Vice President JD Vance stepped behind the White House press briefing podium on Thursday, filling in for former Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has departed the role. The administration says it will rotate staff through the position until President Donald Trump names a permanent replacement.
Vance fielded questions on healthcare policy and concerns raised by the wife of a slain airman, but one exchange with Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy drew particular attention. “You’ve lost a ton of weight lately,” Doocy said. “How much sauerkraut do you eat every day?”
Vance laughed and explained that his weight loss came without medication. He said he originally planned to give up sugar and social media for Lent, but a call to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. changed his approach entirely.
According to Vance, Kennedy told him he had something “way more intense” in mind and put him on a high-protein diet heavy on sauerkraut. “Let’s just say if that was Fat Tuesday, Fat Wednesday never came,” Vance said.
He summed up his takeaway with a joke: “So my advice to you is, if you want to lose weight, call Bobby Kennedy. But if you want to enjoy what you eat, do not call Bobby Kennedy.”
Kennedy Pulls Rubio Into the Joke
Kennedy responded to Vance’s remarks with an AI-generated image showing himself feeding Vance sauerkraut while Secretary of State Marco Rubio looked on holding a Pop-Tart. “Join the party, @SecRubio,” Kennedy wrote.
The jab referenced comments Rubio made last month on Katie Miller’s podcast, where he first revealed Kennedy’s devotion to sauerkraut. Rubio said the diet wasn’t for him, calling it “not sustainable,” and joked that he wasn’t hauling coolers of the fermented cabbage around the way Kennedy does, calling that “ridiculous.”
When Miller asked whether Rubio considered himself part of the Make America Healthy Again movement, he said he supported it in principle. His wife, however, interjected to say he does not actually follow the eating habits associated with the movement, noting that he eats Pop-Tarts. Rubio defended the snack as one of “man’s great innovations in the history of the world,” pointing to its “beautiful foil package.” His wife was unmoved, saying he eats “all the things he should not be eating. Every single thing.”
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