With Dana Nickel, Daniel Lippman THE KENNEDY EFFECT: Donald Trump ’s victory earlier this month set off a flurry of general activity across K Street, but the influence industry has been scrambling to decode the ascendance of one Trump acolyte in particular: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine crusader who has championed upending the nation’s public health and food safety regulatory regimes. — Lobbyists’ phones had already been blowing up as they worked to figure out just where Kennedy might focus his energies in the Trump administration and how much clout he might have, according to more than a dozen operatives who represent clients in industries in the crosshairs of Kennedy’s so-called “Make America Healthy Again” movement. — “We've had clients meet with the RFK team and try to better understand some of their policy goals beyond just what they've heard through campaign rhetoric,” Jane Lucas, a partner at Alston & Bird who worked in the White House legislative affairs office during Trump’s first term, told PI of her firm’s work to prep clients. — Two days after the election, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck sent a memo to clients focused on Trump and Kennedy’s alliance. The memo draws heavily on a September roundtable on the Hill that Kennedy spoke at, as well as two of his advisers, Calley and Casey Means, whose past comments are now being dissected by lobbyists as a possible guide to Kennedy’s views. Several firms downtown name-checked Kennedy in their post-election briefings for clients as well, in a reflection of the demand for intel on him. — That frenzy went into overdrive on Thursday when the president-elect nominated Kennedy to lead HHS, K Streeters told PI. Our colleague Daniel Payne also reported on the downtown scramble Friday. — Some lobbyists had coalesced around the thinking that the former environmental lawyer would take on a more overarching advisory role, rather than a Cabinet post, in part to avoid the need for financial disclosures or divestments. — There was also thinking that the onetime Democratic and independent presidential candidate — who’s also called for clamping down on the use of pesticides and food additives — would be too divisive to nominate or would serve as a “sacrificial lamb,” at least until Trump unveiled several other unconventional Cabinet picks, including former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. — “I think folks are still saying that this nomination almost seems sane compared to the Gaetz nomination,” said one lobbyist whose health care clients include drug companies, and who like others was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the industry reaction to Kennedy’s role. — Some lobbyists are urging their clients to keep their powder dry for now, at least publicly, arguing that it’s very possible Kennedy will be confirmed. In the meantime, they’re strategizing ways to tailor companies’ appeals to his worldview. — The entire health care industry will “need to work with this person, and I think they're figuring out the best ways to position themselves to do that, and to make sure that their individual agenda is advanced, whether it happens to align with his stated positions to date or not,” a second industry lobbyist told PI. — K Street is seeking to assuage fears about Kennedy’s as-yet undefined agenda, emphasizing that there’s a good deal of his campaign rhetoric that would be hard to put into action without congressional approval or even within a single presidential administration. — But across Washington, the influence community is also grappling with the reality that regardless of how long Kennedy remains in Trump’s good graces, Kennedy’s insurgency poses a grave threat to companies’ bottom line beyond the Trump administration. — “Trump has given credibility to this larger MAHA movement,” argued a third lobbyist, telling PI that their advice to clients has been that “you can't have a strategy that's based on the hope that Trump gets tired of someone.” — “People need to do two things: One, they have to mobilize Republican senators to try and stop him,” they added. “And then two, they have to have a longer term strategy of: ‘How do we get issues back on our side of the discussion?’” — “I think the thing I'd be most worried about if I were any of the sectors on the wrong end of RFK Jr. is not him getting control of some federal agency; it's that he used to be a fringe guy that only weirdos who studied at Evergreen College who drink raw milk listened to,” GOP consultant Liz Mair told PI in an email. — “Now, there are tons of mainstream Republicans with big followings who retweet stuff he puts out there about how seed oils are making everyone fat and McDonald’s needs to go back to frying fries in tallow,” Mair said. Happy Monday and welcome to PI, where we’re over the moon about the birth of this future PI contributor. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko.
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