'Crazy stupid thing': A loyal Trump lawmaker turns on the president's vaccine order
WASHINGTON, DC: Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who came to Trump’s rescue when several GOP senators refused to back the president’s pick, Todd Blanche, has lashed out at Trump over his order on childhood vaccines.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the combined MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine, recommending it be split into three individual shots given across separate doctor visits.
Bill Cassidy calls Trump's vaccine order 'stupid'
Appearing on CNN’s 'State of the Union' on Sunday, August 16, Sen Bill Cassidy (R-LA) ripped the president for comments made during an executive order signing Tuesday, August 11.
Bill Cassidy shared his personal opinion about President Trump when cornered by anchor Jake Tapper.
Tapper was grilling Cassidy on Trump's executive order reducing the number of childhood vaccine recommendations from 18 to 11.
Tapper reminded Cassidy that he previously said someone needs to stand up to "crazy, stupid things" being said to undermine confidence in vaccines.
TAPPER: Is President Trump saying 'crazy, stupid things' that undermine faith in immunization?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 16, 2026
CASSIDY: Yeah, that's a crazy, stupid thing. This is why the president's poll numbers are going down. pic.twitter.com/MJbkoHlo9e
"Is Trump saying some of those 'crazy, stupid things?'" Tapper asked.
"That's a crazy, stupid thing," said Cassidy. "Yeah."
Bill Cassidy explains the order's negative effects
Cassidy explained why; he said the president was going to cause American children physical pain and cost parents money.
"The child is going to get more jabs, the parent's going to lose money," Cassidy said. "This is why the president's poll numbers are going down — because people don't perceive he knows the reality of their life."
Cassidy explained that increasing the number of doses will force parents to take leave six times instead of two to get their child vaccinated, and insurance companies will have to pay for six doctor visits instead of two, exhausting premiums.
A single vaccination can prevent multiple diseases. It means fewer shots, fewer trips to the doctor, fewer opportunities for side effects, fewer missed work days for the mother, all while protecting children against more diseases.
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) August 11, 2026
If we’re going to Make America Healthy Again,…
“This substitutes two jabs with six jabs. And so even the people he’s trying to appeal to have to scratch their head and think, what in the hell is going on here? So the president is wrong. There’s a lot of bad things that will come out of this,” Cassidy concluded.
Trump orders split doses despite objections from physicians
Cassidy, who is a physician, had expressed great concern about the Make America Healthy Again movement and anti-vaccine rhetoric from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Notably, despite his concerns, Cassidy helped confirm Kennedy’s nomination.
"If it wasn't so potentially tragic, you would break out laughing at a comment like that."
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) August 16, 2026
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy reacts to President Trump's claims that "nothing bad can happen" from splitting up the MMR vaccine and pushing to change the childhood vaccine schedule. pic.twitter.com/rwo2v2SnRJ
Trump claimed spreading out the schedule and splitting doses would not affect the children, despite vehement objections from top physician organizations.
“Nothing bad can happen from what we’re doing,” Trump claimed. “Nothing bad could happen. The worst thing that would happen would be nothing happens."
"We’re not gonna lose anything. At the same time, we could gain tremendous, we could save hundreds of thousands of lives, millions of lives," he added.
