Allies of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are reportedly concerned he is being “marginalized” by President Donald Trump, according to a new report.

After Kennedy was alleged to have little to no input on Trump’s most recent Surgeon General nominee Dr. Nicole Saphier – a replacement for Trump’s previous nominee, Casey Means, who is a close ally of Kennedy – CNN reported on Thursday that there were “fears among Kennedy’s close allies that he is being marginalized inside the administration, opening a fresh rift within the nascent MAGA-MAHA alliance.”

CNN spoke to one unnamed Trump adviser who dismissed the importance of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAGA) movement, which was a prominent faction of Trump’s 2024 election coalition of supporters.

“I hate to say it, but I think they’re a little bit overrated,” the unnamed adviser said. “To some extent, MAHA has always been a paper tiger.”

White House senior deputy press secretary Kush Desai denied that Trump was marginalizing Kennedy in a statement to CNN, claiming, “Making America Healthy Again has been a Day One priority for President Trump, and Secretary Kennedy continues to play a central role in the Trump administration’s whole-of-government effort to deliver on the President’s MAHA agenda.”

Saphier is Trump’s third nominee for Surgeon General in less than two years.

The president first nominated former Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat for the position, before pulling her nomination and replacing her with Means.

Last month, nearly a year after her nomination, Trump then replaced Means with Saphier.

In multiple posts which have since been deleted, Saphier previously criticized Kennedy and the Trump administration on social media, including over their controversial warnings about the use of Tylenol.

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