The Dictatorship
A glimpse at Trump’s false claims around pregnancy, Tylenol and autism
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Monday that his administration is strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary. “I want to say it like it is, don’t take Tylenol,” he said, encouraging women to “just fight like hell not to take it.” But his comments came under intense criticism from medical experts and researchers — because there’s no proof tying the painkiller to autism. He also made a number of dubious claims about autism, vaccines and treatments.
Here’s a look at the facts.
Are autism rates increasing?
TRUMP: “Since 2000, autism rates have surged by much more than 400%.” He said the rate used to be 1 in 20,000, then 1 in 10,000 and now is 1 in 31, saying “there’s something artificial” to explain it.
THE FACTS: It’s true that autism rates have ballooned but Trump’s numbers are off. The 1 in 10,000 figure dates back to the 1990s. In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the rate at 1 in 150. In 2018, it was 1 in 44. The latest count, based on 2022 data, is 1 in 31.
Scientists say the explanation is that decades ago diagnosis was rare, given only to kids with severe problems. Diagnosis of “autism spectrum disorder” began jumping as scientists learned the developmental disorder encompasses a wide range of traits and symptoms. And as educational and other services grew, more parents began seeking diagnoses to help their kids.
Does maternal Tylenol use increase the baby’s chances of autism?
TRUMP: “Tylenol during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism.”
THE FACTS: Studies don’t prove that. Even Trump’s Food and Drug Administration didn’t go nearly that far in a letter to doctors this week that instead they “should consider minimizing” acetaminophen’s use in pregnancy.
It’s clear that genetics are the biggest risk factor. Other risks include the age of a child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy such as fevers, infections or diabetes.
Some studies have raised the possibility of a link between autism risk and using acetaminophen during pregnancy — but more haven’t found a connection.
These are observational studies that compare health records about prenatal acetaminophen and autism traits in children. The big problem: Those kinds of studies can’t tell if the painkiller really made any difference – or if instead it was the fever or other health problem that prompted the need for the pill.
The Coalition of Autism Scientists notes that use of acetaminophen – or paracetamol as it’s known outside the U.S. — during pregnancy hasn’t increased in recent decades like autism rates have.
The risks of not treating a fever
TRUMP: “There’s no downside in not taking it,” he said in urging women to not take Tylenol during pregnancy.
THE FACTS: There are huge downsides to avoiding Tylenol when a pregnant woman really needs it, according to the nation’s leading pregnancy doctors. Untreated fevers, for example, can increase the risk of birth defects, premature birth and miscarriages, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Both the society and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say the painkiller is a safe and needed option during pregnancy. The over-the-counter drug’s label already tells pregnant women to consult their doctor about its use.
“The conditions people use acetaminophen to treat during pregnancy are far more dangerous than any theoretical risks,” ACOG said.
Autism has been gaining in visibility in Cuba
TRUMP: ““I hear Cuba doesn’t have it because it’s very expensive and they don’t have the money to have it, or they don’t want to spend the money to have it. They don’t have Tylenol. And I hear they have essentially no autism.”
THE FACTS: In Cuba, as in many regions around the world, autism has begun to gain visibility in recent years. Awareness campaigns have been launched on state television to promote the inclusion of autistic people. And according to Ministry of Education psychologist Lisbet Rizo Suárez, Cuba has nine educational institutions to serve autistic children.
As for paracetamol, as Tylenol is known outside of the U.S., it is widely used in Cuba and doctors prescribe it without restrictions.
Autism is found in Amish communities
TRUMP, saying certain groups that don’t take vaccines or pills have no autism, “the Amish, is an example. They have essentially no autism.”
THE FACTS: This is false. While there is limited scientific data around autism in the Amish community, studies have found that there are cases. A 2010 paper from the International Society for Autism Research found autism was less prevalent in Amish communities than the U.S. overall, but it called for further study to determine how “cultural norms and customs” played a role in the numbers.
Braxton Mitchell, an epidemiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who has worked with the Amish community for 30 years, said his group has confirmed there is autism in the community. He said Tylenol is used by many Amish and some choose to vaccinate their children, others do not.
But he said it is a challenge to gather reliable data on the subject because autism and other related conditions require clinical assessments and expert diagnosis, which Amish families may not seek out.
Trump overstates childhood vaccinations
TRUMP: “You have a little child, a little fragile child, and you get a vat of 80 different vaccines, I guess, 80 different blends.”
THE FACTS: The current childhood vaccination schedule recommends routine protection against 18 diseases. They’re not all given to “a little child” but at different ages.
How many shots that adds up to between birth and age 18 can vary. The number is closer to three dozen if you don’t count once-a-year flu shots or an annual COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccines have been proven to protect children from once common deadly diseases. There is no evidence that the schedule is harmful.
As for autism, scientists and leading advocacy groups for people with autism agree there’s no vaccine link to the disorder.
“Studies have repeatedly found no credible link between life-saving childhood vaccines and autism. This research, in many countries, involving thousands of individuals, has spanned multiple decades. Any effort to misrepresent sound, strong science poses a threat to the health of children,” said Dr. Susan Kressly of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Why infants should get a hepatitis B vaccine
TRUMP: “Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. There’s no reason to give a baby that’s almost just born Hepatitis B. So I would say wait till the baby is 12 years old and formed.”
