Former President Trump came out swinging against independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Friday, despite weeks of amping him up over his likely November rival, President Biden.
In a series of post on Truth Social, Trump suggested Kennedy was put in the race to help Biden win reelection and claimed his running mate, Nichole Shanahan, is not a serious candidate.
“RFK Jr. is a Democrat ‘Plant,’ a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, get Re-Elected,” Trump wrote, adding “A Vote for Junior’ would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him.”
In what seems like a reversal of previous comments, he signaled that he would even take Biden over Kennedy. Last month, the former president touted the long-shot candidate’s campaign as “great for MAGA,” referring to the “Make America Great Again” slogan he often uses.
“RFK Jr. is the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far. He’s a big fan of the Green New Scam, and other economy killing disasters,” Trump wrote at the time. “I guess this would mean he is going to be taking votes from Crooked Joe Biden, which would be a great service to America.”
“It’s great for MAGA, but the Communists will make it very hard for him to get on the Ballot,” he added in March.
His remarks come after a recent NBC News poll showed Kennedy’s campaign could actually harm Trump’s changes at returning to the White House.
Trump held 2-point lead over Biden in the head-to-head poll, released Sunday. But with third-party candidates added in, the incumbent took the lead.
The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling average index shows Biden and Trump were tied at 41.3 percent support with Kennedy factored in.