What to Know
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears to take his own updated food pyramid very seriously, at least based on how he celebrated his birthday this year. On January 7, 2026, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services unveiled new nutrition guidelines, which included an inverted food pyramid that prioritizes protein. In a January 11 X post promoting RFK Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, the White House shared a dimly lit photo of Kennedy with text that read, “We are ending the war on protein.” Kennedy has also described added sugar as “poison.”
So, in many ways, when images of his birthday “cake” started circulating on social media, it felt very on brand for him.
The MAHA-coded birthday “cake” was actually just steak with candles.
The official X account of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shared a photo of RFK Jr. cutting the steak, which had three birthday candles on it. The post was captioned with, “No cake, just steak. Happy Birthday @SecKennedy! We are so grateful for your leadership and determination to Make America Healthy Again.”
Proponents of his MAHA movement seemed to love the cake alternative, but others thought he was so weird for this. “Is this a parody account?” one critic questioned. Someone else wrote, “This is the biggest joke that generations will be laughing about.”
MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN🥩
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 12, 2026
➡️https://t.co/sFEIm5WrbO pic.twitter.com/N5qiUVc4SC
Multiple people compared him to the uncle that people tend to avoid at family get-togethers. “He follows every dumb fad that’s part of the bro science podcast world,” one of them commented. “If he didn’t have that last name no one in their right mind would listen to a word he says. He’d be that crazy uncle everyone avoids at Thanksgiving.”
And once again, people questioned if RFK Jr. is really the person we want to go to for health advice. “I’ll never have what he’s having,” one person wrote. “Hey kids, if you eat great big chunks of animal flesh and nothing else, you too could look as robust and radiant as RFK,” someone else said.
No cake, just steak.
— HHS (@HHSGov) January 17, 2026
Happy Birthday @SecKennedy! We are so grateful for your leadership and determination to Make America Healthy Again. pic.twitter.com/24ft79L1tm
While some people made jokes, others concluded that it wasn’t even necessary.
“The jokes just write themselves with this clown show of a regime,” one person commented. Others didn’t hate the idea of eating steak for their birthdays, but reminisced about when they could actually afford steak. “Boy, sure would be nice to eat steak/beef as frequently as I used to,” someone said. “Too bad your boss has tariffed the crap out of it, exploded prices, and made me have to cut back on it in the budget.”
Speaking of RFK Jr.’s boss, the health secretary recently said President Donald Trump’s diet is totally “unhinged” and basically consists of McDonald’s, candy, and Diet Coke. “I don’t know how he’s alive,” RFK Jr. said of Trump’s diet while on the Katie Miller podcast. But people said the exact same thing about Kennedy when they saw his birthday “cake.”
One critic wrote, “He’s literally eating a whole steak at his ‘OLD’ age in the office of ‘HEALTH’ And Human [Services],” while another person said, “How tf is he even still alive?”
