Inside Trump and RFK Jr’s strange alliance: How weeks of negotiations orchestrated by Tucker Carlson were nearly derailed by an ‘extraordinary breach’ – and one wife’s strong disapproval

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump sparked a weeks-long courtship that led Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to abandon his presidential campaign to join forces with the former president.

Kennedy Jr. sensationally dropped out of the race to support the GOP candidatewhich led to a heated family feud and endless speculation about how the ex-Democrat formed an unusual alliance with the MAGA leader.

The idea for a partnership came to fruition after the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump. Kennedy received a call from his health care adviser, Calley Means, according to extensive new reporting from the New York Times.

The offer was tempting: Trump, like Kennedy’s father and uncle, had been gunned down at a public rally. Would Kennedy consider talking to Trump and possibly serving as his vice president?

Kennedy initially said no, saying he didn’t want the job, but eventually decided to talk to Trump about an alliance.

In the six weeks between the shooting and the suspension of Kennedy’s campaign — during which Trump chose Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate — the two sides negotiated endlessly behind the scenes.

Key players included notorious talk show host Tucker Carlson and co-campaign manager Susie Wiles.

Means brought in Carlson to help broker the deal with Trump’s side of the political spectrum. This excited Trump’s team, who discovered that Kennedy was polling as a bigger threat to Trump than Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.

Trump had already considered offering Kennedy the position of vice president in April of this year.

Carlson, Kennedy and Trump sent each other a group text message offering the opportunity to talk, which they did while the former president was hospitalized in Pennsylvania.

While Team Kennedy also considered working together, one member of RFK Jr.’s inner circle was not happy: his wife and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines.

Kennedy has publicly admitted that TMZ that his actress wife is not happy with the show of support.

However, Kennedy’s team saw their candidate fail to gain support among Democrats after Joe Biden’s disastrous debate in Georgia in late June, which ultimately led to him dropping out of the race.

Because Democrats viewed RFK Jr. as persona non grata, they felt they could only have a say in the race if they supported Trump.

Kennedy and Trump met on July 15 at the Republican National Convention, with RFK Jr. positioning himself as a public health guru, or even as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

However, the deal nearly fell through when RFK Jr.’s son posted a video on social media of a phone call between Trump and Kennedy.

Trump’s team now viewed Kennedy as a liar and a leaker and things spiraled out of control until it became clear that Kamala Harris was in on the act and posed a threat to Trump’s recapture of the White House.

Kennedy apologized and on August 12, the two met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with Wiles and Donald Trump Jr.

On August 23, Trump and Kennedy beamed onstage at a rally in Arizona, where Kennedy voiced his support.

Kennedy suspended his campaign in ten of the most competitive states, including the seven swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

He and fellow Democrat defector Tulsi Gabbard have been named honorary chairs of Trump’s transition team.

Since then, Kennedy has been busy in a desperate, and largely unsuccessful, attempt to remove himself from the ballots in key swing states.

A Michigan judge has ruled that Kennedy must remain on the presidential ballot despite his pleas to withdraw, a ruling that could hurt Donald Trump.

Kennedy wants his name removed from the ballots in states where the election is still uncertain. Some polls suggest he will steal votes from Republicans.

Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, wrote that a candidate who accepts a party’s nomination “may not withdraw.”

Kennedy has also filed a lawsuit seeking to be removed from the ballot in North Carolina, a Trump 2020 state that is emerging as a key battleground. Wisconsin rejected an earlier request to withdraw there.

The request to remove RFK Jr.’s name came after 1.7 million paper ballots had already been printed. The state said it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce new ones, and the board will begin sending out ballots by mail on Friday.

Meanwhile, his team has filed papers to get him on the ballot in Mississippi, a state where Trump is almost certain to win.

Kennedy has said he does not want to spoil the outcome and that he plans to abstain from voting in states where he “wants to hand the election to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on the most existential issues.”

If RFK Jr. ultimately fails to remove his name from the ballot in North Carolina, it could undermine his decision to suspend his candidacy in favor of the Republican candidate.

“Our polls consistently showed that I would probably hand the election to the Democrats if I stayed on the ballot in the critical states. I disagree with them on the most existential issues,” Kennedy told reporters when he announced his withdrawal last month in Phoenix, Arizona.

The dispute in North Carolina is not the only state where Kennedy has faced challenges removing his name from ballots so close to Election Day in November.

Wisconsin and Michigan also deny him permission.

“Any person who files nomination papers and is eligible to appear on the ballot may not refuse the nomination. The name of that person must appear on the ballot, except in the case of the person’s death,” according to Wisconsin election law, cited by the board that denied his request to be removed from the ballot.

However, Kennedy did successfully remove himself from the ballot box in other crucial states: Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona.