Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was pictured holding a McDonald's Big Mac with Donald Trump's inner circle aboard the President-elect's private jet, "Trump Force One."
The now viral photo was posted by the president-elect's son, Donald Trump Jr., who captioned the image, "Make America Healthy Again starts TOMORROW" — referencing Kennedy's slogan.
The image was something of a contradiction for Kennedy, who Trump has tapped to be his Health and Human Services Secretary, given his long-standing criticism of processed foods including McDonald's.
Newsweek has contacted Kennedy's team via email for comment on Monday.
Kennedy recently complained about the food options aboard Trump's private jet on an episode of The Joe Polish Show podcast last week.
"The stuff that he eats is really, like, bad," Kennedy said about Trump's diet. "The food that goes onto that airplane is like just poison. You have a choice between—you don't have the choice—you're either given KFC or Big Macs. That's when you're lucky and then the rest of the stuff I consider kind of inedible."
In a recent interview on Fox & Friends, Kennedy elaborated on his criticisms of McDonald's when questioned about Trump's photo op doing a shift at a Pennsylvania branch of the chain.
"I don't have anything against fast food. I'm against food that has seed oils. When I was a kid, McDonald's was made with tallow [animal] fat, that was good for you, and your body needs that, it makes you healthy. Why aren't we making it with tallow fat again?" Kennedy said.
Kennedy, who has many strong views about health and nutrition, has long been a critic of McDonald's use of seed oils, which he claims are a primary driver of the "obesity epidemic."
Seed oils are a highly contentious topic in the field of health and nutrition. Some nutrition experts believe that these oils—such as canola, rapeseed or sunflower oil—may contribute to inflammation in the body and increase the risk of diseases such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
However, many nutrition experts maintain that they are a healthier alternative to solid fats like beef tallow and are generally fine when consumed in moderation.
McDonald's switched to using seed oils in the 1990s largely to reduce saturated fat content in response to growing concerns about heart disease.
On Saturday, a day before he was photographed eating McDonald's, Kennedy had posted on X: "I cant wait to eat McDonalds again! Bring back tallow!"
This is a key tenet of Kennedy's beliefs about nutrition — he even sells merchandise branded with the tagline: "Make frying oil tallow again."
Some social media users pointed out the apparent hypocrisy of Kennedy being pictured eating fast food despite his long crusade against processed foods.
Meanwhile, Trump's love of fast food, particularly McDonald's, is long-documented.
Kennedy, who previously entered the presidential race as an independent candidate before dropping out and endorsing Trump, has been seen as a controversial choice of Health Secretary.
He has a long history of endorsing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and has vowed to gut entire departments within the Food and Drug Administration for "corruption" if he is confirmed.
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