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stated on December 8, 2024 in a post:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on X that on Jan. 20, “I will be banning all consumption of Diet Coke in the United States.”

By Sara Swann December 9, 2024

No, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t post about banning Diet Coke

If Your Time is short

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Department of Health and Human Services secretary, did not post on X vowing to ban Diet Coke.
The post came from an X account parodying Kennedy.

See the sources for this fact-check

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has vowed to "make America healthy again." But does that include outlawing a popular soda brand?

No, but a Dec. 8 Instagram post made it seem so, sharing a screenshot of a supposed X post from Kennedy that read, "BREAKING: Effective January 20th, I will be BANNING all consumption of Diet Coke in the United States."

Other Instagram and Threads posts also shared this supposed announcement from Kennedy. These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

(Screenshot from Instagram)

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Although Kennedy has expressed his distaste for soda and processed foods, he didn’t post on X about banning Diet Coke. We searched Kennedy’s official X account, @RobertKennedyJr, and found no mentions of "Diet Coke."

The Diet Coke ban post came from an X account parodying Kennedy. The account, @RFKJrHealthSec, has the same profile and cover photos as Kennedy’s real account. Its display name says, "Robert F. Kennedy Jr - Health Secretary Parody." But on mobile devices, the full name is not visible, so the word "parody" gets cut off.

The parody account has posted multiple times on X about foods or businesses being banned. Its Dec. 4 post about a Diet Coke ban received 9.5 million views as of Dec. 9.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., shared the post Dec. 5, along with a photo of a Diet Coke can with text underneath that read, "Come and take it."

Dingell spokesperson Michaela Johnson told PolitiFact that Dingell knew the post came from a parody account, which is why she responded with a joke.

Facebook posts

stated on November 13, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook

Elon Musk anunció que “está comprando oficialmente McDonald's”.

During his first administration, Trump was known for drinking as many as 12 Diet Cokes a day. Trump also had a button to call for a Diet Coke on his desk in the Oval Office.

In a Nov. 9 interview with marketing industry podcaster Joe Polish, Kennedy criticized Trump’s diet on the campaign trail.

"The stuff that (Trump) eats is really, like, bad," Kennedy said. "Campaign food is always bad, but the food that goes on to that airplane is, like, just poison."

Kennedy also said Ultimate Fighting Champion CEO Dana White once told him he’d watched hourslong fights with Trump and "has never seen Trump drink a glass of water."

But Kennedy didn’t say he would ban Trump’s favored drink.

We rate the claim that Kennedy posted on X that on Jan. 20, "I will be banning all consumption of Diet Coke in the United States" False.