Mike Huckabee Is Peddling Sleep Supplements While Serving as Ambassador to Israel

Mike Huckabee remains a paid pitchman for the Florida-based American Behavioral Research Institute — makers of the Relaxium dietary supplement pill — even as he simultaneously serves as President Donald Trump’s U.S. ambassador to Israel, one of the world’s highest-profile diplomatic posts.

Huckabee’s unusual arrangement that allows him to profit from hawking the sleep pills coincides with recent government scrutiny of Relaxium’s manufacturer, which describes the product as containing a “carefully formulated blend of drug-free ingredients known for their sleep-inducing and calming properties.”

In the bleary-eyed hours of several Washington nights, Huckabee’s face flickered across local television screens during commercial breaks for “Highlander,” “Renegade” and “Star Trek: Enterprise.”

“I trust Relaxium Sleep, and so should you,” he told Heroes & Icons network viewers earlier this month as an American flag flapped in the background. “Get the best night of sleep, guaranteed. Don’t wait another minute. Call now.”

Huckabee’s ties to Relaxium don’t end with television commercials.

Up until this weekend, Huckabee’s voice was on the other end of the phone, guiding callers through prompts for purchasing Relaxium.

“Press ‘1’ to place an order and trust your night to Relaxium Sleep like I’ve been doing for more than three years now,” Huckabee says.

The sleep supplement’s website homepage also featured a video of Huckabee — next to a similar video from conservative media personality Bill O’Reilly — praising Relaxium as something that’s “changed my life.”

Shortly after NOTUS last week contacted the American Behavioral Research Institute about its Relaxium business relationship with Huckabee, both the Huckabee video and phone recordings disappeared. (As of Tuesday, versions of the Huckabee video remained on Relaxium’s Facebook and Vimeo pages.)

A screenshot of the sleep supplement’s website, featuring Bill O’Reilly and Huckabee.

While the American Behavioral Research Institute acknowledged in an email NOTUS’ requests for comment, it did not respond to a series of written questions or follow-up inquiries.

In the year prior to his nomination in February as ambassador to Israel, the makers of Relaxium paid Huckabee $414,683 for “spokesman endorsement fees,” according to a personal financial disclosure statement Huckabee filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

Huckabee separately disclosed that he “anticipated” he’d receive “residual payments for advertising” from Relaxium’s makers. The value of these anticipated payments is “not readily ascertainable,” Huckabee told the Office of Government Ethics upon his nomination to serve as ambassador to Israel, a post to which the U.S. Senate confirmed him in April in a 53-46 vote.

In an unsigned statement to NOTUS, the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem noted that Huckabee’s Relaxium television advertisement that aired this month was created before Huckabee became an ambassador and does not identify him as such.

The ambassador has “no legal right” to ask American Behavioral Research Institute to stop using him in Relaxium promotions, per a name, image and likeness agreement Huckabee signed, and Huckabee “does not own or control that content,” the embassy said.

Indeed, Huckabee affirmed in a seven-page ethics agreement filed in March with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics: “I have licensed my name, image, and likeness. I will not enter any new licenses during my appointment to the position of ambassador. However, I will continue to get paid for previous licenses.”

While Huckabee this year agreed to certain financial limitations and divested of some personal assets to avoid conflicts of interest, including stock in Amazon, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, Warner Brothers Discovery and Wells Fargo, he has continued to financially profit from other private ventures, including the Huckabee Post, a pro-Trump news site on Substack that his adult son now operates, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.

Asked if Huckabee continues to support Relaxium, the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem said Huckabee “used the product every night and has for several years that pre-dated his being a spokesperson by at least two years.”

As to whether Huckabee harbors any concern that his Relaxium endorsements conflict with his current governmental work, the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem replied, “No. Ambassadors need to sleep, too.”

In April, the Food and Drug Administration under Trump formally warned the American Behavioral Research Institute of “objectionable conditions” observed during a Relaxium-related inspection. The FDA, which declined comment last week, further accused the company in April of failing to “adhere to the applicable statutory requirements” governing “clinical investigations and the protection of human subjects.”

In 2023, the American Behavioral Research Institute also paid a $925,000 court-ordered judgment stemming from a complaint by several California district attorney offices that accused the company of failing to properly notify Relaxium customers that their trial subscriptions would automatically renew.

The embassy did not answer a question about whether Huckabee is concerned about the FDA’s warning letter to American Behavioral Research Institute.

The Code of Federal Regulations states, generally, that a federal employee “may not use their public office for their own private gain” or “for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise.”

But the code is largely silent on a specific scenario akin to that of Huckabee and Relaxium, where Huckabee is not identified in promotions by his current title — he’s introduced instead as a “2016 presidential candidate” — and there’s no overt mention of his current governmental service.

The Office of Government Ethics, which oversees ethical standards for the executive branch, declined to comment on Huckabee’s personal finances.

But told of Huckabee’s continued association with Relaxium, former Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub, who served in that role during President Barack Obama’s second term and Trump’s first term, offered a brief response.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Shaub said. “These people.”

Peter Loge, director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at The George Washington University, took a similarly dim view of Huckabee peddling Relaxium while serving his country.

“Government officials should not, and should not appear to be, endorsing a commercial product. Full stop,” Loge said. “This could easily lead one to believe that Ambassador Huckabee is in public service for private gain.”

Huckabee’s brief tenure as Trump’s envoy to Israel has been marked by constant diplomatic turbulence: Israel’s U.S.-backed war against Hamas in Gaza, Houthi rebels in Yemen attacking Israeli shipping, Israel and the United States bombing Iran, which prompted retaliatory strikes that sent U.S. personnel in Israel scrambling into bunkers.

Huckabee has endured political tumult, too, as news broke this month that he secretly met this summer at the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem with Jonathan J. Pollard, an American who spent three decades in federal prison after being convicted of spying for Israel, including giving Israel classified U.S. documents. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt last week affirmed Trump’s support for Huckabee, saying, “the president stands by our ambassador.”

Huckabee is next scheduled to file a personal financial disclosure with the Office of Government Ethics in May. It would publicly disclose his financial activity during 2025 and detail business relationships he’s maintained throughout his public service. But Huckabee is legally entitled to a 90-day filing extension for an annual financial disclosure, which, if executed, would push the release of such information into August.

Asked if Huckabee is at this moment receiving payments for his Relaxium endorsements, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem demurred.

“If so,” the embassy said, “they will be listed in annual financial reports.”

Loge argued that Huckabee bears a greater ethical responsibility than that.

“No one forces anyone to go into public service,” he said. “If Huckabee, or anyone, is not willing to bear the cost of public service, you should decline the honor.”