Donald Trump pushed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to intensify his pursuit of conspiracy theories linking autism to vaccines, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.
Kennedy, who has long promoted false conspiracy theories linking vaccines to autism and questioning their safety, had reportedly been instructed by White House officials to tone it down ahead of the 2026 midterms. But according to sources who spoke to the Journal, Trump directly questioned Kennedy about why he wasn’t pursuing more investigations into vaccines during a May lunch at one of his golf courses.
The president reportedly wants Kenendy to decrease the number of vaccines recommended for children by the Department of Health and Human Services and its downline agencies, and expects to see autism rates drop as a result. Sources also told the Journal that in a tense June meeting at the White House, Trump dressed down Kennedy for not making enough progress on the matter.
Trump himself has a long history of peddling vaccine conspiracies, which intensified during the 2024 campaign cycle as the “Make America Healthy Again,” or “MAHA,” movement began to gain a foothold within right wing politics. In 2014 he infamously tweeted that a “healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with [a] massive shot of many vaccines, doesn’t feel good and changes – AUTISM. Many such cases!” He’s continued pushing vaccine skepticism while in office, where he is in a real position to shape policy.
Even as Trump complains that his HHS secretary has failed to satisfy his standard when it comes to MAGA and MAHA’s vaccine conspiracy theories, there’s no telling how much damage Kennedy’s tenure in the federal government has had on the health of the nation — especially where vaccine preventable diseases are concerned.
According to tracking by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Medicine, confirmed cases of the measles — a deadly, vaccine preventable disease that had been effectively eradicated in the United States — have reached a three-decade high. The spike in cases has been linked directly to a rise in vaccine hesitancy throughout the United States, particularly among religious fundamentalist groups. Kennedy’s mixed messaging around the outbreak, prevention, and treatment options hasn’t helped the situation.
During his tenure, Kennedy has also moved to gut critical vaccine advisory panels (replacing them with fellow vaccine skeptics), canceled advertising campaigns promoting seasonal vaccines like the flu, inserted vaccine-skeptical language into public CDC resources, defunded programs developing mRNA vaccines, and significantly changed the childhood vaccine schedule while skipping the standard expert reviews and evaluations that usually undergird such changes.
In May, around the same time he was reportedly chewing out Kennedy for not finding his desired link between vaccines and autism, Trump issued an executive order calling for American children to receive fewer vaccines, and mandating federal health agencies review their policies. At the end of the day, if Kennedy won’t deliver for him, Trump has repeatedly shown himself willing to circumvent his own advisers and do it himself.
