President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he announced in a social media post.

Trump said that Kennedy will “restore” the agencies under HHS “to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”

HHS oversees major health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, among others.

The job requires Senate confirmation.

Kennedy, who suspended his independent presidential campaign in August and endorsed Trump, said ahead of Election Day that Trump had “promised” him “control of the public health agencies.”

Kennedy has broadly advised Trump and the transition team on health related-appointments, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Kennedy had also been spotted at Mar-a-Lago multiple times and had been engaging in presentations that included candidates for specific Cabinet and health related jobs, sources said.

Kennedy has been an anti-vaccine activist and founded the Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccine nonprofit that has campaigned against immunizations and other public health measures like water fluoridation. Medical experts expressed concerns about a rise in medical misinformation through Kennedy’s candidacy. Notably, Kennedy has falsely claimed that childhood vaccines cause autism, despite the retraction of the study that originally suggested this link, and numerous subsequent high-quality studies disproving this theory.

Kennedy has said publicly that he wants to reduce government overreach, which he often frames as an issue of medical freedom.

On the campaign trail, Trump touted Kennedy’s role in helping him “straighten out our health,” but joked that he’s worried about his strong stance on the environment, Trump saying he wants to keep drilling.

Trump first floated the idea of Kennedy leading his administration’s health efforts during the Al Smith Dinner last month. He said Kennedy will “make us a healthier place.”

“We’re gonna let him go wild for a little while, then I’m gonna have to maybe rein him back, because he’s got some pretty wild ideas, but most of them are really good,” Trump said at the dinner. “I think he’s a he’s a good man, and he believes, he believes the environment, the healthy people. He wants healthy people, he wants healthy food. And he’s going to do it. He’s going to have a big chance to do it, because we do need that.”

Trump and Kennedy haven’t always gotten along with both hurling insults throughout their campaigns.

When Kennedy first signaled plans to jump into the 2024 race, Trump said he felt confident that Kennedy would take votes away from President Joe Biden, labeling him a far-left liberal.

“Kennedy is a Radical Left Democrat, and always will be!!! It’s great for MAGA, but the Communists will make it very hard for him to get on the Ballot,” Trump posted on his social media platform in March.

Kennedy fired back in an April post on X, criticizing the former president and saying that Trump’s rant against him “is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims” and challenged Trump to a debate

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he has chosen Rep. Matt Gaetz as his pick for attorney general, a move that, if he’s confirmed by the Senate, would place a firebrand and one of Trump’s most loyal allies at the head of the Justice Department.

“Matt is a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney, trained at the William & Mary College of Law, who has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice,” Trump said in his social media post.

Gaetz is an explosive selection by Trump to be the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government, leading the very same executive branch of government that spent years investigating allegations regarding the Floridacongressman. Gaetz was informed that the Justice Department would not seek changes just last year. He has long denied any wrongdoing.

Gaetz has been a member of Congress since winning in 2017, riding the MAGA wave that brought Trump to Washington eight years ago. Over the years, Gaetz has become one of Trump’s most ardent, and according to some allies, effective, defenders in Washington while also growing close to Trump.

Gaetz has been down at Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago almost every day since Election Day, helping make suggestions and input on other administration selections, sources tell ABC News. Gaetz was also seen traveling with Trump in his motorcade during his visit to Washington on Wednesday.

Notably, Gaetz is very close with Trump’s newly selected chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who also has deep and storied roots in Florida politics.

Beginning in 2019, Gaetz faced a yearslong Justice Department investigation into allegations related to sex trafficking and obstruction of justice. Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing, and the Justice Department informed Gaetz in 2023 that it was declining to bring charges against him after its investigation.

The investigation into Gaetz stemmed from a probe into the Florida congressman’s one-time friend, former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, who was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including sex trafficking a minor and introducing the minor to other “adult men.”

Since the Justice Department declined to charge Gaetz following its investigation, the Florida congressman has faced an ongoing probe by the House Ethics Committeeregarding the same allegations.

In September, Gaetz released a lengthy statement concerning the ongoing House Ethics probe into his alleged conduct. Gaetz stated that he would no longer voluntarily participate in the probe and included a string of answers seemingly to questions the committee asked the Florida congressman earlier that month.

The House Ethics Committee drops an investigation into a member once they leave Congress, House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest told ABC News.

“You know, once a member is no longer a member of Congress, then ethics has no jurisdiction. So if Matt Gaetz were to be appointed as the Attorney General, the ethics investigation is currently ongoing, would cease at that point,” Guest said.

House Republicans were meeting behind closed doors when Trump announced he would be nominating Gaetz to serve as attorney general. There was an audible gasp in the room, several members who were inside told ABC News.

Many House Republicans on Capitol Hill are reacting to Trump’s pick of Gaetz.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Guest expressed support for Trump’s selection of Gaetz as attorney general. Republican Rep. Max Miller, a former aide to Donald Trump who was particularly critical of Gaetz following Florida congressman’s efforts to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year, said the pick was “silly” and that Gaetz would “never get confirmed by the Senate.”

“I believe that the President is probably rewarding him for being such a loyal soldier to the president, but the President is smart enough, and his team is smart enough to know that Mr. Gaetz will never get confirmed by the Senate. Whatsoever,” Miller said.