Vice President JD Vance and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will headline the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Summit on Tuesday in Washington. The all-day event, organized by Kennedy’s allies, marks the second consecutive year the two officials have participated. They are scheduled to conclude the summit with a fireside chat discussing the movement's regulatory reform agenda and future priorities.
The summit serves as a gathering for Trump administration officials, including Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, alongside corporate executives from the health care, food, and technology sectors. Organizers previously offered speaking slots to companies and organizations for tens of thousands of dollars, according to prior reporting. Sponsors were also invited to a private dinner with speakers, including officials from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Participants from the private sector include representatives from Walmart, OpenAI, Anthropic, and health insurance providers. Scott Morris, a senior vice president at Walmart, will join a panel on nutrition featuring executives from Steak ’n Shake and Sweetgreen. Additionally, Kyle Diamantas, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), are scheduled to speak on panels regarding regulatory modernization and agency reform.
The event also features non-political figures, including former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, who will discuss the "MAHA athlete." British comedian Russell Brand, who is awaiting trial in the U.K. on charges of rape and sexual assault, is set to moderate a session with Oz. Organizers stated the event is intended to demonstrate the movement’s influence ahead of midterm elections, which could affect Kennedy’s policy goals regarding food quality and vaccination recommendations.
The scale of corporate involvement is marked by sponsorships and speaking roles for entities like Walmart and AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic. For everyday consumers, the focus on "real food at scale" and the elimination of seed oils, which Kennedy identifies as a cause of obesity, could signal future shifts in product ingredients or labeling at major retailers. If these priorities are translated into federal policy, households could see changes in the types of oils used in restaurant kitchens and processed foods found on grocery store shelves.
The summit also sets a precedent for how the MAHA movement utilizes private-sector funding to advance a specific regulatory agenda. Organizers have explicitly linked the movement's success to the upcoming midterm elections, urging supporters to vote for Republican candidates to prevent congressional oversight hearings that could be initiated by a Democratic majority. The next major steps following this summit include the trial of moderator Russell Brand in October and the anticipated FDA decision on Grail’s Galleri cancer screening test, which was discussed during the event.