RJK Jr. claims Trump ‘emissaries’ asked him to be his running mate

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed again on Monday that Donald Trump’s team asked him to consider being the former president’s running mate, which a Trump adviser denied.

Kennedy’s claim, which he posted to followers on X, previously Twitter, comes after several attacks by Trump on Truth Social calling Kennedy “the most radical liberal” candidate in the presidential race.

Both Republicans and Democrats are racing to define Kennedy in the general election race before his campaign can define itself, with Trump’s side calling him too liberal and President Joe Biden’s team connecting him with Trump and the MAGA movement.

“President Trump calls me an ultra-left radical. I’m soooo liberal that his emissaries asked me to be his VP. I respectfully declined the offer,” Kennedy wrote on X.

Kennedy first said that Trump’s team had approached him about joining his ticket as vice president in January. “People from the team have reached out to me,” Kennedy said in an interview with News Nation.

Trump has privately floated the idea of picking Kennedy as vice president in recent months, though advisers dismiss the idea he would ever be picked. Trump is known to workshop ideas to a variety of aides and allies, even if they never come to fruition.

Chris LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager, pushed back on Kennedy’s claim, calling him a “leftie loonie that would never be approached to be on the ticket..sorry!”

Kennedy and Trump, both former New York residents and former Democrats, have known each other for many years. When Trump was first elected in 2016, he even considered appointing Kennedy to a new government vaccine safety commission after an in-person meeting at Trump Tower during the presidential transition. In an interview with Science journal, Kennedy said that the meeting was about an hour long with both Trump and former adviser Kellyanne Conway. The commission ultimately was not formed.

Now as election opponents, Trump has criticized Kennedy for being too far left in multiple Truth Social posts and in a recently posted video.

“But he’s got some nice things about him. I happen to like him,” Trump said in a video post last week. “Unfortunately he is about the ‘Green New Scam’ because he believes in that and a lot of people don’t.”

“I guess that would mean the RFK Jr.’s going to be taking away votes from Crooked Joe Biden, and he should because he’s actually better than Biden,” Trump continued. “He’s much better than Biden. If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr. every single time over Biden.”