RFK Jr. tells food leaders he wants artificial dyes removed from food products before he leaves office
Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told food industry leaders in a closed-door meeting on Monday that he wants them to remove artificial color additives from their products by the end of his time in office, according to a memo describing the meeting, which was obtained by ABC News.
At the Washington gathering, which included the CEOs of Kellogg’s, Smucker’s and General Mills, Kennedy said it is a top priority of the Trump administration to rid America’s food of the artificial dyes, wrote Melissa Hockstad, president and CEO of the Consumer Brands Association, a trade group, who penned the memo.
Hockstad addressed the memo to “Consumer Brands Member CEOs.”
“The Secretary made clear his intention to take action unless the industry is willing to be proactive with solutions,” Hockstad wrote.
Kennedy has long championed removing artificial coloring from America’s food, and the effort has become a pillar of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
In January, the Food and Drug Administration revoked its authorization of one type of red food dye — Red No. 3. The dye is known to cause cancer in laboratory animals but was allowed to be used by manufacturers for years because scientists didn’t believe it raised cancer risk in humans at the level typically consumed.
The FDA, under then-President Joe Biden, acted after longtime pressure by consumer advocates.
But a different type, Red No. 40, remains on the market and hasn’t been studied by the FDA in more than 20 years. FDA and health officials said there is no evidence though that it is harmful, and food manufacturers said they need to be able to rely on ingredients generally recognized as safe.
In the memo, Hockstad said her association will work with HHS leaders about removing “roadblocks” so food companies can help meet Kennedy’s goal.
“We will be working with your teams to gain as much alignment as possible about how we move forward and ensure the industry is positioned in the best possible way as we navigate next steps forward,” she wrote. “But to underscore, decision time is imminent.”
A spokeswoman for the Consumer Brands Association confirmed the authenticity of the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg, but did not provide further comment.
The spokeswoman provided ABC News with a copy of a thank-you letter Hockstad sent Kennedy after the meeting.
“The industry is committed to delivering safe, affordable and convenient product choices to consumers,” she wrote. “We will engage with you and the administration on solutions to improve transparency, ensure ingredient evaluations are grounded in a science and risk-based process and increase healthier options for consumers.”
Vani Hari, an activist and founder of Food Babe and Truvani who delivered 400,000 petition signatures to the Michigan headquarters for Kellogg’s last year asking the company to remove artificial food dyes, applauded Kennedy.
“I have been working on this issue for over a decade and I am thrilled Secretary Kennedy laid out an ultimatum,” Hari told ABC News in a statement.
“These food companies have already reformulated their products without dyes in so many countries, now it’s time for them to do the same in America. Americans deserve the same safer foods other countries get,” she continued.
(WASHINGTON) — During her first full day as director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard will travel to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, where she will hold 30 bilateral meetings with counterparts, including key U.S. allies Great Britain, France, Australia, and Germany, Alexa Henning, deputy DNI for strategy and communications told ABC News.
Gabbard, who was to be sworn into office Wednesday afternoon shortly after the Senate voted to confirm her, is expected to deliver remarks at a luncheon during the conference. She will be joined by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who are also attending.
During her confirmation hearing in January, Gabbard previewed her priorities as head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), stating that President Donald Trump’s reelection was aimed at breaking the cycle of failure within the intelligence community, ending “the weaponization/politicization of the IC and begin to restore trust in those who have been charged with the critical task of securing our nation.”
To assess the global threat environment, Gabbard will identify “where gaps in our intelligence exist, integrate intelligence elements, increase information-sharing, and ensure unbiased, apolitical, objective collection and analysis to support the president and policymakers’ decision-making,” according to a list of priorities obtained by ABC News.
Her priorities also emphasize the need to end polarization of the intelligence community, stating that her goal is to “ensure clear mission focus to the IC on its core mission of unbiased, apolitical collection and analysis of intelligence to secure our nation.”
The DNI also stresses that rebuilding “trust through transparency and accountability,” is a national security imperative, according to the document.
Like many government agencies in the second Trump administration, Gabbard’s focus is on reforming ODNI, which was created in response to intelligence failures leading up to 9/11. She aims to “assess and address efficiency, redundancy, and effectiveness across ODNI to ensure focus of personnel and resources is focused on our core mission of national security,” according to the document.