THE FACTS: Hepatitis B can cause serious liver damage and it’s true that in adults, the virus is spread through sex or sharing needles during injection-drug use.
But for babies, it’s a different story. If a pregnant woman carries the virus, she can pass it to her baby during delivery. While mothers-to-be are supposed to be tested, not all are. The virus also can live on surfaces for more than seven days at room temperature, meaning unvaccinated infants living with anyone with a chronic infection can be at risk.
Since 2005, U.S. health officials have recommended giving the first dose of a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth for most infants. As a result, infant infections have dropped sharply.
The issue with up MMR vaccines
TRUMP: The MMR, I think, should be taken separately. This is based on what I feel, the, mumps, measles and and the three should be taken separately. And it seems to be that when you mix them, there could be a problem. So there’s no downside in taking them separately. In fact, they think it’s better.”
THE FACTS: Trump is referring to the vaccine that combines protection against measles, mumps and rubella. And his suggestion of separating that one combination shot into three isn’t possible. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, there are no single-antigen versions – no measles-only, mumps-only, rubella-only shots – available.
Early concern about a possible link between vaccines and autism arose from falsified information about the MMR vaccine in a 1998 paper that was later retracted by the medical journal that published it.
Would it be safer for parents to break up vaccines for infants?
TRUMP: On spacing out vaccines for infants, “Break up your visits to the doctors. Break them up.”
THE FACTS: That message infuriates pediatricians.
“Spacing out or delaying vaccines means children will not have immunity against these diseases at times when they are most at risk,” said Kressly, the president of the AAP.
It’s also hard for parents to make repeat visits for vaccinations outside of the normal well-baby schedule.
Trump touts an unproven treatment for autism
TRUMP, discussing a possible new treatment: “And the baby can get better, and in some cases may be substantially better.”
THE FACTS: That’s not proven, at least not yet. Trump was referring to a folic acid metabolite called leucovorin – and it’s far from clear if it’s really an effective treatment and if so, for which people.
Low levels of folate, a form of vitamin B, are linked to certain birth defects so women already are told to take folic acid before conception and during pregnancy.
A small percentage of people with autism also appear to have low levels of folate in their brains, possibly because of antibodies that block it. The Autism Science Foundation cautions that their non-autistic relatives also often have those antibodies, suggesting that’s not a cause of autism.
But the theory is that giving folate to that subset of autistic people might improve certain symptoms. Only a few very small clinical trials have been done with the drug. So the foundation and other autism experts say large, rigorous studies are needed before it can be recommended as a treatment.
___
Associated Press journalists Andrea Rodriguez in Havana and Barbara Whitaker in New York contributed reporting. ___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
NEW YORK (AP) — About 3 million fewer people in the United States had Affordable Care Acthealth insurance plans in February compared with the same time last year, according to new federal data.
In the reportreleased Friday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggested the 13% drop in enrollment from 22.1 million people in 2025 to 19.2 million this year could be attributed to a federal crackdown on fraudulent or “phantom” enrollment. But health analysts said it was more likely related to the Jan. 1 expiration of federal subsidieswhich caused a surge in plan costs that resulted in many people being unable to pay their premiums.
“We know that real people lost their health insurance coverage,” said Cynthia Cox, a vice president and director of the ACA program at the healthcare research nonprofit KFF, citing survey findings on people who had left their plans. “This coverage loss happened at the same time millions of people faced double or even triple digit increases in their premium payments.”
The new data, compiled in April but showing coverage in February, represents the government’s first official look at how people’s inability to pay their first bills this year affected total enrollment. That is because the figures capture the marketplace after a nonpayment grace period expired.
A federal estimate in Januaryshowed that about 800,000 fewer people had signed up for ACA plans compared with the same time last year, marking the first time in the past four years that enrollment had been down from the previous year at that point in the shopping window.
Cox said KFF expects the total number of people in the government healthcare program to continue to declinethroughout the year, potentially to a low of about 17.5 million. That would be a significant drop for the government’s flagship subsidized health insurance program for working-age people who do not qualify for Medicaid. In recent years, ACA plans have become a popular choice for gig workers, farmers, ranchers, hairstylists and others without health coverage through an employer.
The ACA subsidies that expired this year were at the center of a bitter fight in Congress last fall, with Democrats and some Republicans calling for their renewal. Sharp increases in health costs across ACA and other health insurance programs come as voters in the approaching November elections say affordability is among their top concerns.
Rep. Julia Letlow won Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary runoff Saturday, defeating former Rep. John Fleming.
Her win comes as a victory for President Donald Trump, who has endorsed her repeatedly throughout the race — including before she was even officially running.
Letlow made history in 2021 when she became the first Republican woman to represent Louisiana in Congress. In that special election, she won the seat that her late husband, Luke Letlow, had won prior to dying of complications related to Covid-19 in December 2020.
