{"id":174430,"date":"2026-08-01T12:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/174430\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:48:08","slug":"donald-trump-vaccine-policy-reversal-deepens-tensions-with-rfk-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/174430\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump vaccine policy reversal deepens tensions with RFK Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump has shifted course on his administration\u2019s vaccine policy, pressing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> to intensify investigations into a possible link between childhood vaccines and autism, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.<\/p>\n

Kennedy, who has long advocated scaling back childhood vaccination recommendations, had initially been urged by White House political advisers to tone down his vaccine messaging ahead of the midterm elections, according to the report.<\/p>\n

That strategy changed in May, when Trump<\/a> signed an executive order directing HHS to reduce the number of vaccines recommended for children. The move reportedly surprised senior health officials, who had been following earlier instructions to deemphasize the issue.<\/p>\n

Trump has since pressed Kennedy to make autism research a central priority and reduce the number of shots recommended under federal guidelines. The president hoped that cutting the number of vaccinations would lead to lower autism rates, despite the scientific consensus that vaccines<\/a> do not cause autism, WSJ wrote.<\/p>\n

Scientists have not identified a definitive cause for the increase in autism<\/a> diagnoses, a trend that researchers have attributed to a range of possible factors, including genetics, parental age, and improved screening.<\/p>\n

\"USUS HEALTH and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (credit: KEN CEDENO\/REUTERS)Trump dissatisfied with Kennedy\u2019s progress<\/p>\n

Tensions became apparent during a mid-June Oval Office meeting, when Trump told Kennedy that he was not doing enough, people familiar with the matter told WSJ.<\/p>\n

The president reportedly believes Kennedy has had sufficient time to advance his agenda and is disappointed by his limited progress.<\/p>\n

The pressure marks a reversal from the political strategy promoted by White House advisers. Polling commissioned by longtime Trump adviser Tony Fabrizio found that vaccine skepticism was unpopular with voters, while Kennedy\u2019s food and agriculture policies drew broader support.<\/p>\n

White House and HHS officials subsequently urged Kennedy to focus on issues such as removing artificial dyes from food and promoting new dietary guidelines. His staff reportedly classified nutrition as a \u201cgreen light\u201d topic and vaccines as a \u201cred light\u201d issue, and Kennedy largely avoided discussing vaccines in public, WSJ wrote.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s renewed emphasis on vaccines and autism has now placed him at odds with that strategy, leaving HHS officials scrambling to expand autism research while Kennedy faces growing pressure to deliver results, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s earlier efforts have also faced legal setbacks. A federal judge blocked his January proposal to reduce the number of diseases covered by the childhood vaccination schedule from 17 to 11, ruling that the administration appeared to have bypassed the federal vaccine advisory panel.<\/p>\n

White House expands control over HHS<\/p>\n

Trump has continued to praise Kennedy publicly, saying in February, \u201cWho would\u2019ve thought a Kennedy, we love a Kennedy, in the Republican Party?\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, however, White House aides ordered a broad review of HHS amid internal disputes and concerns over Kennedy\u2019s management. Senior officials were reassigned, his advisory team was restructured, and Medicare chief Chris Klomp assumed control of daily operations, according to WSJ.<\/p>\n

Trump has also increasingly sought advice from Dr. Mehmet Oz, fueling speculation that Oz could eventually replace Kennedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s frustration there,\u201d Kennedy associate Dr. Jeffrey Klausner told WSJ. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those situations where you have to accept some things so you can still pursue activities for the greater good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump has shifted course on his administration\u2019s vaccine policy, pressing Health and Human Services Secretary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[39953,12,75,73433,79257,20685,74,24708],"class_list":["post-174430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump-jr","tag-autism","tag-donald-trump","tag-donald-trump-jr","tag-health-department","tag-healthcare-system","tag-robert-f-kennedy","tag-trump","tag-vaccine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117020334994231113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}