New conversations spotlight Trump and RFK Jr.’s on-again, off-again connection

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s relationship with Donald Trump is back in the spotlight — at a moment of upheaval in the presidential race and after a video of a phone call between the two was posted online and then deleted by Kennedy’s son.

In the video, Trump can be heard talking with Kennedy about children’s vaccines and the gunshot wound he suffered at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. “It sounded like a giant — like the world’s largest mosquito. And it was, it was a bullet going round,” Trump said in the video.

Appearing to commiserate with Kennedy about vaccines, Trump said, “I agree with you, man, something’s wrong with that whole system,” talking about dose size and vaccinating children.

He added: “And then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically. I’ve seen it too many times, and then you hear it doesn’t have an impact, right?”

And Trump appeared to signal openness to doing something with his now-rival, though it’s unclear what. (In 2017, Kennedy told reporters that the then-president had extended an invitation to him to chair a committee on “vaccine safety and scientific integrity,” which the Trump camp later walked back in a statement.)

“I would love you to do some — I think it would be so good for you and so big for you,” Trump said, according to the video, without mentioning anything specific.

Neither Kennedy nor his campaign returned requests for comment. Trump’s campaign, when asked for comment, pointed to Kennedy’s social media post apologizing for his eldest son, Bobby Kennedy III, posting the video.

The conversation comes at an unusual point in the 2024 campaign, with Kennedy talking to Trump at least twice in two days. The two candidates, who share some major donors and other