious theories about vitamins, chemicals and seed oils, which come on top of his notorious role fueling debunked anti-vaccine conspiracies.

While most in the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries remain skeptical that Trump would ultimately put Kennedy in a position of real power, conversations with more than half a dozen industry lobbyists and more than a dozen lawmakers and Hill aides indicate many are starting to prepare for that reality.

“All the ag groups are hearing from producers, and we are certainly expressing those concerns” to the Trump campaign, one agriculture industry lobbyist told POLITICO. “We’re certainly concerned and watching closely.”

Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, said that “formal discussions of who will serve” in a Trump administration are “premature.” Cheung didn’t deny Trump promised Kennedy control of health and food agencies.

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said Trump will work with “passionate voices” like Kennedy to “Make America Healthy Again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children.” Leavitt also said Trump will establish a presidential commission of “independent minds” who aren’t “bought and paid for by Big Pharma” to investigate a rise in chronic illnesses.

A former Trump HHS official cautioned that no one knows how much influence Kennedy would ultimately be able to wield if the former president wins another term. For now, the Trump team is engaging Kennedy on his “healthy living” aims rather than “aggressive FDA ideas,” the former official said.

“I think it’s serious, and they’re taking his advice, but I don’t think it’s a matter of” him being tapped as FDA commissioner, added the former official, who questioned whether Kennedy would be willing to disentangle his investments to comply with federal ethics rules.

Kennedy also has a history of touting partnerships with Trump that didn’t ultimately materialize — such as his January 2017 claim that the then-president-elect asked him to head a vaccine commission. And Trump, himself, is notoriously mercurial when it comes to personnel. Even if he sticks by his promise, the former president would need senators’ buy-in to confirm Kennedy to a Cabinet secretary post or commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. And many of the policies Kennedy is advocating for would likely get tied up in legal challenges, even if they were enacted.

Some industry groups are not taking any chances.

Earlier this month, dozens of the country’s most prominent farm groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, sent a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committee expressing concern about “significant misunderstandings” about common farming practices such as the use of pesticides and GMOs and defending the “existing risk- and science-based regulatory frameworks for these technologies.”

“Farm Bureau and other organizations sent the letter to combat misinformation that has been spread by several sources including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding critical crop protection tools and agricultural practices,” John Walt Boatright, AFBF’s director of government affairs, wrote in a statement to POLITICO. Boatright added that AFBF does not endorse candidates or potential Cabinet picks, but communicates “directly with candidates” to recommend policy positions.

Sarah Gallo, senior vice president at the Consumer Brands Association, which represents packaged food companies, said that her organization had been meeting with members of Congress for “quite some time” to discuss policies on ultra-processed foods, food safety and dietary regulations, major areas RFK Jr. emphasizes in his rhetoric on healthy living.

“Anyone in the political sphere that is running for president that has a platform that includes making decisions about the food supply that are not based on science is something that’s going to be on our radar screen,” said Gallo.

Kennedy has been doing his own outreach to GOP lawmakers.

Just weeks after endorsing Trump and joining his transition team, Kennedy was making appointments with the help of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and former food and pharma lobbyist Calley Means, who has since morphed into a health care entrepreneur and popular alternative health advocate.

Kennedy met with about 10 GOP lawmakers in late September for a private two-hour lunch beforehand, including Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Bill Hagerty (Tenn.) and House Rep. Chip Roy, according to an interview with Roy and posts from lawmakers about the meeting on X.

And he was the marquee speaker at a nearly three-hour roundtable hosted by Johnson focused on alternative diets, the dangers of processed foods and why people shouldn’t trust food and drug regulatory agencies. Flanked by the Wisconsin senator, pop psychologist Jordan Peterson and several influencers, Kennedy’s event also drew the attention of GOP lawmakers who joined the audience.

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, cited his nascent interest “in healthy eating and healthy dieting” to attending the Kennedy event, adding that he’s supportive of much of what was discussed in the meeting and would support the next administration taking up these issues, including potentially more regulation. Crapo conceded, however, that he’s not sure Kennedy could win enough support in the Senate to be confirmed for a top job. “I honestly don’t know the answer to that question,” Crapo said.

Some GOP insiders are privately dubious, citing Kennedy’s long record of false claims about vaccines and other controversial statements.

“I think Republicans are evenly divided about the Make America Healthy Again agenda,” said one Senate GOP aide. “Some people, I think, see RFK as a total hack. … Certain [other] people are like, ‘Well, we think all of FDA is a crock of shit and we think it needs to be reformed from the inside out.’”