Nicole Shanahan—the billionaire who poured millions of dollars of her own money into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign before the conspiracy theorist chose her as his running mate—on Tuesday raised the possibility that Kennedy could drop his independent White House bid and throw his support behind former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
"There's two options and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov. Tim] Walz presidency, because we draw votes from Trump," Shanahan told Tom Bilyeu during the
latest episode of his "Impact Theory" podcast. "Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump and... we explain to our base why we're making this decision."
"I will say that
Trump has taken genuine, sincere interest in our policiesaround chronic disease," Shanahan added. "He takes it seriously. For that reason, I think it behooves us to sit and see if we can actually make some real change."
During his first term, Trump repeatedly proposed
massive cuts in federal funding for medical and scientific research and other programs.
Shanahan said she envisions a situation in which Kennedy "does an incredible job" as Trump's Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary.
Responding to Shanahan's remarks, Democratic National Committee (DNC) communications adviser Lis Smith said in a statement that "Nicole Shanahan isn't even pretending to be a serious VP candidate anymore."
"In one interview alone, she floated RFK Jr. for HHS secretary in a Trump administration, discussed her interest in running for governor of California in 2026, admitted that the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign has no path to victory, and raised the possibility of joining forces with Trump to defeat Vice President Harris," Smith continued.
"From the beginning of this race, we've said that RFK Jr. is nothing more than a spoiler for Donald Trump, and we're glad that his running mate is finally admitting it," she added.
The Washington Postreported last week that Kennedy sought a meeting with the Harris-Walz campaign to discuss a possible job in their administration should they defeat Trump and Republican U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio in November. According to sources, the Harris campaign has so far ignored Kennedy.
While Kennedy called that reporting "fake news," hesaid on social media Tuesday that "as always, I am willing to talk with leaders of any political party to further the goals I have served for 40 years in my career and in this campaign."
Shanahan's interview isn't the first time someone in Kennedy's campaign has given up the game. In April, Rita Palma was fired from her job as Kennedy's New York campaign director after she
admitted behind closed doors that her "No. 1 priority" was to take electoral votes away from President Joe Biden, then the presumptive Democratic nominee and the "mutual enemy" of Trump and Kennedy voters.
Earlier this year, More Perfect Unionrevealed that ultrawealthy Trump donors were also bankrolling Kennedy's campaign.
Kennedy chose Shanahan as his running mate after she contributed heavily to his campaign, which has been derided as a potential "spoiler."
"I did not put in tens of millions of dollars to be a spoiler candidate," she said in the interview Tuesday. "They have, unfortunately, turned us into a spoiler. And we don't want to be a spoiler. We wanted to win. We wanted a fair shot."
Shanahan added that the DNC "made that impossible for us."
"They have banned us, shadowbanned us, kept us off stages, manipulated polls, used lawfare against us, sued us in every possible state," she explained.
In 2004, Ralph Nader, who ran an independent campaign for president, was
sued in 18 states by the DNC in a bid to keep him off the ballot after he was falsely blamed for spoiling the 2000 election for Republican President George W. Bush.
Some Kennedy supporters recoiled at the thought of him joining forces with Trump. Kennedy campaigner Kyle Kemper
toldNBC News he would be "heartbroken" if Kennedy were to "sell his soul" to Trump.
"Don't make a deal with the devil," he pleaded.