During the confirmation process, the former Hawaii congresswoman met with more than half of the Senate over two months. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed frustration with recent intelligence failures, according to sources with knowledge of proceedings. Gabbard continued meeting with senators on Capitol Hill up until the eve of her nomination.
Gabbard was grilled by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle about her reversal on a key surveillance tool, Section 702 of the FISA, and her refusal to label former National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden a traitor during contentious confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill last month.
The Senate confirmed her nomination, 52-48, on Wednesday. Gabbard, a former Democrat turned Republican, received no Democratic votes. The only Republican to vote against her was former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said, “The nation should not have to worry that the intelligence assessments the President receives are tainted by a Director of National Intelligence with a history of alarming lapses in judgment.”
Another key “no” vote came from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose presidential campaign Gabbard endorsed in 2016 after stepping down as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
According to the document obtained by ABC News, Gabbard plans to work with lawmakers to ensure responsiveness to their requests for intelligence. Issues of concern include the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in Israel; the 2024 Syrian rebel takeover; failures to identify the source of the COVID-19 outbreak, Anomalous Health Incidents (AHIs), also known as “Havana Syndrome,” Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) — objects in air, sea or space that defy scientific explanation — drones and more.
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, has served 22 years in the Army National Guard and Reserve, including deployments to Iraq, Kuwait, and Djibouti. She is the first female DNI to have served in the military and plans to continue to serve in the Reserve, which ODNI regulations permit.
She plans to use her experience in the military and in Congress to bring “fresh eyes” as she assumes the role of America’s top intelligence official, according to the document.
(WASHINGTON) — When billionaire Elon Musk posted on X last weekend that all federal employees would soon receive an email demanding details of their work from the past week, senior White House officials — who had not been fully briefed on the plan — were initially caught off guard, multiple sources told ABC News.
Musk’s email would then set off widespread confusion across the federal government. It created tension among members of Trump’s Cabinet, as multiple agency heads told their employees to hold off on replying until they themselves were briefed on the situation.
At one point shortly after the Saturday evening email, sources familiar with the discussions said senior White House staff debated issuing guidance to their own employees, informing them that they did not need to reply. Late Monday night, the Office of Personnel Management said that White House staff were exempt from the exercise, citing the Presidential Records Act.
The lack of communication between Musk and President Donald Trump’s top advisers in the White House, who are responsible for executing his second-term agenda, is the latest in a series of controversial moves by the world’s richest man since he arrived in Washington last month that have begun to divide some of those closest to the president.
Musk’s whirlwind approach — marked by rapid gutting of the federal workforce and dominating national headlines — has sparked a rift among some in the White House and Trump’s inner circle, sources told ABC News. Some close to the president have bristled at Musk’s frenetic pace and his apparent disregard for coordinating with senior officials around the president. Others, however, have expressed support for the tactics and embraced Musk’s fast-paced efforts so far, hailing them as a long-overdue shakeup of a stagnant system.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing Tuesday that “the President and Elon, and his entire Cabinet, are working as one unified team, and they are implementing these very common-sense solutions,” adding that more than 1 million federal workers had responded to Musk’s “What did you do last week?” email, including herself. Leavitt said that Musk would attend Trump’s first Cabinet meeting set for Wednesday.
But as Musk has ripped through the federal workforce at a breakneck pace reminiscent of his approach at his own companies, the White House has, at times, first learned of his actions through media reports or his own posts on X instead of through the usual chain of senior staff, sources said, which has ruffled feathers among some top officials who view the billionaire’s methods as increasingly out of control.
But while Musk has some detractors in Trump’s orbit, he has gained support from some of the most powerful voices around the president, including Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and U.S. Homeland Security adviser, and Katie Miller, a senior adviser to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts who is married to Stephen Miller, sources said.
Still, even with some in the White House growing frustrated with aspects of Musk’s first few weeks in Washington, sources said there is hesitancy to intervene, given not only the billionaire’s immense wealth but, perhaps more importantly, his vast influence given his larger-than-ever profile and his ownership of X.
Some concerned with Musk have resigned themselves that the Tesla CEO is unlikely to be reined in anytime soon and are instead focused on managing the situation as best they can until his special government contract comes to an end later this year, though it is not immediately clear if Musk plans to leave Washington then, either.
