It was perhaps the most outrageous of the claims Trump made during a more than hour-long press conference attended by an AFP reporter – but it was far from the last.
“The Amish, as an example. They have essentially no autism,” Trump said of the traditionalist people, known for their horse-drawn carts and rejection of modern technology.
Turning to his vaccine-sceptic Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy jnr, as he asked whether that was actually true, Trump added: “Bobby wants to be very careful with what he says. I’m not so careful with what I say.”
Time and again, the 79-year-old Trump admitted that his personal theories were just that – theories – even as he cast himself in the role of America’s physician-in-chief.
“This is based on what I feel,” said Trump as he repeated long-debunked concerns over the MMR shot combining vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella.
Trump also urged further spacing for childhood vaccines that have been the cornerstone of public health programmes around the world for decades – before adding: “I’m not a doctor but I’m giving my opinion”.
‘Tough it out’
The billionaire former reality TV star has long made his name challenging the conventional wisdom on politics and diplomacy, and it has won him two elections.
But it is on health where his views have often veered furthest from the mainstream.
During the Covid pandemic, Trump repeatedly resisted lockdowns and masking measures, while throwing his weight behind unproven drugs like hydroxychloroquine.
He was widely mocked when, during one of his many freewheeling White House briefings on Covid in 2020, he gave some increasingly bizarre suggestions about how to treat the disease.
Trump mused about bringing “light inside the body” – and disinfectant.
“I see the disinfectant, it knocks it out in a minute ... is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside?” he asked a bemused expert.
During his second term, Trump’s pick of Kennedy as his health secretary has brought once fringe medical ideas into the heart of the Government.
Trump himself says he has long been preoccupied with autism and showed supreme confidence in his views – even as he struggled to pronounce “acetaminophen,” or paracetamol, the active ingredient in Tylenol.
“Don’t take it,” Trump said repeatedly.
He urged pregnant women in pain to avoid the drug and “tough it out”, but had few answers for what they should do for fevers that could harm them or their babies.
Veering off on the subject of vaccines, Trump also had his own theories.
He insisted that children should not be vaccinated against Hepatitis B until the age of 12, versus soon after birth, saying: “Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. There’s no reason to give a baby that’s almost just born hepatitis B.”
Trump added that children were being loaded up with “too much liquid” while being inoculated against potentially fatal diseases – repeating a frequent anti-vaccine talking point.
“They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace,” he said. “It looks like they’re pumping into a horse.”
-Agence France-Presse
