Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blocked the author on Twitter (now X) this week, following a profane response to a post in which Kennedy celebrated his wedding anniversary with actor Cheryl Hines.

The incident occurred as clips from Kennedy's CNN interview with Dana Bash were circulating widely online. In that interview, Kennedy made claims about COVID-19 that Bash challenged. The author described feeling angered by Kennedy's remarks, citing the collective memory of the pandemic — New Yorkers applauding frontline medical workers from apartment balconies, and freezer trucks stationed outside hospitals when morgues exceeded capacity.

Kennedy was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services in February 2025, placing his social media activity in the context of a cabinet-level official responsible for federal public health communication.

Hines, who married Kennedy in 2014, has drawn public criticism for her support of her husband's political positions despite his family's well-documented estrangement from him. Photographs from the White House Correspondents' Dinner earlier this year showed Kennedy moving away from Hines during a shooting incident at the event.

Kennedy's personal life has also come under scrutiny. In 2024, it was revealed that journalist Olivia Nuzzi, who had covered Kennedy's campaign, had engaged in a personal relationship with him. Kennedy's second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, died by suicide in 2012. Kennedy had publicly disclosed details of a prior affair, contributing to the turmoil in that marriage.

The author noted that Hines also blocked them on social media. Additionally, Katie Miller, wife of Trump advisor Stephen Miller, blocked the author approximately one week prior.

Donald Trump has had the author blocked for approximately 11 years, dating back to August 28, 2014, when Trump was still a private citizen and prospective candidate. The author was ultimately not unblocked when Trump was compelled to lift blocks on critics in early 2017.

The author is also blocked by the three adult Trump children — Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric — a distinction they refer to as the "Blocked By Trump" Quadfecta. Tiffany Trump has not blocked them. Ric Grenell, who served as Director of National Intelligence during Trump's first term, blocked the author in 2017.

The practice of government officials blocking constituents on social media was addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lindke v. Freed, a March 2024 unanimous decision that established a two-part test: public officials cannot block critics on social media when they have actual authority to speak on behalf of the state on a particular matter and purport to exercise that authority in specific posts, absent a genuine threat.

The principle first gained national attention in 2017, when the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University sued then-President Trump, arguing he could not block users from his Twitter account because it functioned as a public forum. Trump complied with the ruling for most accounts but reportedly refused to unblock the author.

A broader list of officials and figures who have blocked the author includes:

• Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought
• White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino
• Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon (both personal accounts)
• Kari Lake, Senior Advisor to the Agency for Global Media (both personal accounts)
• Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ)
• Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY)

Additional blocks have come from Trump-adjacent figures including Sebastian Gorka, Dan Bongino, Jason Miller, and Grenell.

The author argued that changes to X's algorithms under owner Elon Musk's leadership — who acquired the platform in October 2022 and rebranded it the following year — have suppressed liberal-leaning accounts while enabling the proliferation of automated accounts spreading disinformation.

The author described the blocks as evidence that their commentary has been effective, stating that they have used their platform daily to challenge Trump and his allies. They noted that while government officials blocking critics raises First Amendment concerns, they themselves also block accounts engaged in harassment.

"I got under Trump's thin skin when he was a candidate," the author wrote, "and I've used my voice every day since to tell the truth about him and every last one of his co-conspirators."