‘A Terrible President’: 12 Times Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Criticized Trump

The alliance between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former President Donald J. Trump, which was fortified on Tuesday with Mr. Kennedy’s appointment to Mr. Trump’s transition team,is a sharp turnabout in a long-combative relationship.

Mr. Kennedy had spent the better part of a decade lobbing attacks at Mr. Trump, portraying him as a buffoonish, anti-democratic bully who led a feckless administration.

“In many ways, he’s discredited the American experiment with self-governance,” Mr. Kennedy said of Mr. Trump in early 2020.

Mr. Kennedy set aside his criticisms when he suspended his long-shot independent presidential campaign last Friday, saying that he was backing Mr. Trump because he was “choosing to believe” that “this time” Mr. Trump would bring him into his administration — something that did not happen for Mr. Kennedy the last time around, after they met in 2017. Mr. Kennedy, reached for comment, pointed to the remarks he made Friday.

Mr. Kennedy acknowledged Friday that he and the former president “don’t agree on everything.” But he said that they had found common ground on certain issues, and he took a different, far more positive tone in front of a cheering crowd of Trump supporters in Glendale, Ariz.

“Don’t you want a president who’s going to protect America’s freedoms, and who’s going to protect us against totalitarianism?” Mr. Kennedy asked on Friday.