RFK Jr received $4m in book advances from MAHA allies, ethics filings show

US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr received $4m in book advances from allies within the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement over the past year, according to ethics disclosures reported on Wednesday.

The payments were two advances of $2m apiece from Skyhorse Publishing for upcoming books, one of them titled “Unsettled Science”, a play on the term “settled science”, NPR reported on 22 September. Skyhorse is owned by Tony Lyons, a friend of Kennedy who serves as president of the MAHA Center nonprofit; the publisher previously issued his books “The Real Anthony Fauci” and “The Wuhan Cover-Up”.

The advances sit uncomfortably alongside a pledge Kennedy made in a 2024 ethics filing: “I will not engage in writing, editing, marketing or promotional services for any of these books during government service.”

The filings also show more than a quarter of a million dollars in gifts from Gavin de Becker, a celebrity security consultant and long-time friend — including $126,500 worth of housing at a vacation home he owns, nearly $45,000 in roundtrip airfare to Greece and nearly $97,000 to Fiji. De Becker said he has nothing to do with the health department; his own book, “Forbidden Facts”, was published by Skyhorse.

“Those are large amounts of money for a government’s public servant to receive while he is, you know, in office,” Virginia Canter of the anti-corruption nonprofit Democracy Defenders Fund told NPR.

Sources

• The Guardian, “RFK Jr received $4m in book advances from MAHA allies, report says”, 23 Sept 2026 — https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/23/rfk-jr-maha-book-advances
• NPR (Sydney Lupkin), “RFK Jr.’s ethics disclosure reveals free travel and hefty book advances”, 22 Sept 2026 — https://www.publicradioeast.org/2026-09-22/rfk-jr-s-ethics-disclosure-reveals-free-travel-and-hefty-book-advances