RFK Jr. and Arnold Schwarzenegger Hit Gold's Gym While Family Feud Intensifies

There’s something almost darkly comedic about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posting a gym selfie with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the midst of one of the most fractured family political moments in recent memory. On Thursday, May 14, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services—and controversial Trump cabinet member—shared a photo from Gold’s Gym in Venice showing him and the 78-year-old action star smiling for the camera during what he called“Senior’s Day.”The caption was simple:“Senior’s Day, Gold’s Gym in Venice.”

What makes the timing particularly loaded is the backdrop of escalating tension between RFK Jr. and his own Kennedy family. His anti-vaccination stance as the nation’s top health official has drawn fierce pushback from multiple family members, who issued a statement in October 203 denouncing his failed 2024 presidential campaign as dangerous and contrary to the values their father represented. The statement from Rory, Kerry, Joseph, and Kathleen Kennedy was blunt: Bobby might share the Kennedy name, but he doesn’t share their values or judgment.

The gym photo becomes even more pointed given that Maria Shriver—Schwarzenegger’s ex-wife and RFK Jr.’s cousin—has been one of his most vocal critics. Shriver, who was married to Schwarzenegger from 1986 until their separation in 2011 (divorce finalized in 2021), has repeatedly condemned both RFK Jr. and President Trump. She’s spoken out about Trump’s decision to rename the Kennedy Center the Trump-Kennedy Center, called for better presidential conduct during his feud with Pope Leo XIV amid the ongoing war in Iran, and in an April 2026 interview acknowledged her family’s“tumultuous relationships”amid their many political differences.

Yet here’s RFK Jr., 72, seemingly unbothered, sweating it out with the Terminator while his family publicly distances itself from his political direction and controversial health positions. The image itself is innocuous—two men at the gym. But in the context of Kennedy family fracture lines and Trump administration controversies, it reads as a statement of sorts: a reminder that political disagreement doesn’t necessarily mean personal estrangement, or perhaps a subtle thumbing of the nose at the public disapproval from his relatives.

Shriver told People in April that her father Sargent Shriver raised the family to value“family loyalty”despite bringing people of different faiths, political parties, and backgrounds to the table. Whether that principle is holding up while RFK Jr. serves as the nation’s top health official remains an open question—especially as he continues to make headlines both in his cabinet role and in his public life.