“Some love it, some can’t wait for [Musk] to leave — bottom line is he’s not going anywhere anytime soon,” a source familiar told ABC News.
In response to this story, a senior White House official told ABC News, “Any insinuation that senior leadership in the Trump White House is not properly being advised on the actions of DOGE is completely false. As an SGE, Elon Musk works directly with the president of the United States and senior members of his team to coordinate the effective and efficient execution of the president’s agenda.”
“The American people widely support the mission of DOGE. Look no further than the Harris poll in which a vast majority of Americans support the mission of DOGE. Anyone who is seen as objecting to this mission in either party is objecting to long overdue change in Washington. If you’re not going to be a part of the solution, you are now a part of the problem,” the official added.
The South African-born businessman spent $270 million to help Trump get reelected. When Trump returned to office on Jan. 20, he empowered Musk to slash federal spending and make key decisions about the future of the U.S. as a lead adviser in the newly created DOGE.
ABC News previously reported that Musk initially wanted an office in the West Wing, but told people he thought what he was given was too small, multiple people familiar with his comments told ABC News, and has since taken up offices in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where he brought in sleep pods for his young staffers as they worked deep into the night.
Musk has been designated as a special government employee. His companies Tesla and SpaceX have been awarded $18 billion in federal contracts over the last decade. Some of this money has come from agencies the president asked Musk to review, but Musk dismissed the notion that there could be conflicts of interest.
“No, because you have to look at the individual contract and say, first of all, I’m not the one, you know, filing the contract — it’s people at SpaceX,” he told ABC News earlier this month.
(WASHINGTON) — Just weeks before he leaves office, President Joe Biden awarded 20 recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal, including the key players in the House Jan. 6 committee.
Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, who chaired the committee, both received the medal. The White House said Cheney, who has repeatedly endured attacks from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies, “put the American people over party.”
Biden did not specifically mention Cheney during his remarks at the White House event. However, he praised the elected officials who received the medal for serving “in difficult times with honor, decency and ensured our democracy delivers.”
“Together, you embody, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, the essential truth: We’re a great nation. We’re a great nation because we’re a good people,” he said.
Biden also honored other former lawmakers, including Carolyn McCarthy, Bill Bradley, Nancy Landon Kassebaum and Ted Kaufman, among others.
The list also includes a number of advocates and experts. Their contributions are wide-ranging, spanning from law to healthcare to photography to education.
Below is the list of recipients, along with short biographies supplied by the White House.
Mary L. Bonauto Attorney and activist Mary Bonauto first fought to legalize same-sex marriage in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine before arguing before the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, which established marriage equality as the law of the land. Her efforts made millions of families whole and forged a more perfect Union.
Bill Bradley Raised in small-town Missouri, Bill Bradley showed a dedication to basketball that would define his courage, discipline, and selflessness. A two-time NBA Champion and Hall-of-Fame New York Knick, he served three terms as a United States Senator from New Jersey and was a candidate for president, advancing tax reform, water rights, civil rights, and more, while still today seeking to deepen our common humanity with humility and heart.
Frank K. Butler, Jr. As a pioneering innovator, Navy Seal, and leader in dive medicine, Dr. Frank Butler introduced Tactical Combat Casualty Care to the medical world that set new standards for tourniquet use not only for injuries in war, but injuries across daily civilian life. He has transformed battlefield trauma care for the United States military and saved countless lives.
Elizabeth L. Cheney Throughout two decades in public service, including as a Congresswoman for Wyoming and Vice Chair of the Committee on the January 6 attack, Liz Cheney has raised her voice—and reached across the aisle—to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency. Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together.
Christopher J. Dodd Chris Dodd has served our Nation with distinction for more than 50 years as a United States Congressman, Senator, respected lawyer, and diplomat. From advancing childcare, to reforming our financial markets, to fostering partnerships across the Western Hemisphere—he has stood watch over America as a beacon to the world.
Diane Carlson Evans After serving as an Army nurse during the Vietnam War, Diane Carlson Evans founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation to ensure female service members received the recognition they deserve—one of our Nation’s most sacred obligations. Her duty and devotion embody the very best of who we are as Americans.
