President Donald Trump is now parroting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s conspiracy that certain vaccines may lead to autism.
Trump, 79, said during a cabinet meeting Tuesday that there “has to be something artificially” spiking autism diagnoses in America, aligning his view with Kennedy, 71, who previously said the COVID-19 vaccine may be to blame for the increase.
Kennedy, who leads the Department of Health and Human Services, said he plans to announce findings that back up this long-held theory sometime in September. Trump told the Kennedy scion that he was doing a “great job” on the autism front.
“The autism is such a tremendous horror show,” Trump added.
Autism rates have increased significantly in the 21st century. Federal researchers determined in 2022 that 3 percent of all American eight-year-olds had been diagnosed with autism—up from just .66 percent in 2000, reports Reuters.
Most researchers attribute the increase to widespread screening and the inclusion of a broader range of behaviors to describe the condition, not to a vaccine-induced spike. Claims that vaccines lead to autism are not backed by science, says Dr. Paul A. Offit, a highly respected pediatric immunologist and vaccine expert who has equated vaccine conspiracies to a “whack-a-mole strategy.”
These facts have not stopped skeptics—such as Kennedy and, now, the president—from using the data to push the theory that big pharma is to blame.
Kennedy claimed in Tuesday’s meeting that the latest figures show that more than one in every 13 boys born in America is diagnosed now with autism. The figure seemed to stun Trump.
“It has gone from less than one in 10,000 in 1971 to one in 12.5 boys,” Kennedy said.
Trump, in shock, cut him off.
“Think of those numbers,” Trump said. “There has to be something artificially causing this, meaning a drug or something, and I know you’re looking very strongly at different things, and I hope you can come out with that as soon as possible.”
He continued, “Can you imagine that? One in 12, that’s for a boy. It’s not even believable that that could be, and that was one in 10,000, not so long ago. I’ve been hearing these numbers, and they get worse and worse every year. There has got to be something.”
Trump added that “I think we maybe know the reason” for the autism spike. He hinted that the administration’s official explanation will come in Kennedy’s yet-to-be-announced news conference next month.
