President Trump Planning Executive Order on Vaccines, Years After Revealing Fears for Son Barron

President Donald Trump is working on an executive order addressing childhood vaccines and links to autism, several outlets reported on Thursday, August 6.

Officials are drafting an order sparked by the president’s interest in exploring links between vaccines and autism, despite extensive research to the contrary, according to a report in the Washington Post.

The move comes four months after a judge halted updates made to the immunization recommendations instituted in January by a panel of advisors hand-picked by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr, per The Guardian.

In May, the president, 80, issued an executive order to align the U.S. with other countries that recommend fewer shots for children, per the .

“It’s a personal issue for him,” one administration official told the Washington Post.

In 2007, Trump told the Sun Sentinel that he and wife Melania were taking a “very, very conservative” approach with then-22-month-old son, Barron.

“He gets one shot at a time then we wait a few months and give him another shot, the old-fashioned way,” the former reality competition host explained. “But today they pump the children with so much at a very young age.”

“Everybody has their theory,” he told the outlet of why autism rates had increased. “My theory, and I study it because I have young children, my theory is the shots. We’ve giving these massive injections at one time, and I really think it does something to the children.”

Last month, the government’s Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee released a draft for a new strategic plan which details plans to investigate whether autism can be caused by an “exposure or biological event,” instead of genetics, which critics say aligns with RFK Jr.’s beliefs, the Washington Post reported.

However on August 5, the Senate voted to confirm Dr. Erica Schwartz, who has been supportive of childhood vaccines, as the new head of the Centers for Disease Control. She acknowledged during her confirmation hearing that there is “overwhelming evidence” that vaccines don’t cause autism, per ABC News.

Though Trump has continued to pressure RFK Jr. about autism research, the president’s advisors have also urged the cabinet member to table the controversial issue until after the mid-term elections in November, Reuters reported.

“President Trump has been clear: America must have the best childhood vaccine schedule in the world,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement on August 6, per the Washington Post. “The Administration remains steadfastly committed to delivering on this presidential priority with Gold Standard Science for the countless parents whose questions and concerns about vaccinations have been ignored or mocked.”