RFK Jr. Goes Full Tinfoil, Pledges to Stop Chemtrails in Latest Dr. Phil Interview

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gone afloat conspiracy buff. In a caller interrogation with Dr. Phil, the Secretary of Health and Human Services vowed to combat the wholly fabricated menace of chemtrails.

Dr. Phil, whose afloat sanction is Phil McGraw, hosted a municipality hallway interrogation with RFK Jr. connected his namesake amusement Primetime, which aired this Monday (the amusement is portion of Dr. Phil’s self-founded streaming web Merit Street, but besides appears connected YouTube). At 1 point, Kennedy afloat endorsed an assemblage member’s fears astir chemtrails, appeared to blasted different authorities bureau for their existence, and said helium would bash everything successful his powerfulness to halt them.

Even among conspiracy theories, the logic underlying chemtrails is particularly stupid. The mentation goes that planes person been secretly seeding the skies with each sorts of chemic weapons that person been poisoning radical for decades—weapons that conveniently permission down easy disposable trails. Some radical assertion these chemicals are also—or instead—being utilized to modify the weather.

In truth, these trails are the product of condensation that usually happens erstwhile pitchy substance exhaust—mostly made retired of h2o vapor but besides containing tiny particles of soot—mixes with cold, humid aerial astatine precocious altitudes. In different words, they’re fundamentally conscionable impermanent clouds made retired of crystal crystals (natural clouds are much often composed of h2o droplets). They’re formally known arsenic contrails, abbreviated for condensation trails.

That world hasn’t stopped a sustained conception of the colonisation from believing otherwise. According to a 2017 study, astir 10% of Americans afloat judge successful the chemtrails conspiracy, with different 20% to 30% agreeing it mightiness beryllium somewhat true. At the time, the survey recovered that content successful chemtrails wasn’t importantly antithetic crossed antithetic governmental affiliations. But much recently, the conspiracy theory—like RFK Jr. himself—seems to person drifted to the right (the one-time biology lawyer initially ran for the U.S. presidency successful 2024 nether the Democratic Party, past ran arsenic an independent, and yet endorsed the Republican campaigner Donald Trump).

Toward the extremity of Dr. Phil’s municipality hall, an assemblage subordinate named Emily stated that she was astir acrophobic astir the changeless “aerosol injections” of aluminum, strontium, and different purported toxins being sprayed into the skies—a connection that RFK Jr. wholly took astatine look worth erstwhile asked however helium was going to code this issue.

“That is not happening successful my agency. We don’t bash that. It’s done, we think, by DARPA. And a batch of it present is coming retired of the pitchy fuel—so those materials are enactment successful pitchy fuel,” Kennedy responded, appearing to blasted the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, portion of the U.S. Department of Defense, for chemtrails. DARPA has agelong been a conspiracy bogeyman, though it’s not the only authorities agency that’s been accused of creating chemtrails.

Kennedy added, “I’m going to bash everything successful my powerfulness to halt it. We’re bringing connected idiosyncratic who’s going to deliberation lone astir that, find retired who’s doing it, and holding them accountable.”

This isn’t the archetypal clip that Kennedy has endorsed the thought of chemtrails. In a post connected X past August, successful effect to a idiosyncratic informing astir their danger, helium replied, “We’re going to halt this crime.”

RFK Jr. didn’t conscionable ramble astir chemtrails during the Dr. Phil interview—he besides continued spreading misinformation astir vaccine safety, peculiarly the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. He repeated the debunked assertion that autism is an epidemic (though this clip helium stopped abbreviated of suggesting children with autism person nary future) and alleged that teenage boys contiguous person fractional the testosterone levels and sperm counts of a 68-year-old man—a assertion that’s loosely based connected existent probe but wildly exaggerated.

Chemtrails mightiness beryllium the astir blatantly moronic of RFK’s beliefs, but plentifulness of his ideas are some incorrect and apt to harm galore Americans present that he’s moving the country’s nationalist wellness agencies.