President Donald Trump said he has tasked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with determining how autism is “artificially induced” in children.
The MAGA president made the head-scratching claim during a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission press conference on Thursday at the White House, moments after the release of a commission assessment “exposing root causes of childhood chronic disease crisis.”
“When you hear 10,000, it was 1 in 10,000, and now it’s 1 in 31 for autism, I think that’s just a terrible thing,” said Trump to a room full of reporters. He added, “It has to be something on the outside, has to be artificially induced, has to be.”
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Medical experts have pushed back on Trump and RFK Jr.’s characterization of such figures as an “epidemic,” with many saying the change can be largely chalked up to better autism screenings.
Yet that hasn’t stopped MAHA from running wild with their claims.
“We will follow the truth wherever it leads, uphold rigorous science, and drive bold policies that put the health, development, and future of every child first,” RFK Jr. said in a press release releasing the report. “We will end the childhood chronic disease crisis by attacking its root causes head-on—not just managing its symptoms.”
Trump suggested, with a clay-colored RFK Jr. proudly looking on by his side, that the root causes could be advances in modern medicine. RFK Jr.’s long-suffering wife Cheryl Hines was also in tow.
“We will not allow our public health system to be captured by the very industries it’s supposed to oversee,” Trump said. “So we’re demanding the answers, the public is demanding the answers and that’s why we’re here.”
According to the release, RFK Jr. named a range of factors contributing to chronic disease in children, including poor diet, environmental toxins, insufficient physical activity, chronic stress, and over-medicalization.
The assessment comes on the heels of news that RFK Jr. has pushed health regulators to phase out fluoride-containing supplements used to strengthen children’s teeth, PBS reported. Florida and Utah have become the first states to ban fluoride in drinking water.
RFK Jr. has previously claimed that the mineral, which has shown to decrease tooth decay in populations, is making Americans stupid.
“The more you get, the stupider you are,” he said.