Letlow had no political experience prior to running for her late husband’s seat. She holds a doctorate in communication from the University of South Florida and worked as an administrator for Tulane University and the University of Louisiana, according to her LinkedIn page. Nonetheless, she won the special election House race with nearly 65% of the vote.
In Congress, she has served on the appropriations and education committees, and has been a reliably MAGA Republican.
Letlow’s win also comes as a rebuke to Fleming, who loaned himself more than $11 million, according to the Federal Election Commission, and tried running for the same seat in 2016 only to finish in fifth place in the nonpartisan primary. (Letlow did not loan her campaign any money, and took in more than $5.35 million compared to Fleming’s more than $12.1 million, FEC filings show.)
Trump has played a key role in the race. In addition to backing Letlow early on, the president also helped tank Republican incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy’s re-election campaign in last month’s primary, based on the senator’s record of bucking his party and voting in favor of Trump’s second impeachment. In the primaryLetlow earned nearly 45% of the vote, giving her a healthy lead over both Fleming, who received about 28% of the vote, and Cassidy, who earned nearly 25%.
Ahead of Saturday’s runoff, polling showed Letlow and Fleming in a close race, with Letlow retaining a small lead in several polls.
Letlow will now proceed to the November general election to face off against the Democratic nominee, farmer Jamie Davis, who came out on top in tonight’s Democratic primary runoff.
The state has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2008, when Mary Landrieu won her last term in office.
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.
Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligencehas stirred fear by choosing as his chief of staff a GOP election lawyer who oversaw a poll watching program that included Jack Posobiec and other conservative conspiracy theorists. The lawyer, Christina Norton, also appears to have no experience working in the intelligence community.
“It is horrifying,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official told MS NOW Saturday. “Not only does Norton have absolutely no background, experience or expertise in national security or intelligence, but her principal qualifications appear to be loyalty to Pulte and an embrace of absurd election-interference conspiracies.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has been a vocal critic of Pulte, also raised concerns about election integrity on Sunday while taking shots at the director of national intelligence and the office itself.
“We should eliminate the DNI, and we should eliminate Pulte from the DNI until that happens,” he said on BLN, adding, “I am concerned that we’re gonna continue to cast doubt on elections in November and erode what has been a 250-year tradition of a peaceful transition of power.”
Pulte’s choice of Norton is also likely to increase concerns among Democrats that President Donald Trump intends to use the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to interfere in the midterm elections. Pulte, a loyalist with no intelligence experience, has used his current position as head of federal mortgage agencies to refer political rivals of the president for federal criminal prosecution.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told MS NOW on Sunday that the choice “just confirms” that the “only job qualification is absolute political loyalty and devotion to Donald Trump.” But he expressed faith in the judicial system during an appearance on “The Weekend,” noting that “right now we have federal courts across the land that are rejecting their various attempts to take over the election process. Nine different federal courts have rejected the claim that the president, by executive order, can compel the states in the union to turn over all of their voter lists to Donald Trump and to the White House.”
The New York Times first reported Norton’s appointment.
The former senior intelligence official, who requested anonymity due to concerns of retaliation, told MS NOW the choice also “signals as clearly as could be that Pulte has been put at ODNI to misuse the awesome power of the U.S. intelligence community to interfere in the upcoming midterm elections.”
Norton, reached by MS NOW by telephone, declined to comment and referred questions to an ODNI spokesperson. The spokesperson declined to comment on Norton but defended Pulte’s tenure.
“Acting Director Pulte and his team are focused on carrying out President Trump’s national security priorities while faithfully executing ODNI’s statutory mission,” the spokesperson told MS NOW. “We are leading the Intelligence Community to provide President Trump with elite, apolitical intelligence that keeps America safe.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., appearing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, said his objection to Pulte is “that he used personal information to target a political enemy of the president,” a reference to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“You should not be using the force of government to crash upon somebody just because the person in charge does not like them or finds them inconvenient. The fact that Bill did that is disqualifying for someone to be the director of national intelligence,” Cassidy said.
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Friday that Congress would ensure that the ODNI under Pulte will “report on legitimate foreign threats to elections, not Donald Trump’s imaginary ones.”
Himes warned that, “Trump was explicit when he appointed Bill Pulte to a job he had no qualifications for that he had elections in mind.”
Trump has said in interviews with the news media that he would like to see Pulte shrink the size of the ODNI and investigate election fraud. Pulte’s predecessor, Tulsi Gabbard, participated in investigations in Georgia and Puerto Rico to find proof of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Democrats and some former intelligence officials say they worry that Pulte may try to falsely claim that his office has found evidence that foreign governments are secretly funding Democratic candidates in the midterms.
Pulte could falsely claim foreign actors have hacked U.S. voting machines, they say, and altered vote totals in favor of Democrats during the midterms. Or Trump could instruct Pulte to be present if FBI agents seize ballots and election records in November as they did earlier this year in Fulton County, Georgia.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned in a statement on Friday that Pulte should not use his position to spread Trump’s false election conspiracy theories.
“The mission of ODNI is to identify and counter foreign threats, not to import election denialism into the Intelligence Community,” Warner said. “Americans have every reason to fear that this administration is once again eroding the wall between our intelligence agencies and domestic elections.”
David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.
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