RFK Jr. Calls Out King Abdullah: ‘They’ve Cut Us Off’

It’s a rare moment today in American politics that Donald Trump’s West Wing, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi are on the same side of an issue. And it’s rarer still that each of these parties is irritated at the same person.

Yet as Jordan’s King Abdullah II returns to Washington on Monday, top Trump aides, Kennedy, and Pelosi are venting their frustration with one of the Middle East’s longest-serving monarchs.

At issue: the commitment Abdullah made in February sitting by Trump’s side in the Oval Office to accept 2,000 children from Gaza with cancer and other grave illnesses.

Abdullah, say multiple high-ranking officials in both parties, is slow-walking his pledge, and Jordan has only accepted a fraction of sick children because of fears Israel will not let them and their families return to Gaza after treatment.

“They took 44, and then they’ve cut us off,” Kennedy told me over the weekend.

Alluding to Abdullah, an adviser and ally to American presidents for over a quarter-century, Kennedy said: “I would encourage him to put the welfare of these children first and put the politics aside.”

The health secretary pointedly recalled that the king’s “statements to President Trump were really unconditional.” Kennedy repeatedly emphasized the life-and-death urgency of the patients. “These kids are very, very fragile,” he said.

A top West Wing official involved in the discussions was even more to the point, calling Jordan’s reluctance to fully fulfill their pledge “a sad commentary” and that “the war makes things difficult for obvious reasons.”

Pelosi, who has a longstanding friendship with Abdullah, took matters into her own hands last week and had a blunt, private conversation with Jordan’s ambassador to the U.S, Dina Kawar. Kawar told Pelosi that Abdullah’s pledge was contingent on Israel allowing those children who’ve finished treatment to return to Gaza and suggested the former speaker talk to the king, I’m told by a person familiar with the conversation.

Pelosi has been closely monitoring the evacuation of the children since it began under former President Joe Biden, and one of her advisers emphasized that she has “the highest regard” for Abdullah and that other countries, including Israel, must do their part for the children.

A spokesperson at the Jordanian embassy declined to comment. However, the line the ambassador conveyed to Pelosi — that they can’t continue admitting children without assurances that they’ll be allowed back to their war-torn home — has also been delivered to Trump aides.

As Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza and block humanitarian aid, the politics of even helping cancer-stricken children has grown complicated for Arab countries.

The Gaza children — some only “holding on by a thread,” as Kennedy said — have sadly become pawns.

This has only deepened the exasperation of American officials, who were already alarmed by how few Gazan children the Jordanians had taken and are now irritated about being told the original pledge was conditional.

As Kennedy pointed out, the king was unambiguous when he made his pronouncement in the White House: “One of the things that we can do right away is take 2,000 children that are either cancer children or in a very ill state to Jordan as quickly as possible,” Abdullah said on Feb 11.

The president immediately sought to highlight the pledge, quieting reporters in the Oval Office to underscore the moment with surprise and Trumpian flourish.

“I didn’t know that, what you just said, 2,000 children with cancer or other problems — and that’s really a beautiful gesture, that’s really good, and we appreciate it,” said Trump, with a touch of wonder.

The meeting between the two heads of state was mostly remembered for Trump’s insistence that the U.S. should control Gaza after the war. Yet for the Americans who’ve been working on retrieving sick children from the devastated region, Abdullah’s commitment was momentous. And the lack of follow-through has been maddening.

There have been vanishingly few initiatives that have survived from Biden’s administration to the Trump administration. Yet the multi-national, multi-agency effort by the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the World Health Organization to move sick children from Gaza to hospitals in other parts of the world has continued.

That’s in part because of Kennedy’s behind-the-scenes work, which began before he was even confirmed to lead the Health and Human Services Department.

The health secretary, who had no previous government experience, said after the election he first talked to Ron Dermer, one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest advisers, about the sick children.

“It was very opaque because there were so many different institutions involved,” said Kennedy, adding: “It appeared that Egypt may take them, but then they cut it off.”

Matters were also complicated when Elon Musk decided to eviscerate USAID, the humanitarian agency, at the outset of Trump’s administration. But Kennedy insisted that did not impede their progress.

“I went to the president very early on, after the inauguration, and he said that he wanted to get involved and wanted to get the kids out,” the secretary recalled. Trump linked Kennedy to Steve Witkoff, the developer and Trump confidante who has also become involved in this project while also attempting to forge peace agreements in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Kennedy said he then contacted Secretary of State Marco Rubio to loop in State, which has absorbed what was USAID.

“I called Marco to make sure USAID people who were involved in this would not be terminated,” said the health secretary.

Rubio has been fully briefed on Jordan’s pledge and the lack of progress and, along with Witkoff, is expected to meet with Abdullah in Washington on Monday, I’m told.

Kennedy is not in touch with Pelosi, but he said that “a very beautiful part of this is we’re working together, Republicans and Democrats, to make this happen.”

And then, perhaps with an eye on Abdullah’s meetings this week with Trump officials, Kennedy emphasized again that “President Trump is really committed” to evacuating the sick children.