The night before Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before a Senate committee to defend his Make America Healthy Again agenda in September, the actor Cheryl Hines made an appearance on a weekly call put on by a nonprofit organization that supports Kennedy’s agenda. There was only one problem: Her microphone was off.
“Sorry that I’m late,” Hines, who is married to Kennedy, said once her microphone was switched on. “I’m in Paris.”
She offered few details about her husband’s mindset beyond that he “is doing a lot of work.”
“I know that Bobby is preparing right now for his day of Senate hearings tomorrow, that he’s, of course, taking very seriously,” Hines said.
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Every Wednesday, publisher and MAHA activist Tony Lyons’ nonprofit organization, MAHA Action, gathers a roster of Kennedy allies for a “MAHA Action Media Hub” call. The group describes itself as “a vital resource for our core MAHA Warriors and grassroots activists.”
And every Wednesday, the calls offer a fleeting glimpse into Kennedy’s world, a dizzying kaleidoscope where alternative health practitioners appear alongside the governor of West Virginia. On any given week, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could speak for a few minutes before a shirtless Russell Brand calls in from what appears to be a bathtub, or a former member of The Pussycat Dolls argues that the COVID-19 vaccine destroyed her ability to dance.
These calls are a real-time look into the growing pains of a fringe movement that was launched into the mainstream with the election of President Donald Trump. Sometimes awkward, often downright funny, each week the calls juxtapose a haphazard group of celebrities with real power — and show just how professionalized the MAHA movement has become.
Take CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, who is one of the MAHA Media call’s recurring stars. Sometimes he calls from his office at the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in D.C. (“Here’s the Capitol over here, I’ll show you what it looks like from my office.”) Other times he calls from the road. His updates are usually brief and focused on what the administration is up to. But sometimes they’re notable for how Oz adds context to major decisions made by Kennedy and Trump. Sometimes he even seems to walk their claims back.
Two days after Trump announced changes to whether the Food and Drug Administration recommended the painkiller Tylenol for pregnant women (“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump said firmly), Oz was on a call, telling the virtual room of Kennedy followers that the FDA wasn’t telling pregnant women that Tylenol absolutely caused autism – just that they shouldn’t be taking the painkiller “willy-nilly.”
“It’s not causation,” said Oz, referring to the drug by its generic name, acetaminophen. “Gotta be restrained on this.”
CMS did not respond to a request for comment on Oz’s frequent MAHA Action call appearances.
The MAHA Media calls’ attendance numbers have grown steadily since they began in July. According to Lyons, who declined an interview request from NOTUS, the most recent had an audience of more than 5,000 people. They are open to anyone who registers, and — based on the greetings attendees dropped in the live chat — they gather digitally from locations across the U.S. and as far-flung as Germany.
The calls open with a montage of vaccine mandate protesters, a gas-mask-clad worker spraying crops with an unidentified liquid, and Kennedy walking onstage at a Trump rally in slow motion. Over these images, an R&B singer named Jimmy Levy, who has sold hoodies that say “I think the earth is flat. So What?!,” sings:
“We will not comply / with the institution’s sick illusion.
No it won’t be televised / welcome to the revolution.”
Each week, over the course of an hour or more, Kennedy’s acolytes take turns praising the health secretary and the MAHA movement, chastising the medical establishment and berating the “mainstream media.”
If it sounds like light programming, the undercurrents running through it are not.
“Fluoride disconnects one from God,” a listener with the username “Peter & Melissa BioHacking Stem Cells” wrote during one call. As part of his agenda, Kennedy has directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review the use of fluoride supplementation in water supplies.
The calls seem to function as a space for MAHA followers and administration officials to promote their wins while explaining to the wider MAHA community why just starting a conversation about these issues is a big step.
“This administration is inviting a conversation among the American people. These are not black and white issues,” said Calley Means, a senior White House adviser and frequent MAHA Action call participant, during a mid-October call about Trump’s announcement that the FDA would advise pregnant women to not take Tylenol out of concerns that it may be what’s behind rising autism rates, despite weak evidence to support any connection.
“This administration is actually practicing science, which is messy, which is asking taboo questions,” Means said.
The calls also leave clues as to how the MAHA camp has had to adapt to its new role within the Trump administration. Lyons is the president of Skyhorse Publishing, which has published a wide range of conservative memoirs and nonfiction books. He logs on each week from a room lined with shelves displaying books the company has published, setting a 2023 Kennedy biography, “The Real RFK Jr.: Trials of a Truth Warrior,” next to first lady Melania Trump’s autobiography, “Melania.”
But over the course of several weeks, the number of copies of “Melania” grew. By late September, there were three in prime shelf real estate next to Lyons’ head: MELANIA. MELANIA. MELANIA. “The Real RFK Jr.” was moved to a higher shelf.
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