Corporate America Is Paying For Access To Rfk Jr.

When devotees of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement meet for a summit Sept. 29 in Washington, titans of American industry will pay the bill.

Walmart, America’s biggest retailer and a leading purveyor of the ultraprocessed foods MAHA decries, is among the sponsors. So are two artificial intelligence giants, OpenAI and Anthropic, whose chief executives recently asked Washington to regulate them in order to prevent their tools from wiping out humanity.

In exchange, they’ll get to attend a private dinner with summit speakers, which include Health and Human Services Department officials. Other sponsors are less well known, but also have interests before Kennedy’s health department, including makers of psychedelic drugs, diagnostics technologies and peptides that need government approval.

One panel at the summit includes executives at UnitedHealth and Elevance, two of the country’s largest health insurers, along with Mike Tuffin, the chief executive of AHIP, the insurer trade group and one of the largest health care lobbies in Washington.

“AHIP welcomes opportunities to engage in dialogue about how to reduce the incidence of chronic disease and make health care more affordable and accessible for Americans,” said Chris Bond, a spokesperson for AHIP.

The MAHA movement’s embrace of corporate sponsorship runs counter to its anti-corporate message: that the food and health care industries have knowingly poisoned Americans’ health, causing obesity, vaccine injuries and chronic disease.

The MAHA PAC, its political fundraising arm, has also accepted large donations from companies. A POLITICO analysis of MAHA PAC filings from January 2025-April 2026 found almost 90% of its donations came from just 10 entities, half of which have ties to the drug industry.

Tony Lyons, whose MAHA Center is putting on the summit, galvanizes supporters on weekly calls with warnings about “dark forces” in industry threatening Kennedy’s agenda.

“Our doctors, along with the government agencies and the media, were bribed, conflicted, coerced, until they didn't know or care what the truth was. They all became marketing arms, sort of co-conspirators for the very companies making us sick and keeping us sick for profit,” he said on Wednesday.

“The forces that are lined up against all of you are just monstrous. These are just such powerful forces with such powerful lobbyists,” he added. Lyons did not respond to POLITICO’s requests for comment.

Some MAHA supporters expressed frustration at the number of corporate interests at the event and what they see as an increasing push from MAHA leadership to demand cash for access.

“This is the opposite of going against corporate capture. This is complete corporate capture,” said Scarlett Fang, a MAHA supporter who campaigned for Kennedy during his 2024 presidential run and volunteers for the California chapter of Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit Kennedy founded that is against vaccine mandates.

“When you talk about grassroots, it’s people like me who do not make money doing advocacy," Fang added. "We don’t have extra money to pay for organizations in order to be connected to the administration.”

Another grassroots organizer, granted anonymity out of fear of retaliation, agreed: “It makes me angry…UnitedHealth, oh my God! If you’re having any of those people, it’s about money.”

MAHA Action, another Lyons-run nonprofit, offers tiered subscriptions to supporters for access, with its highest “leadership circle” costing $6,000 a year but promising “four guaranteed DC events per year;” “guaranteed attendance at the MAHA Summit;” and a signed deluxe edition of "The Real Anthony Fauci," Kennedy’s 2021 book published by Skyhorse Publishing, which is owned by Lyons.

Sponsors of the MAHA summit told POLITICO they wanted to educate the audience about their services and ways they could align with MAHA’s goal to address chronic disease.

Evan Miller, chief executive of Gameday Men’s Health, which provides services like testosterone therapy and peptides, said MAHA created a “friendlier administration than previous” for business by creating more awareness about hormone levels and health. “There’s a lot of tailwinds that we can take advantage of,” said Miller.

Top-ranking officials in Kennedy’s Health Department are expected to speak this year, including Chris Klomp, the nominee for HHS deputy secretary; Kyle Diamantas, the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health; and Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Calley Means, a White House senior adviser who helped cement Kennedy’s alliance with President Donald Trump in 2024, is also slated to speak.

“You can't have a better stamp of approval than being associated with MAHA if you're operating in this space,” said Kevin Miller, chief executive of Peptide Tracker, a phone app and summit sponsor. Miller launched Peptide Tracker in May for peptide users to track their dosage. Kennedy is a self-declared “big fan” of peptides and said earlier this year he was working to make 14 peptides more readily available.

“This is a big business differentiator if you're aligned with RFK [Jr.] and this group of people,” he added. Other peptide sponsors include Noom, Wells Pharmacy Network and Hims & Hers, which is preparing to offer peptides later this year. Miller said sponsorships ranged from $50,000 to $100,000 but he was able to negotiate it down to $20,000 given his startup status. Sponsorships cost more for those with speaking slots, he said.

Topics of discussion at the summit include the use of artificial intelligence in health care, the prevention and early detection of disease, and modernizing the FDA.

Some sponsors and speakers are on the verge of regulatory approval. Compass Pathways, Definium Therapeutics and Helus Pharma, developers of psychedelic drugs to treat mental illness, are summit sponsors and speaking on a panel alongside Matt Zorn, HHS deputy general counsel. Compass Pathways is preparing to submit a final new drug application to the FDA by the end of the year, and Definium plans to file in the first half of 2027.

The three companies told POLITICO their participation was motivated by their desire to engage in dialogues around mental health. “It’s really around mental health, furthering treatment in this space,” said Michael Halstead, Helus Pharma’s chief executive, which expects to file for FDA approval in 2028. This summit marks Helus Pharma’s first time as a MAHA sponsor.

“As you're getting closer to being able to hopefully positively impact patients, you get involved in more of these sorts of things,” he added.

Emily Hilliard, senior HHS press secretary, said the department and its officials listed speakers “were not involved in the planning or sponsorship activities for the MAHA Summit and were not aware of the sponsorship arrangements.”

Despite donations from companies, Lyons has raised little money for his MAHA PAC to support MAHA-aligned Republicans running for office. After promising $100 million, the PAC has spent less than $800,000, with the majority on defeating a Kennedy critic who is a Republican: Sen. Bill Cassidy in a Louisiana primary. The PAC has less than $300,000 in available cash.

On Wednesday’s call, Lyons rallied his supporters to back MAHA candidates in the midterms and fight corporate forces.

“We don't want Bobby Kennedy or his whole team to be sitting in congressional hearings where they're just trying to slow things down and make it easier and more affordable for big companies to poison the American public,” he said.

He declared his newly started MAHA Action PAC would donate $1 million to support Zach Lahn. Lahn, a Republican who is critical of agrichemical giants, is running for Iowa governor, another race that would have no effect on the balance of power in Congress.