The evolving relationship between former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and GOP nominee Donald Trump has been nothing if not interesting. They are both big controversial personalities whose views and policies wouldn’t necessarily make you think they’d become allies—but that’s exactly what’s happened.
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RFK Jr. dropped out of the race in August, threw his support behind Trump, and has been campaigning hard for him ever since. The son of the late Bobby Kennedy is usually serious in his appearances and talks about his causes with commitment and gravity, whether you’re on board with him on each and every one of them or not.
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But at a Saturday campaign appearance at the Arizona Christian University in Glendale with former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Kennedy was downright funny as he described a plane ride with Trump years ago. Reminiscing about his early relationship with Trump, he admitted it wasn’t always so friendly :
On two occasions, I sued him. [Audience laughs.]
He was trying to build golf courses up in the New York City Reservoir watershed. And I sued him successfully to stop that.
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But then things took a different turn:
At one point, my wife at that time had been trying to find… she wanted to go to Palm Beach for the weekend to see my mom over Easter, and I said I, you know, I didn’t want to buy tickets for all the kids.
And she said, what if I find a free ride? I said OK. I didn’t think she was gonna do it, but then she said I found a free ride, and I said, “Who?”
And she said Donald Trump—and I said, I’m suing him! [Audience breaks into laughter.]
But here’s where Trump’s real nature came through—he didn’t care.
Then she said, he told me he knows you’re suing him, but it’s OK anyway…
I had a great time. [Pause.]
I still sued him. [Audience erupts.]
I found that to be a laugh-out-loud story, and one that shows that political adversaries can still be cordial. Would that still be possible today given the left’s insanely divisive political rhetoric? I don’t know, but RFK Jr. and Trump seem to have forged an unlikely bond. Their conversation about religion and God was especially profound:
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After the night that he called me after he got shot and, Butler, one of the first things he said to me, he said, you know, are you a religious person? And I said well, you know, I have a deep belief in God. The spirituality which is the central organizing force in my life.
And he said, you know, I think I believe in that too now.