U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the stage during the second night of the Republican National Convention in Dallas on September 10th to make the bold claim that obesity has dropped by 7% since Donald Trump took office in 2025. FactCheck.org has since proven the statement false, but most social media users didn’t believe him in the first place. Keep reading for more information.
Women Are Swapping Their Boring Water For This Ice Pop Electrolyte Mix!
RFK Jr. Says Obesity Has Decreased by 7% Since Trump Took Office
Introduced as the "Make America Healthy Again icon" a the convention, RFK Jr. spent a good chunk of his allotted time speaking about obesity rates in America. "Since President Trump took office, obesity is down by 7% after 40 years of increasing."
Days later, he doubled down on the statistic, saying on September 17th at the Children’s Health Defense conference in Washington, D.C. that "obesity rates have dropped 7.3% since 2022, most of it in this year — these two years," referring to Trump's time in office.
However, FactCheck.org has since proven that both of these statements are false. Gallup, the polling organization RFK Jr. was referring to, reported that the U.S. adult obesity rate fell from 37.5% in 2024 to 36.8% in 2026. That is a 0.7 percentage-point decline, or about a 1.9% relative decline.
What RFK Jr. was likely referring to was the relative decline between 2022 and 2026, which is about 7.8%. However, most of that decline took place before Trump took office, between 2022 and 2024.
Social Media Reactions
Across social media platforms, users couldn't help but joke about the situation, leaving comments like, "In what country, Robert?" and "Donald picked up the slack on that stat for sure."
"Well yeah.. there's no food and people are suffering from explosive diarrhea due to the recalls that happen every other day..." pointed out another user on Instagram. "So yea, people lost weight..."
"Yeah, we’re starving ourselves since groceries are so expensive," said another.
"Is it because no one can afford to eat?" asked the next.
"Cause people can't afford groceries," agreed one user.
"Nobody wants to eat mystery meat or poisonous foods laced with cancer so yeah…we don’t have many options," pointed out the next person.
"Yeah because all the food is getting recalled and groceries are expensive," a final user said.