Joseph L. Galloway (posthumous) From Vietnam to the Persian Gulf, Joe Galloway spent decades sharing first-hand accounts of horror, humanity, and heroism in battle. Known as the soldier’s reporter and the soldier’s friend, he embedded with American troops, rescued wounded soldiers under fire, and became the only civilian awarded a Bronze Star for combat valor by the United States Army as one of the most respected war correspondents of his era.
Nancy Landon Kassebaum The first woman to represent Kansas, Nancy Kassebaum was a force in the United States Senate. From supporting a woman’s right to choose to reforming health care, she stood up for what she believed in even if it meant standing alone, and she reached across the aisle to do what she believed was right.
Ted Kaufman For decades, including as a United States Senator from Delaware, Ted Kaufman has served the Nation with honesty and integrity. A master of the Senate who championed everyday Americans and public servants, he’s been at the forefront of consequential debates about the courts, the financial system, and more.
Carolyn McCarthy As a nurse, Carolyn McCarthy had an instinct to heal and serve. When her husband and son were shot on a local commuter train, she became an advocate so persuasive that she was recruited to run for Congress. She served 18 years, championing gun safety measures including improved background checks, as a citizen legislator devoted to protecting our Nation’s welfare.
Louis Lorenzo Redding (posthumous) A groundbreaking civil rights advocate, Louis was the first Black attorney admitted to the bar in Delaware, where he argued against segregation in the seminal cases of Bulah v. Gebhart and Belton v. Gebhart—laying the legal framework for Brown v. Board of Education. A towering figure and a generous mentor, he opened doors of equity and opportunity for all Americans.
Bobby Sager A Boston native, Bobby Sager travels the world as a photographer and philanthropist grounded in family and empathy, wielding his camera and influence to connect with people in war-torn countries, capture their hope and humanity, and inspire others to take action and see a fuller portrait of the planet we all share.
Collins J. Seitz (posthumous) As a state judge in Delaware, Judge Seitz became the first judge in America to integrate a white public school, dismantling the doctrine of “separate but equal” with exacting detail and reverence for the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of our Constitution. His brave ruling tore down walls of separation to help us see each other as fellow Americans.
Eleanor Smeal From leading massive protests and galvanizing women’s votes in the 1970s to steering progress for equal pay and helping the Violence Against Women Act become law, Ellie Smeal forced the Nation to not only include women in political discourse but to value them as power brokers and equals. Her strategic vision over more than 40 years embodies the American pursuit to create a fairer, more just world.
Bennie G. Thompson Born and raised in a segregated Mississippi, as a college student inspired by the Civil Rights movement, Bennie Thompson volunteered on campaigns and registered southern Black voters. That call to serve eventually led him to Congress, where he chaired the House January 6th Committee—at the forefront of defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth.
Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi (posthumous) In a shameful chapter in our Nation’s history, Mitsuye Endo was incarcerated alongside more than 120,000 Japanese Americans. Undaunted, she challenged the injustice and reached the Supreme Court. Her resolve allowed thousands of Japanese Americans to return home and rebuild their lives, reminding us that we are a Nation that stands for freedom for all.
Thomas J. Vallely A United States Marine during the Vietnam War, Thomas Vallely has never given up on peace. Over the course of five decades, he has brought Vietnam and the United States together—establishing Fulbright University Vietnam, fostering greater economic and cultural exchange, and overcoming the perils of the past to seize the promise of the future. His service remains a symbol of American leadership in the world.
Frances M. Visco As president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Fran Visco has fought tirelessly and fearlessly to increase Federal funding for breast cancer research, early detection education, and access to women’s healthcare. As a breast cancer survivor, she turned pain into purpose, changed the landscape of breast cancer advocacy, and has become a powerful symbol of hope for the Nation.
Paula S. Wallace A lifelong educator and trailblazer of the arts, Paula Wallace dreamt of a school that would transform how we think about professional education. By establishing the esteemed Savannah College of Art and Design and serving as its president, she has guided thousands of students into creative industries.
Evan Wolfson By leading the marriage equality movement, Evan Wolfson helped millions of people in all 50 states win the fundamental right to love, marry, and be themselves. For 32 years, starting with a visionary law school thesis, Evan Wolfson worked with singular focus and untiring optimism to change not just the law, but society—pioneering a political playbook for change and sharing its lessons, even now, with countless causes worldwide.
