The Make America Great Again movement is celebrating the idea that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might forfeit his campaign and “join forces” with former president Donald Trump, given recent statements from Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan.
Shanahan made the comments in an interview with media company Impact Theory co-founder Tom Bilyeu that dropped on Tuesday. In the interview, Shanahan said the Kennedy campaign is considering dropping out of the presidential race to “join forces” with Trump to prevent a Kamala Harris-Tim Walz presidency. Shanahan also said that the campaign is considering remaining in the race to try and further establish itself as a third-party option, and then capitalizing on that in the 2028 election.
The development comes as Harris is poised to officially accept the Democratic party’s nomination on Thursday.
MAGA influencers celebrated across social media on Tuesday the possibility that Kennedy’s campaign could join Trump.
“RFK Jr.’s VP, Nicole Shanahan, says their campaign is considering joining forces with Trump to prevent a Harris/Walz administration,” Charlie Kirk, the founder of conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, posted on X, formerly Twitter. “RFK endorsing Trump is the natural move. They both are sworn enemies of the CIA, FBI, and the military machine. RFK can help a lot with FDA/CDC corruption. It doesn’t matter if they disagree on some issues, they agree on the big stuff, the civilizational defining issues. We MUST defeat TEAM BLUE this November.”
“Welcome to Team Trump!” political commentator Gunther Eagleman posted.
“Join forces with Trump and let’s win in November,” conservative news effort RedWave Press posted.
Following Shanahan’s interview, odds that Kennedy would drop out of the race soared to 62 percent, according to a post by Polymarket.
Polls have shown that Kennedy dropping out of the race could benefit Trump. Newsweek previously reported that state and national polls show that when third-party candidates are included, Kennedy is currently taking more votes from Trump than Harris. However, in late July, Kennedy denied rumors that he was dropping out of the race.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign by email for comment. When reached for comment, the Kennedy campaign directed Newsweek to the following post on X.
“As always, I am willing to talk with leaders of any political party to further the goals I have served for 40 years in my career and in this campaign,” Kennedy Jr. posted. “These are: reversing the chronic disease epidemic, ending the war machine, cleaning corporate influence out of government and toxic pollution out of the environment, protecting freedom of speech, and ending politicization of enforcement agencies.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee criticized Shanahan’s interview and the Kennedy campaign in a statement issued on Tuesday.
“Nicole Shanahan isn’t even pretending to be a serious VP candidate anymore. In one interview alone, she floated RFK Jr. for HHS [Health and Human Services] Secretary in a Trump administration, discussed her interest in running for governor of California in 2026, admitted that the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign has no path to victory, and raised the possibility of joining forces with Trump to defeat Vice President Harris,” DNC Communications Adviser Lis Smith said. “From the beginning of this race, we’ve said that RFK Jr. is nothing more than a spoiler for Donald Trump, and we’re glad that his running mate is finally admitting it.”