Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his entourage of staffers and security walked through the Waldorf Astoria’s opulent lobby just after noon, even though he wasn’t slated to speak at the Make America Healthy Again summit until 5 p.m (with Vice President JD Vance).
Senior Kennedy adviser Calley Means arrived midmorning, telling other attendees as he strode through the Astoria’s courtyard that he planned to “hang out” all day. Kyle Diamantas, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, arrived around the same time. Both were slated to speak on a midafternoon panel entitled “Modernizing MAHA regulation.”
It’s common for busy government officials to pop into a D.C. event, give their speech, and quickly leave. That wasn’t the case at Tuesday’s MAHA summit, where senior Trump administration officials mingled for hours with health and wellness industry officials and MAHA activists who are concerned over vaccines, processed food and chronic illness.
The summit was the second major Washington gathering organized by allies of Kennedy where industry leaders and wellness activists sponsoring the event chatted with federal government officials and MAHA activists amid spreads of fruits, vegetables and sparkling water. The event’s organizers denied media credentials to many major organizations, including The Washington Sun and The New York Times.
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Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, spoke on a panel sponsored by podcaster and comedian Russell Brand, who goes to trial in London next week on charges of rape and sexual assault.
Bryan Johnson, known for his effort to push the limits of the human lifespan, spoke on a panel about longevity. He had the audience stand up to do a “biological age test” where they closed their eyes and tested how long they could stand on one foot.
“This is an all-of-government answer to a crisis that is the defining crisis of our generation,” said Tony Lyons, head of MAHA Action, the group that organized the summit. “These numbers of chronic disease — they don’t exist anywhere else in the world.”
Panels throughout the day focused on some pet topics for MAHA and wellness influencers — exercise, disease prevention and early cancer detection — and also on broader topics like health care affordability and AI.
But elements of the programming raised points of tension within the movement that have defined MAHA’s political rise.
Some MAHA activists had criticized organizers for including insurance industry executives in the event. Stefanie Spear, counselor to Kennedy, moderated a panel about food with the executives of Walmart, Steak ‘n Shake and Sweetgreen. Leaders of major health insurers UnitedHealthcare and AHIP, the insurer association, participated in a panel about affordability.
“I think it’s a little bit of a challenge that the presentations on the stage seemed to be about bureaucracy being big business,” said Kate Johnson, a Florida nurse and mom of four who attended the White House event last year announcing its MAHA report. “That’s not the core of what the MAHA movement is.”
MAHA activists remain largely devoted to Kennedy, who assured anti-vaccine activists earlier this month that the administration is their ally. But they have mixed feelings about the Trump administration’s attentiveness to their issues.
They were frustrated by Trump’s executive order earlier this year to expand production of glyphosate, a common pesticide that has mobilized environmentalists for years — a rift that culminated in an unfavorable ruling for MAHA from the Supreme Court.
But on Tuesday, Trump officials and the MAHA world all appeared in good company. Secret Service agents swarmed the premises throughout the day.
The ballroom where the panels took place was mostly full late afternoon during a discussion led by former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson. Organizers handed out swag bags including pea protein packets by RollinsGreens and a hand strengthener made by Gameday Men’s Health.
Patrick Kennedy, cousin to Robert Kennedy, spent several hours at the summit. He said he was there to advocate for his pet issue, mental health care.
“I mean, everyone is here,” Patrick Kennedy said.
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