Jen Golbeck/SOPA/Zuma

The elites of the anti-vaccine, “medical freedom” world saw the presidential election unfold at a hotel watch party in West Palm Beach, with a giddy, rising sense of what was unfolding.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most famous anti-vaccine activist turned presidential candidate turned Trump booster, turned up at the event before heading to Mar a Lago; at the hotel, he sat alongside Del Bigtree, his campaign’s communications manager and the founder of Informed Consent Action Network, another major anti-vax group. They were joined by people like Aaron Siri, a prominent litigator who focuses on vaccine injury cases, educators who advocate for “vaccine choice” in schools, and others who have devoted their adult lives to opposing a basic tenet of public health.

“This is the biggest thing that’s ever happened in medical freedom.”

The group watched on screen as President-elect Donald Trump praised Kennedy, their longtime friend and fellow traveler. “He’s going to make America healthy again,” a glistening, freshly bronzed Trump promised in his victory remarks. From the crowd, a chorus broke out chanting: “Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!”

Trump smiled. “Go have fun, Bobby,” he said.

These are heady times for Kennedy and his anti-vaccine allies. While his own presidential campaign failed spectacularly, his choice to suspend it and endorse Trump’s has resulted in a promise from the soon-to-be-president that Kennedy will serve some role in the second Trump administration relevant to what Kennedy has called his “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

Kennedy is the founder of the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the largest such group in the nation. While he’s currently described by........

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