For weeks now, social media has been buzzing with unflattering images of public figures, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has found himself pulled into the churn.
As social feeds fill with AI caricatures of people highlighting their professions and their hobbies, the internet’s appetite for freezing powerful people in awkward real-life moments made the political nepo kid a laughing stock online.
A very real image of Kennedy has people on the Internet cracking up, with many openly questioning what’s going on with the man currently overseeing the nation’s public health.
The photo, taken at a White House event promoting the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, shows Kennedy sitting beside President Donald Trump, both looking off to one side.
While some footage flooding timelines right now are clearly AI-generated creations designed to mock celebrities, politicians, and influencers for clicks and laughs. Everything can’t be blamed on digital trickery.
It should have been a routine political image of Trump and Kennedy sitting at a table, with a mic in 47’s face and RFK Jr. appearing to speak about his plan to make the nation healthier. Instead, a Getty photographer caught Kennedy mid-motion, freezing a moment that quickly took over timelines on X once viewers noticed what appeared to be his tongue rolling inside his mouth as Trump talked.
At first, the image circulated quietly. Then the zooming started. The focus narrowed almost immediately to Kennedy’s mouth, and the commentary followed.
“Just when you thought you seen the most disturbing picture of RFK Jr., I wonder what he’s thinking?” one person wrote.
Whatever he’s thinking it is probably unsavoury…
— mamiepoule💙🇫🇷 🇮🇪 🇨🇦 FBPE💜☘️ (@whitepatricia49) February 6, 2026
Another chimed in, “Whatever he’s thinking it is probably unsavoury.” As the image spread, the jokes escalated. One user asked, “Roadkill stuck in his teeth?”
Another referenced Kennedy’s own past health disclosure, joking, “How did the worm find its way into my mouth?” — a nod to his earlier statement that doctors once discovered a dead parasite in his brain.
One person even asked, “Just when you thought you seen the most disturbing picture of RFK Jr. I wonder what he’s thinking?”
Others piled on with comments like, “He looks like he’s trying to eat his own tongue,” before one line emerged as the most widely shared: “Digging the bear meat from his gumline.”
The May 2025 photo continues to circulate online. While much of the reaction often leans comedic, there might be a reason why his tongue was wagging.
Kennedy has previously spoken about living with spasmodic dysphonia, a rare neurological condition that affects the voice and can also cause involuntary or exaggerated movements of the mouth, tongue, and jaw, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
This wasn’t the first time Kennedy’s appearance sparked widespread discomfort online because of something that he did.
In November 2025, Gavin Newsom briefly turned his attention to Kennedy after a shoeless image of the health secretary circulated on social media. The photo, showing Kennedy’s bare feet prominently visible on a plane, was shared in response to remarks by Sean Duffy, who had criticized airline passengers for removing their shoes and placing their feet on seats.
😧 https://t.co/oeboi2KOkw pic.twitter.com/RqNfU5BmPe
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) November 24, 2025
That post triggered another wave of mockery, where people called the disgraced Kennedy family scion gross.
The resurfaced RFK Jr. image also emerged as the administration was facing criticism over a separate controversy involving an AI-generated video that was reposted and later removed.
The clip depicted former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama and his New York Times best-selling wife, Michelle Obama, with their heads superimposed on top of the bodies of monkeys in a cartoon, prompting swift backlash.
Sen. Tim Scott condemned the video, writing, “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it. https://t.co/gADoM13ssZ
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) February 6, 2026
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to downplay the reaction, calling it an internet meme and urging critics to “stop the fake outrage.”
Hours later, however, a White House official told ABC News that a staffer had “erroneously made the post.”
The RFK Jr. photo, by contrast, involved no AI, no filters, and no creative reinterpretation. It was untouched, unaltered, and entirely real.
Still, it made people say “yuck,” and once the internet decided it was gross it didn’t need any help getting there.
