MAHA At Sea: A Restless Farewell
A Marina del Rey Cruise Closes Out Kennedy's Solo Campaign Chapter
When it comes to sailing and cruise sweepstakes, I’ve lost count of how many I’ve joined over the past year. From the waters of San Diego to Hawaii, one thing is clear: RFK is most at ease at sea. The “celebrity cruise” was initially planned for Marina del Rey but rescheduled multiple times as his campaign started to falter leading up to his Trump endorsement. There were a few weeks of uncertainty. Ultimately, it set sail during the first week of October. On Friday the 4th, we departed from Los Angeles, marking the end of Kennedy’s solo campaign chapter with a symbolic farewell.
The group was intimate, made up of a few long-term public supporters like Drea De Matteo, Jessica Sutta, and Jimmy Levy. Just days before the cruise, I learned that someone on staff had excluded me from the guest list, assuming I wouldn’t attend because, as they put it, “the internet knew” I was “mad” at Bobby. I replied, “That’s exactly why I’ll be there.” My support for his mission isn’t contingent upon a fleeting rough patch (aka, the Nuzzi ordeal). It's good for “the internet” to see that, I added.
Yes, I was bothered. Yes, I expressed my irritation to him. But after a year of closely tracking someone like Kennedy, a few bumps in the road are inevitable. It would take a lot to faze my commitment to amplify his message because mainstream media refuses to do so. That, and because the mothers he represents, many of whom have become dear friends, deserve it. If coverage is to tout transparency, the only way forward is to confront conflict and then move past it.
As the night came to a close and guests shuffled off, Bobby put on the newly debuted green MAHA hat. I snapped a photo and posted it on Instagram, where the comments breathed a collective sigh of relief. In the House Inhabit corner of the internet, all was forgiven — and the hat briefly sold out as a result.
On a broader scale, RFK’s announcement that he was suspending his independent presidential campaign inevitably sparked criticism and speculation about his alliance with Donald Trump and what role he might play in a future administration. In his farewell speech, Bobby emphasized his deep concerns about America’s health crisis, calling it (rightfully) the country’s most urgent issue. He pointed out that nearly three-quarters of Americans are either overweight or obese, including half of all children. “One hundred and twenty years ago, when someone was obese, they were sent to the circus,” he remarked, underscoring how rare obesity once was in American society. Kennedy criticized the U.S. healthcare system, stating, “We spend more on healthcare than any other country, twice as much as in Europe, yet we have the worst health outcomes in the world.” He attributed much of this decline to ultra-processed foods and toxic chemicals.
The unlikely nature of a Kennedy-Trump alliance is encapsulated in their joint “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda. This initiative, with Kennedy at the helm, proposes sweeping reforms — from overhauling federal regulations on food and pharmaceuticals to reworking farm subsidies and cleaning up public health agencies. It resonates with widespread frustration over the current healthcare system, addressing issues like America’s addiction to processed foods, rising rates of chronic disease, and declining life expectancy — topics that mainstream Democrats have largely avoided, and that Trump himself has previously overlooked.
Despite predictable skepticism from some, mothers across America are embracing the alliance. To them, Kennedy is a desperately needed advocate, raising awareness about a growing health crisis, including efforts to address the safety of vaccines that have tragically harmed some of their children. Yet mainstream media “experts” remain wary. Health professionals acknowledge the importance of raising awareness about neglected public health issues, but question the messengers. Both Kennedy, known for his anti-vaccine stance, and Trump, known for attempting to dismantle key health insurance programs, bring considerable controversy to the table. Critics argue that their past positions could undermine the very reforms they now aim to lead.
The mainstream media operates this way — they sow fear even when these men are committing to a straightforward, non-political goal: cleaning up the nation's food and water supplies. For instance, Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, observed that the MAHA movement “shows how all Americans of any political stripe see that we’re really, really sick — and that our food is the primary cause.” Still, even among those who sympathize with the message, doubts remain about Trump’s dedication to this ambitious agenda. Reflecting on his track record, former aides question whether he will fully support Kennedy’s vision, citing a history of unfulfilled promises on other major reforms.
