Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. found himself in the center of an embarrassing moment at the White House on Wednesday afternoon after President Donald Trump ignored his attempted handshake.
The pair was in the Oval Office for the signing of a bipartisan bill that allows schools to offer whole and 2 percent milk to students. They were joined by a crowd that included Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, nutrition adviser Ben Carson, and dairy farmers.
At one point during the meeting, Trump asks, “Where’s Bobby?” referring to Kennedy, at which point Kennedy steps forward, taps the president on the shoulder, and offers Trump his hand. Trump responds by pointing at Kennedy and telling him to “go ahead.”
Kennedy then began singing Trump’s praises, saying, “I want to echo what Brooke said about finally having a president that sees the alignment between farm prosperity, good food policy, and the health of our children.”
“These are common sense associations... we finally have a president that is implementing these policies and getting real food to our children.”
After wrapping up his four-minute-long speech about the bill and his Make America Healthy Agenda, Kennedy finally received the presidential handshake he was waiting for before Trump turned his attention to the large bottle of milk on his desk, joking that it had been sitting there for five days and he wanted to offer it to the reporters in the room.
The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025, passed by Congress in the fall, overturned Obama-era limits on providing higher-fat milk options in schools, with Rollins describing the bill as legislation that fixed Michelle Obama’s “short-sighted campaign to ditch whole milk.” Schools will still be still permitted to offer skim and low-fat options to students in addition to whole and 2 percent fat milks.
The signing comes less than a week after the introduction of the Trump administration’s revised nutritional guidelines, which place more emphasis on proteins, vegetables and healthy fats, and to limit their intake of processed foods.
In an appearance on the Katie Miller Podcast on Tuesday, Kennedy discussed Trump’s eating habits, telling Miller, “The interesting thing about the president is that he eats really bad food, which is McDonald’s, and, you know, candy and Diet Coke. But he drinks Diet Coke at all times. He has the constitution of a deity. I don’t know how he’s alive, but he is.”
Despite this unusual diet, Trump claimed that drinking milk had helped him “ace” three cognitive tests, which are typically used as a screening tool for dementia.
“I’ve taken a lot of them,” Trump said on Wednesday. “I’ve aced every one of them because I drink milk.”
Medical experts have expressed concern that the tests, which the president has repeatedly bragged about acing, are being used for monitoring rather than detection.
Speaking to The Daily Beast Podcast’s Joanna Coles, Dr. John Gartner said, “You could maybe justify giving someone the MoCA once, just on their age, just as part of a physical. If you’re giving it to him three times, that means you’re not assessing dementia. That means you’re monitoring dementia.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.
