(Philadelphia, PA) — New reporting from the New York Times revealed a political action committee associated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accepted $1 million dollars from a kratom company before downplaying the drug’s deadly risks.
“RFK Jr. is the most corrupt HHS Secretary in America’s history. He’s made millions on vaccine injury lawsuits and now, he’s pocketed $1 million from a kratom company—an addictive drug that’s killing Americans. This is a pattern of corruption.” said Grace Silva, spokesperson for 314 Action. “Thousands of people are dying of overdoses from the drug——but RFK Jr. doesn’t care. As long as the checks clear, he’ll return favors for drug and chemical companies and sell out Americans’ health. How many more people need to die before RFK Jr. is removed from office?”
New York Times: How an Addictive Gas Station Drug Found Allies in Trump’s Cabinet
By Kenneth P. Vogel and Christina Jewett
06/15/26
Key points:
- For years, federal health officials have warned about the risks associated with a supplement derived from the leaves of kratom trees that adherents say can kill pain or boost energy. Sold in gas stations across America, kratom has been linked to liver toxicity, seizures and thousands of deaths.
- The kratom campaign underscores how corporations in the growing wellness industry can gain traction in Mr. Trump’s government by casting risky products as aligned with the administration’s Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, agenda championed by Mr. Kennedy, who has sometimes prioritized unproven remedies over science.
- Mr. Ross ramped up his donations to Mr. Kennedy’s defunct presidential campaign after Mr. Trump chose him to be health secretary. Mr. Ross privately boasted that he was “working on a plan for Bobby.”
- The F.D.A. in 2025 deleted links on its kratom webpage that detailed a then-pending legal case against Mr. Ross’s company, Botanic Tonics, after his allies pushed for the change.
- Mr. Kennedy, as health secretary, called the governor of Ohio to try to head off a state ban on kratom in the fall of 2025. Months later, Botanic Tonics donated $1 million to a political committee associated with Mr. Kennedy.
- From 2020 through 2024, kratom was found in the system of more than 5,200 people who died of drug overdoses, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on death certificates and other official reports.
- In the weeks around the inauguration, Mr. Ross donated nearly $162,000 to Mr. Kennedy’s defunct presidential campaign, exceeding by many times his total federal political giving to that point.
- Records obtained by The Times show that the F.D.A. was asked to remove from its kratom webpage links that took readers to enforcement actions against Mr. Ross’s and other kratom companies.
- By the end of 2025, the F.D.A. had removed the links.
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314 Action is the only national organization working to recruit, train and elect Democratic scientists across all levels of government—from the Senate down to local school boards. The organization is powered by a grassroots community of over six million people supporting scientists and health care professionals who will use science and facts to address the most urgent issues facing our generation.