In essence, while the Kennedy-Trump partnership may represent a fresh approach to America’s health crisis, it has left many wondering whether it can bring about real change or if it’s simply another headline-grabbing political maneuver. RFK is here to challenge America’s health problems, yet the media finds ways to attack him for it. New York Magazine warned that “Trump’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Is a Ruse,” while The Washington Post declared, “The two men are unlikely avatars of a campaign to restore America’s health.” The list of degrading headlines goes on.
Everyday Americans see it differently. At lunch one day with Sean Spicer, even he admitted that the videos of Bobby showing the artificial dye plaguing American cereal made him rethink what was in his own cupboards and what he was feeding his kids — as it should. We should all be wondering why so many engineered ingredients that are banned in Europe are allowed in processed food here.
Why do our cereals need neon-colored additives? To me, this focus is a bonding topic amid all the heated culture wars fueling online feuds. If we can’t at least agree on clean food and water, what can we agree on?
It’s clear, however, that liberal propaganda is working when I see my former college friends liking every anti-RFK post they come across. Back then, as earnest 20 year old activists, we all shared similar views on anti-war stances and the importance of healthy food for a better quality of life. How did it become a divided topic? And, how did so many of my old friends end up blindly championing a Cheney-endorsed candidate while passionately rejecting someone like Kennedy, whose sole focus is cleaning up a nationwide health crisis?
My confusion over it is almost painful.
Green MAHA Cap available HERE
A Personal Story from Robyn Ross, Part of Kennedy’s Legal Team
“On November 13, 2009, I took 9 week old 10 lb baby Rory to a well visit and didn't know it was a vaccine appointment. I was scrambling and trying to convey my concerns to the pediatrician, especially because I had seizures for several months after dose number 5 of the DPT vaccine in kindergarten. I was shut down and run over basically.
I let Rory be vaccinated, he screamed so badly. And then he went into a very deep unwakable sleep. He already had colic so I was not used to him sleeping during the day at all. I pulled over on the road and called my husband and told him that something was wrong.
He didn't wake up when I took him out of his car seat and put him in his crib. He was so deep in sleep. And then he woke a couple of hours later and he sounded like a wild animal caught in a trap. It was a high-pitched scream, the scariest thing I have ever heard.
I called the doctor's office and they told me it was just pain from the injection site. So obviously a lie. Plus there's a paper they send you home with that said to call if they have a high-pitched screen.
I couldn't console him. I didn't know how to make him feel better and I was paralyzed with postpartum anxiety. I should have taken him into the ER but I needed someone to tell me to do that. Andy was in a courtroom.
I finally got him back to sleep through nursing him and he woke again and cycled through the whole thing two more times.
After that, his head began to grow to accommodate swelling in his brain. To this day he has a very oversized forehead because of it.
Within 2 months his body was covered in a rash that lasted for 4 years.
I had him blood tested at 6 months old and he already had a peanut allergy. I tested again at 16 months and he had 12 allergies, two of them deadly.
I always knew it was the vaccines. I never vaccinated him again. It just took me a long time to figure out the mechanism.
I began researching that day. That very night. I didn't even sleep that night because I was so afraid that he was going to die. I was waking him every hour.
I researched literally everyday I was learning and I wasn't talking about it.
The first time I spoke about it was in March 2014, when I went on the local news in Denver for a debate against a vaccine lobbyist and I kicked her ass for everyone to see.
After that, I led the charge to defeat a vaccine bill at the Denver Capitol. Then I taught Oregon how to do it. And then I taught the whole country.
I became the most read vaccine blogger in the world in March 2015.
And it was the fact that I was a known entity in the vaccine world that led Children's Health defense to want to hire me in 2019. And because of that gig, Bobby brought me onto the campaign in 2023.”
“Waging endless wars abroad, we have neglected the foundation of our own well-being. We have a decaying economic infrastructure, we have a demoralized people and despairing people. We have toxins in our air and our soil and our water. We have deteriorating mental and physical health.” — RFK Jr.
