Social Media Reacts To RFK Jr.’s Bizarre Steak ‘N Shake Endorsement

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Sean Hannitypaid a visit to a New York City Steak ’n Shake on Monday night and it’s leaving a strange taste in the mouths of some social media users.

The fast food chain recently announced it would stop cooking its French fries in vegetable oil and use beef tallow instead.

That pleased the Health and Human Services secretary, who is promoting the use of tallow over seed oils, like canola or sunflower oil, that are common in processed foods.

“We want to do everything that we can to incentivize these companies to be transparent, to switch over from ultra-processed food, and to be part of this movement to make America healthier,” Kennedy told Hannity, according to Fox News.

Nutrition experts have pushed back against Kennedy’s claims about seed oils and tallow. The American Heart Association says that seed oils, which contain polyunsaturated fats that can help bring down cholesterol, are fine to consume.

Kennedy and Hannity’s visit to a Steak ’n Shake was under the guise of reporting a news trend, but viewers could be forgiven if it seemed more like they were paid endorsers for the burger chain.

“People are raving about these French fries,” Kennedy said at one point while Hannity exclaimed, “They’re amazing. They really are.”

Naturally, the chain’s social media team took advantage of the endorsement, first by thanking RFK Jr. for the visit in one post and turning his name into a verb in another.

“RFK’ing the fries!” the brand wrote.

The burger chain also seemed to directly court “MAGA-lomaniacs” by responding to a tweet from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) with “Making Fries Taste Great Again!”

Naturally, people on social media had a lot to say.

“I’ve never seen anything like this from a major politician in the West,” one user wrote. Another commented on how it seemed odd for Kennedy to be touting fast food at all.

“I promise you the path to better health is not eating burger and fries cooked in a different type of oil let’s be the least amount of for real here,” Heatmap reporter Matthew Zeitlin offered.

You can see the Steak ’n Shake visit in the video below, but it’s not the only thing that has people beefing.

Kennedy also made some wild claims about the link between measles, diet and exercise in an interview last week, and appears to not be taking a recent outbreak of the disease seriously.