Robert Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign ended as it began: with a lengthy speech that railed against the dark forces controlling politics, government and the media.
Speaking in Phoenix on Friday, Kennedy said he was suspending his independent bid for the White House and endorsed former President Donald Trump, citing their shared concerns about “the war on our children,” the war in Ukraine, and free speech. “I have the certainty that this is what I’m meant to do,” he said, calling the decision a “spiritual journey” to embrace a candidate who, until a few weeks ago, he derided as a “sociopath” and a “terrible human being.”
In other circumstances, it would have been a striking scene: the scion of the most iconic family in Democratic politics, endorsing Trump to keep the Democrats out of the White House and denouncing them as “the party of war, censorship [and] corruption.” Except that this particular Kennedy is a longtime conspiracy theorist who used his famous name to prop up one of the most bizarre presidential bids in modern history.
The announcement marked the end of a chaotic campaign which over 16 months switched from Democrat to independent, cycled through campaign managers and staffers, and shifted its positions on issues from abortion to climate change. Run by Kennedy’s daughter-in-law, the operation had no headquarters, few official events, and dedicated much of its time to appearing on podcasts and fringe YouTube shows. Kennedy showed up where he was invited: a sheriffs conference in Oklahoma, the set of Dr. Phil in Houston, a Bitcoin conference event in Miami, and a discussion about pig farming in Maine.
Kennedy says all of this was by design. “I’m less interested in campaigning and I have, I would say, almost zero interest in attention,” he told me in an interview in Albuquerque, N.M., in June, where he was about to premiere his latest documentary in front of an audience of more than 200 supporters wearing “Kennedy for President” buttons. “I…
