{"id":64582,"date":"2026-08-12T20:15:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/64582\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T20:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:15:23","slug":"trumps-vaccine-order-hands-maha-a-win-and-democrats-an-attack-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/64582\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s vaccine order hands MAHA a win and Democrats an attack line"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump pivoted the nation\u2019s attention back to vaccines this week with an executive order<\/a> that aims to scale back the childhood immunization schedule and space out shots into separate visits.<\/p>\n

After acting to overhaul the nation\u2019s vaccine policy and guidance<\/a>, the Trump administration had recently largely stepped back from additional changes to focus on less controversial subjects, raising questions over the political impetus behind and implications of the Republican president\u2019s renewed focus on vaccines.<\/p>\n

For well over a decade, Trump has expressed his view \u2014 against medical groups\u2019 guidance \u2014 that childhood vaccines should be administered in smaller doses over a long period of time. The executive order sought to bear out that discredited theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the move could endear Trump to some \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d voters who want more flexibility on immunizations, it\u2019s also already attracting attacks designed to hurt Trump\u2019s aligned candidates in November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Jayme Franklin, a 28-year-old conservative activist who appeared with the president to promote his executive order on Monday, said she thinks the action is \u201cgoing to go a long way\u201d for MAHA mom voters like herself.<\/p>\n

But Shaughnessy Naughton, president of the left-leaning political action committee 314 Action, which aims to elect doctors to office, said she sees the order as \u201cone more data point\u201d in support of Democrats\u2019 cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur organization and our candidates are certainly going to hammer that message home \u2014 that if you want healthcare that\u2019s accessible and affordable, if you want medical advice that is science-based, we need to have accountability in Washington,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Trump has long called for shots spread out in separate visits<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s doubt in the number and cadence of vaccines dates back at least to 2014, when he posted to social media the disproven claim that combination shots can cause autism<\/a> and said if he were president<\/a> he would spread them out.<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s since shown pride in his first-term Operation Warp Speed<\/a> effort to disseminate COVID-19 vaccines quickly and praised certain other shots like the polio vaccine, he also has repeatedly called for reforming the childhood vaccine schedule. While his administration released an assessment comparing U.S. childhood vaccine schedules to peer nations\u2019, several of his suggestions have come without any new scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is based on what I feel,\u201d Trump said last September when he called for splitting the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine into three single-disease vaccines.<\/p>\n

On Monday, he again pushed for separating the MMR shot into three, ordering the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to work on developing that option for children, since it doesn\u2019t currently exist in the United States. Public health experts have warned that spacing out shots could increase the risk of infection with a vaccine-preventable disease before a child returns for the next visit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A sign about childhood vaccines is pictured as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting to sign an executive order, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin)<\/p>\n

A sign about childhood vaccines is pictured as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting to sign an executive order, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin)<\/p>\n

Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n

Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n

Share<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Most Americans don\u2019t see reevaluating vaccine safety as a top issue<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s views have aligned him with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a>, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics.<\/p>\n

The president credits Kennedy\u2019s diverse coalition of MAHA followers \u2014 whose priorities range from regulating pesticides to ending vaccine mandates \u2014 with helping him win back the White House in 2024.<\/p>\n

Even as the Trump administration has handed several wins to the MAHA coalition, including changing the federal dietary guidelines<\/a> and loosening restrictions on peptides<\/a>, some in the movement have grown impatient as their other priorities remain unfinished. It\u2019s unclear whether Trump\u2019s action to loosen vaccine recommendations, an issue some MAHA supporters are passionate about, will be enough to shore up those voters ahead of the midterms.<\/p>\n

Franklin, who runs a conservative magazine, said she had talked with Trump about making vaccine recommendations more flexible at a MAHA roundtable earlier this year. She was pleased when the administration informed her that her requests were coming true.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just really shows he loves to hear from everyday Americans on how his policies and his administration affect the lives of people who are raising kids in this country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But political strategists and Trump\u2019s own pollster Tony Fabrizio have warned that efforts to shave down vaccine recommendations may not matter much to most voters this fall.<\/p>\n

Polls show most Americans believe children should be vaccinated<\/a> to attend school, though Republicans are less likely to see vaccines as important. And as rising prices<\/a> on things like groceries, gas and healthcare tighten Americans\u2019 budgets, many view the economy<\/a> as a top issue they care about.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing in America matters more than affordability,\u201d pollster Frank Luntz said. \u201cAnd anytime the administration or Republicans goes off affordability, they\u2019re not talking about what Americans really care about.\u201d <\/p>\n

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said with most Americans viewing vaccines positively, Trump\u2019s announcement \u201cdoes not strike me as the most persuasive political message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent polling from the healthcare research nonprofit KFF suggests that even among MAHA supporters, only 10% rank reevaluating vaccine safety as their top priority<\/a> for the federal government. Higher-ranking priorities included lowering health costs (42%) and restricting chemical additives in the food supply (21%). <\/p>\n

Democrats are seizing on Trump\u2019s message<\/p>\n

Asked about the timing of the order with the midterms approaching, a White House official who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters said that the move was a longstanding presidential priority and that other health issues voters care about were still being addressed.<\/p>\n

To that effect, on the day Trump signed the order, the Food and Drug Administration announced an effort to require more transparency<\/a> from food manufacturers about new ingredients or additives in foods \u2014 something many in the MAHA movement had been calling for. <\/p>\n

The administration has also touted its efforts to lower drug prices<\/a> and crack down on federal health program fraud, which it argues will save taxpayers money.<\/p>\n

Still, Democratic candidates, including doctors linked to Naughton\u2019s group 314 Action, seized on Trump\u2019s order in messages to voters this week.<\/p>\n

Dr. Richard Pan, a physician running as a Democrat for the U.S. House in Northern California, reposted the American Medical Association\u2019s condemnation of Trump\u2019s vaccine falsehoods, among other fact checks. He told The Associated Press he thinks voters are deciding between electing people who choose not to hold the administration accountable and those who \u201cstand for the science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician<\/a> and Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina, pleaded with voters not to take health information from Trump in a video posted on Instagram in collaboration with the left-leaning Courier Newsroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo whatever you can to help elect scientists up and down the ballot in November, including sending me to the U.S. Senate,\u201d she said to the camera. \u201cI cannot think of a more urgent time for us to have a pediatrician in the room where these conversations are happening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump pivoted the nation\u2019s attention back to vaccines this week with an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[28379,61,1783,1790,38,33713,50,8,62,2028,33711,2034,367,9,67,33714,2035,2039,33712,7,13910,363,365,100,373,69],"class_list":["post-64582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-annie-andrews","tag-ap-top-news","tag-dc-wire","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-frank-luntz","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-immunizations","tag-jayme-franklin","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-national","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-richard-pan","tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","tag-south-carolina","tag-tony-fabrizio","tag-top-stories","tag-trump-hub","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-senate","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/117084378156925919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}