RFK Jr.’s Most Surprising Ally is the LA Times Owner. Here’s Why.

One of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s most devoted cheerleaders, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, may have an ulterior motive for supporting the vaccine skeptic’s nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a new report from The American Prospect.

Soon-Shiong has seemingly gone out of his way to boost Kennedy’s bid to head the U.S. health agencies.

In December, Soon-Shiong reportedly blocked the publication of an op-ed criticizing Trump’s Cabinet choices, including Kennedy, TAP reported.

Last week, LA Times contributor Eric Reinhert accused the legacy newspaper of making significant edits to a piece of his that was largely critical of Kennedy, recasting his warning about Trump’s pick to head HHS with a more optimistic tone. The edited version suggested that the virulent anti-vaccine advocate could help assuage the American public’s poor opinion of the health care industry. The New Republic published the original version of Reinhert’s piece here.

When Kennedy’s nomination was narrowly advanced on Tuesday, Soon-Shiong posted on X to cheer him on. “Yay!!!! The transformation of healthcare begins,” he wrote.

But it looks like the billionaire scientist’s support is ultimately self-serving. As Kennedy’s confirmation advances, ImmunityBio, Soon-Shiong’s biotech firm, has three pending drug applications in front of the Food and Drug Administration.

Soon-Shiong founded ImmunityBio in 2014, just four years before he bought the LA Times. The firm’s first commercial drug, Anktiva, which treats a form of bladder cancer, hit the market last April after it was initially rejected the year before. The snafu led Soon-Shiong to infuse an additional $400 million into the company to keep things moving, according to the LA Business Journal.

By ensuring his new buddy secures the position overseeing the FDA, Soon-Shiong can possibly avoid hitting the same expensive snag a second, third, and fourth time.

Soon-Shiong is listed as ImmunityBio’s executive chairman and global chief medical and scientific officer, and in December, his ownership share of the company was around 80 percent.

The far right, including Elon Musk, are pushing a conspiracy theory that the U.S. Agency for International Development secretly funds several mainstream media outlets, including Politico, the Associated Press, and The New York Times.

The conspiracy hatched on Tuesday after a technical glitch prevented Politico’s employees from receiving their paychecks. MAGA influencers, including Benny Johnson, Dana Loesch, and Rob Smith, all saw this as a direct result of Donald Trump suspending USAID’s programs. Johnson fueled the unfounded belief by posting screenshots from USASpending.gov showing that the federal government paid Politico $8.2 million last year, and wrongly assumed that it all came from USAID.

However, in reality, that money appears to come from Politico Pro subscriptions, which are targeted at business executives, lobbyists, and government workers, and cost more than $10,000 each. It also was the total amount of money from all government agencies, not just USAID. The service tracks legislation, votes, and lawsuits, and includes niche reporting and analysis about news from within the federal government.

Right-wing commentators then found what they claimed was evidence that USAID funneled money to the Associated Press, although much of that is due to syndication agreements between the AP and government media outlets such as Voice of America.

Ian Miles Cheong then got in on the conspiracy-mongering, posting screenshots claiming that The New York Times is being funded by the U.S. government, prompting Musk to post, “NYT is government-funded media.” The right-wing panic quickly made its way to the floor of Congress, where Representative Lauren Boebert falsely claimed during a hearing that Politico was laying off staff due to USAID’s funding being cut.

Even the Trump administration weighed in, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters at a briefing that she “can confirm that the more than eight million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayer’s dime will no longer be happening.”

“The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now,” Leavitt said.

As ludicrous as this false narrative is, the right is not likely to listen to evidence that goes against its “findings,” especially as media outlets continue to report news from the Trump administration that it dislikes. The expenditures it is decrying are a tiny fraction of the trillions of dollars in the federal budget, and go toward subscriptions and advertising. But all the right sees is an excuse to go after the media outlets that criticize it, even if some conservatives, like Johnson, took money from the Russian government.

After a horrific start to his tenure, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has decided that our aviation system needs Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE’s help.

“Big News–Talked to the DOGE team. They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system,” Duffy wrote Wednesday on X.

“With the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the @DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system,” Musk replied. “Just a few days ago, the FAA’s primary aircraft safety notification system failed for several hours!”

The United States is now getting aviation safety consultations from the adolescent minions of a man whose cybertruck is a death trap and whose rockets often explode. That’s not to mention the Teslas regularly crashing and erupting in flames.

Duffy faces a populace that is shaken after the devastating crash near Reagan National Airport, thanks in part to an aviation system that is outdated and understaffed. We can only hope, for all of our sakes, that Elon isn’t letting a bunch of recent college graduates handle these “rapid safety upgrades.”

Donald Trump has found the perfect person to say if Elon Musk has conflicts of interest: Elon Musk. 

During a White House press briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked what steps the Trump administration was taking to address the conflicts of interest that arise from the billionaire technocrat serving as a “special government employee” heading the Department of Government Efficiency. 

It seems that it’s up to Musk to decide. 

“The president was already asked, and answered the question this week. He said that if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts,” Leavitt said. 

Leavitt insisted that Musk had “abided by all applicable laws,” which has become the company line about the unelected bureaucrat currently rifling through the private information of federal employees. 

Based on Leavitt’s non-answer, it seems that Musk’s approach to conflicts of interest will be based solely on the honor system, and he will receive no ethics oversight for his dealings with DOGE. 

Earlier this week, Trump said that Musk was given access “only to letting people go that he thinks that are no good,”  and to get rid of certain “groups” and “numbers,” weaving into his outlandish lie about uncovering government spending on condoms for Gaza. “Elon can’t do, and won’t do anything without our approval,” Trump eventually said. Well, that’s comforting. 

Ethics experts have raised concerns over Musk’s dual status as a federal employee and CEO of SpaceX. As a federal employee, he is legally required to recuse himself from any decision that can benefit his financial interests. Meanwhile, he has raked in billions in unclassified prime revenue from the U.S. government in the last year alone. 

The CIA may have just doxxed itself.

The New York Times is reporting that the Central Intelligence Agency, complying with Trump’s attempts to purge the federal government, sent his administration an unclassified email containing a list of every single person the CIA had hired over the past two years. Security experts everywhere are alarmed at the news, as many of those named closely monitor U.S. adversaries like Russia and China—and could soon become targets because of it.

The list, which was sent to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, contained names of operatives whose identities are typically guarded. It’s not clear how many names were in the email.

“Exposing the identities of officials who do extremely sensitive work would put a direct target on their backs for China,” Democratic Senator Mark Warner wrote on X. “A disastrous national security development.”

A former CIA officer described the email as a “counterintelligence disaster.” This comes as Trump offered CIA employees an unauthorized “buyout” in return for their resignations.