With his campaign floundering, RFK Jr. has started the process that was teased earlier in the week of dropping out of the race.

The independent US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has filed paperwork to withdraw from presidential ballots in the state of Arizona, the Arizona secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, said.

The withdrawal came as Kennedy was set to address the nation on Friday in Arizona amid reports that his presidential ambitions are coming to a close, with falling numbers both in fundraising and in the polls.

A Super Pac supporting Kennedy told Reuters on Wednesday that Kennedy wanted a deal with Donald Trump in which he endorsed his Republican rival in exchange for a job in a potential Trump administration.

Trump told CNN this week he would “certainly be open” to Kennedy playing a role in his administration if the independent candidate dropped out of the race and endorsed him.

The Kennedy and Trump campaigns are reported to have been in discussions for several weeks. “It would be so good for [me] and so good for you,” Trump said in a recorded phone call to the former Democrat last month.

Kennedy also reached out to the Kamala Harris campaign last week to discuss dropping out of the race and endorsing the Democratic candidate in exchange for a job in her administration, according to multiple reports. Harris did reportedly not respond.

The actual timing of today has likely been chosen in conjunction with the campaign of creepy Trump to take attention away from what seemed to be a smooth Democratic convention. That is a well-established tactic. But this announcement is going to be just a blip in the news cycle since RFK Jr.’s support was dwindling rapidly. This is completely unlike the blockbuster announcement by Joe Biden that he was quitting. That was a trifecta, simultaneously wiping out the news of the Republican convention, creepy Trump getting shot (remember that?), and the choice of weird JD Vance as his running mate.

Why anyone other than a toxic character like creepy Donald Trump would offer this toxic character a job in their administration is hard to conceive. He was clearly courting creepy Trump, as seen by his refusal to answer a reporter’s questions about creepy Trump and climate change.

He has used his early work as an environmental lawyer to get support among young people, and his anti-vax, anti-semitic conspiracist thinking attracted some in the MAGA-adjacent camp. What the relative sizes of those two groups are is unclear. Only some of the former are likely to drift towards the Harris-Walz campaign while the latter will likely go towards creepy Trump. Creepy Trump likely gains by this move, which is why he seems to have been courting him. But a significant number could decide to sit out this election since their support of RFK Jr., an unappealing candidate in so many ways, shows the depth of their displeasure with the two main parties and that may be hard for them to overcome.