We get it RFK Jr: you have abs. Now enough with the slopaganda | Arwa Mahdawi

While the health secretary posts shirtless workouts and AI videos, he should be focusing on soaring cases of measles Vladimir Putin loves bombing Ukraine and taking his shirt off – not necessarily in that order. The Russian leader is well known for his macho photoshoots, including that infamous shot of him horse-riding bare-chested in Siberia. While various politicians have mocked Putin for his posing, others have been taking notes. And by others I mean Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has spent a large portion of his time in politics spamming social media with increasingly weird footage of him working out. In 2023, when Kennedy ran for president, he posted a video of himself doing shirtless push-ups in an empty car park as preparation for his debate with Joe Biden – bizarrely, he was wearing blue jeans for the stunt. Now that Kennedy is the US health secretary, the videos are coming at a faster clip. In August, he was filmed doing a workout with the secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, which they called “the Pete and Bobby challenge”. Kennedy kept his shirt on for that one, but the jeans were back. A couple of months later, this time in a suit, Kennedy did a pull-up competition in Reagan N