Trump's former surgeon general urges president to fire RFK Jr [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Sat 6 Sep 2025 14.35 EDT
First published on Sat 6 Sep 2025 11.34 EDT


The surgeon general from the first Trump administration on Saturday said that the US president should “absolutely” fire health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr over his “dangerous” policies on vaccines and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Jerome Adams, who has become a pointed critic of the public health decisions being swiftly rolled out in the second Trump administration, made his most fierce attack yet on what has been unfolding. “He’s putting us at risk,” Adams said of RFK Jr, adding that Kennedy is “endangering America at large” with moves to limit access to vaccines, such as shots to protect against the deadly Covid-19 virus.

In an interview with CNN on Saturday morning, anchor Victor Blackwell asked Adams, who served as Donald Trump’s surgeon general from 2017 to 2021, including through the height of the coronavirus pandemic, whether Kennedy should resign. “Well, he’s not going to resign,” Adams said.

Asked whether, therefore, Trump should fire his health secretary, Adams said: “I absolutely believe that he should, for the sake of the nation.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/06/jerome-adams-trump-surgeon-blasts-rfk-jr