Trump taps RFK Jr. for a health policy job. Here's why experts are worried. And, how the U.S. bond market could upend Trump's economic plans

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🎧 “The idea of someone who has actively sowed misinformation about vaccines being in charge of the government’s scientific research and public health agencies really horrifies a lot of people in those fields,” NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin tells Up First. The Senate will have to vote to confirm Kennedy for this role. Kennedy’s campaign website says he supports abortion access. Simmons-Duffin says it will be interesting to see how that opinion plays out among Republicans who are eager to curtail abortion access federally. 

🎧 Although Trump has promised to lower inflation, bond investors believe he could do the opposite, NPR’s Rafael Nam says. Trump is proposing a wide range of tariffs that will make things that the U.S. imports like clothes, toys, shoes, and tech gadgets more expensive. He also wants to exempt workers in restaurants and other locations from paying taxes on tips. These things could make the country’s finances worse. Bond investors wield power through their money, Nam says. If the interest the U.S. pays on its bonds surges, the financial hit to the country can spread fear to other markets, like stocks. 

🎧 The meeting has two main missions: Biden wants to cement the policy cooperation he feels he has been able to achieve in this relationship and emphasize the importance of keeping the lines of communication open. NPR’s Asma Khalid says one of those lines in particular is military-to-military communication. The White House feels that competition with China is going to be the defining issue for what the world looks like in decades to come.