--- title: "Trump Said We Should Kill Drug Dealers. Then He Appointed One as Health Secretary" description: "When announcing his 2024 candidacy, Donald Trump said we should execute drug dealers — but that was before he appointing one to lead HHS." date: "2025-01-29" modified: "2025-01-29" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/trump-execute-dealers-rfk-jr" categories: - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "adderall" - "donald trump" - "drugs" - "rfk jr" --- # Trump Said We Should Kill Drug Dealers. Then He Appointed One as Health Secretary ![When announcing his 2024 candidacy, Donald Trump said we should execute drug dealers — but that was before he appointing one to lead HHS.]() *\Image: Tom Brenner for The Washington Post / Scott Olson via Getty / Futurism\* When announcing his 2024 candidacy, now-president Donald Trump called for the United States to execute drug dealers — but that was before he [appointed one to run the country's highest health agency](). "We're going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts," Trump [said in November 2022]() during a speech at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. "Because it's the only way." Before even beginning his second presidency — which also saw him [pardoning the world's most influential drug dealer](), Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, on his second day back in the Oval Office — Trump contradicted his own barbaric stance by promising to nominate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As the onetime presidential hopeful now sits for his Senate confirmation hearings, it feels pertinent to bring back up that the [anti-vax kook]() slated to lead HHS not only allegedly [ground up animals for show]() back during his drug days, but also was reputedly a dealer himself. Last August, author and *Spy* magazine cofounder Kurt Andersen recounted meeting "Bobby Kennedy," as he was called then, at Harvard in 1972 in an [essay for *The Atlantic*](). He'd heard about the political scion through a friend when he was looking to score some cocaine, and went to Kennedy's dorm room to do so — and in the process, met his brother Joe, [the future congressman](). "I paid him, I believe, $40 in cash. It was a lot of money, the equivalent of $300 today," Andersen wrote. "But *cocaine* bought from a *Kennedy* accompanied by a *Kennedy brother* — the moment of glamour seemed worth it." The author said it was the first and last time he ever bought coke from anyone. (After the sale, Kennedy called him to demand the return of the straw they'd used to snort the powdered substance, which according to Kennedy had "c*rystals* inside it, man, *growing.*") "In retrospect, it has seemed to me a tiny illustration of the child as the father of the man he became: fantastical pseudoscientific crusader, middle-aged preppy dick who takes selfies with barbecued dogs and plays pranks with roadkill bear cubs he didn’t have time to eat," Andersen mused. Kennedy has never admitted to selling drugs, though he was [arrested and convicted in South Dakota]() roughly a decade later for heroin possession. The [allegedly brain-wormed]() politico ultimately [kicked the habit in 1984](), right before one of his other brothers, David, died of an overdose. In the 40 years since, he's been frank about his fight with addiction and used it as a jumping-off point for some of his more outlandish claims, including that [prescription ADHD meds and anti-depressants]() are "damaging" young people. Much like his probably-boss, Kennedy also has a ruthless-sounding scheme for handling people addicted to prescription drugs: sending them to so-called "[wellness farms]()" that sound very much like labor camps. A few weeks ago, we would have said that the prospect of executing drug dealers and sending addicts to concentration camps sounded impossible — but given how things have gone since Trump was re-inaugurated, we're not so sure anymore. **More on the future HHS secretary:** [*RFK Jr., Who Hates Adderall, Says Heroin Was Great for Treating His ADHD*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()