RFK Jr Took $4M From MAHA Allies After Swearing He Wouldn't

The $4M Pledge-and-Cash Situation

The New York Times first reported the advances Wednesday, and the Guardian subsequently reviewed Kennedy Jr's 2026 financial disclosure forms confirming the details. The money came from Skyhorse Publishing, owned by Tony Lyons, who is not just a casual business contact but a personal friend of Kennedy and the president of the MAHA Center, a non-profit that positions itself as the respectable civic face of the movement Kennedy has spent years building.

This is the same Skyhorse that published The Real Anthony Fauci and The Wuhan Cover-Up, two of Kennedy's previous books. So this isn't some arm's-length publishing arrangement with a stranger. It's money flowing from a friend, through a company that friend owns, to a cabinet secretary who promised in writing not to touch book-related work while in office. The MAHA Center, for its part, describes itself as dedicated to 'tackling America's health crisis through education, investigation, innovation and action.' Apparently that action includes cutting large checks to the nation's top health official.

But Wait, There's Also the Fiji Compound

The book advances are actually the least cinematic part of this story. According to Kennedy Jr's financial disclosures as reviewed by the Guardian, he also accepted $126,500 worth of housing in Washington DC from Gavin de Becker, a security consultant described as a Kennedy ally, at a property de Becker owns that the disclosure charmingly refers to as a 'vacation home.'

Then there's the airfare. De Becker also gifted Kennedy nearly $45,000 in roundtrip flights to Greece and nearly $97,000 in roundtrip flights to Fiji, where the Wall Street Journal reports de Becker owns a compound. Add it up and that's roughly $268,500 in travel and housing from one guy. One guy who, according to Politico, donated at least $10 million to Kennedy's Super PAC in 2024 before $9.65 million of that was returned.

De Becker, for his part, told the Times that Bobby is 'among my closest friends in the world' and that they take family vacations together every year. That's sweet. It also means the nation's health secretary is regularly jetting to Fiji on a donor's private dime while running a federal agency with a $1.7 trillion budget.

The Skyhorse Circle of Life

Here's a detail that ties the whole thing into a neat little bow. Gavin de Becker, the man gifting Kennedy six-figure airfare and vacation housing, has also published a book through Skyhorse Publishing. The title is Forbidden Facts: Government Deceit and Suppression About Brain Damage From Childhood Vaccines. Tony Lyons, who owns Skyhorse and leads MAHA Center, is also the man whose non-profit paid Kennedy's wife, Cheryl Hines, $210,000 in consultation fees, according to the financial disclosures reviewed by the Guardian.

So to recap: the same publisher is cutting $4 million in advances to Kennedy, publishing anti-vaccine books by Kennedy's wealthy travel benefactor, and employing Kennedy's spouse. Lyons leads both the publishing house and the non-profit arm of the movement Kennedy runs from inside the executive branch. This is not a web of relationships. It's a single dense knot.

HHS Has a Very Confident Statement About All of This

An HHS spokesperson told the New York Times that Kennedy 'complies with all applicable federal ethics laws, regulations and financial disclosure requirements.' The spokesperson added that Kennedy works with 'career ethics officials' to ensure everything is 'appropriately disclosed and handled consistent with those requirements.'

Kedric Payne, senior ethics counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, offered a different read when he spoke to the Times. 'Lavish gifts to an official from major political donors don't get the same benefit of the doubt as dinner from a former classmate,' Payne said. 'The public deserves full transparency about the nature of these gifts and any interests the donor has before the government.' That's the kind of statement that sounds obvious until you remember that obvious things apparently need to be said out loud in 2026.