Aboard a cruise with RFK, a couple things are guaranteed: candid table conversations and photos of him and his friends in daring situations — often involving wild animals. This time, the discussion turned to Drea’s sobriety. She shared that she’s been sober for 20 years, prompting Bobby to casually ask if she had been “mainlining” during that time.
When it came to photos, the reveal didn’t disappoint. He showed us a dramatic shot of a friend being bitten by a shark — an underwater scene in which his buddy was literally struggling to free his hand from a shark’s mouth in a series of 3 frames.
“You took the photo? Of your friend nearly being eaten?” I asked.
Everyone at the table thinking the same thing let out a laugh.
Another shot showed him and his family posed in front of a massive dead whale that had washed ashore back east. “Not the one,” he noted with a smile, referencing the now infamous story unearthed this summer of him sawing off a whale’s head and transporting it on the hood of his car to bring home to study. The revelation prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to open an investigation into the decades-old incident.
In a 2012 Town and Country article, his oldest daughter, Kick Kennedy, told the magazine her father’s “anecdote” about handling a dead whale that washed up on a Massachusetts beach: “Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” Kick said. “We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us.”
Also discussed: Election Day predictions and the harm of cell phones linked to certain types of brain tumors explained by a lawyer who represents these cases.
Drea defends support for Trump / Kennedy alignment
“We’re Going to Become, Once Again, the Healthiest Nation on Earth. That’s What We Mean by MAHA.” — RFK Jr.
Despite efforts from corporate media to denounce the new Trump-Kennedy alliance, polls show RFK’s endorsement is aiding Trump with women voters. Even The New York Times was compelled to recognize its potential for strategic structural change. In an article titled “Resistance to Public Health, No Longer Fringe, Gains Foothold in G.O.P. Politics,” the piece highlighted how the merger of the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald J. Trump campaigns brings the so-called medical freedom movement closer to real power in Washington, now with a new slogan: “Make America Healthy Again.”
More than just rebranded anti-vaccination activism, the movement marries fierce resistance to public health measures like vaccine mandates; deep suspicion of pharmaceutical companies and federal regulatory agencies; and an embrace of alternative medicine and natural foods. Those foods include “raw,” or unpasteurized, milk, which is being promoted by right-wing commentators and which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deems dangerous. Mr. Kennedy has said he drinks it.
The current crop of candidates suggests the nation might be “returning to a time when the medical freedom movement was robust enough and popular enough in this country that it could support political candidates,” she said. “What’s new is that in the present there is a stronger alignment between the medical freedom movement and the right.”
Mr. Kennedy’s views offer some indication of what would happen should Mr. Trump win office.
In a recent opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Kennedy called for half the federal medical research budget to be devoted to “preventive, alternative and holistic approaches to health.” He has lately switched his emphasis from vaccines to what he calls a “chronic disease epidemic” in children — a claim that experts say is exaggerated.
Mr. Trump has indicated that, if he gets elected, he will appoint Mr. Kennedy to some kind of health-related position. Dawn Jolly, a founder of We The Patriots U.S.A.,which has pushed back on vaccine mandates but does not endorse candidates, was among the activists who met with Mr. Trump at his New Jersey golf club recently. She said the former president had a message for the movement’s leaders: “He personally told me to never stop fighting.”
At the end of the evening, everyone expressed their gratitude to RFK for his continued service. The MAHA message clearly resonated.
As the sun set, he slipped into a black SUV, joined by a couple of his security guys who continue to escort him to appearances. His next stop: a flight back to the East Coast after receiving news that his mother was sick, in a break from his campaign schedule to get home as soon as possible. As for me, I headed straight from the boat to LAX to catch a redeye for the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
From boat to convention to fairground.
Two weeks will decide it all.
Such simple coverage, so well-done, so many good anecdotes and campaign-long key players woven in, so beautiful. Can’t thank you enough for covering him, so that people (esp women) everywhere can see more about what he really stands for. As always, thanks for being a gift
Love that you still went on the boat ride even after they took you off the guest list! It's so nice to see adults be adults and move past conflicts when possible. Your writing and spirit are, as always, top tier.