RFK Jr says pregnant women taking Tylenol to protest Trump as their TDS has become 'pathological'

WASHINGTON, DC: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said during the White House's monthly Cabinet meeting on Thursday, October 9, that the "Trump derangement syndrome" has reached extreme levels.

He highlighted a recent trend where pregnant women are protesting President Donald Trump by taking Tylenol, despite possible links to autism. 

RFK Jr on the Tylenol protest by pregnant women

"The level of Trump derangement syndrome has now left political landscapes, and it is now a pathology," Kennedy said. "That a mother could overwhelm millions of years of maternal instinct to put her baby at risk."  

He explained to his colleagues and the media that he saw a TikTok video of a "pregnant associate professor at Columbia medical school" taking Tylenol to protest Trump. He was alarmed that any mother would take the over-the-counter painkiller, especially after reports linking it to rising autism rates

"Any mother who is taking this up during pregnancy just to get back into Donald Trump is doing something that is, it is pathological," he said. "And we're seeing that across the board." 

Trump and the US officials in September had announced that Tylenol taken during pregnancy "can be associated with a very increased risk of autism."

At the same event, Trump said that the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are "turning over every stone to identify the ideology of the autism epidemic and how patients and parents can prevent and reverse this alarming trend." 

"We have broken down the traditional silos that have long separated these agencies, and we have fast-tracked research and guidance," said Kennedy Jr.

He added, "Historically, NIH has focused on almost solely on politically safe and entirely fruitless research about the genetic drivers of autism. And that would be like studying the genetic drivers of lung cancer without looking at cigarettes, and that's what NIH has been doing for 20 years."

Tylenol manufacturer's response and public reaction

Tylenol manufacturer Kenvue in September strongly disagreed with the administration’s claim. 

"We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism," a company spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News. "We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers."

After the announcement in September, liberal pregnant women started posting videos of themselves taking Tylenol to protest Trump on X and TikTok. Critics have also questioned the claims linking the common painkiller to autism. 

"It is so suggestive that anybody who takes this stuff during pregnancy, unless they have to, is irresponsible," Kennedy continued Thursday.

Tylenol's alleged links to autism

Kennedy told Trump that, back in 1970, researchers in Wisconsin determined that roughly one in 20,000 eight-year-olds in the state had autism before skyrocketing in the following decades. Kennedy called the increasing autism rates a "national security issue." 

"Now, it's 1 in 12 for boys, 1 in 18, 19 for girls. So obviously there's something, there's something that's artificially, I think, (inducing) something," Trump added. 

Kennedy continued that there are a handful of studies pointing to Tylenol's alleged links to autism, including among male babies who are circumcised. 

"There's two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism," he said. "It's highly likely it's because they're given Tylenol." 

Trump added that "there's a tremendous amount of proof" surrounding the claims linking Tylenol to autism, and remarked that he has discussed the increasing autism rate with Kennedy going back 20 years. 

"I've studied this a long time ago," Trump said, noting he himself is not a doctor.

He added, "You know, I met Bobby in my office 20 years ago. We were talking about the same thing 20 years ago. And, I was a real estate developer, it bothered me that it seemed to be getting worse. But it's so bad now when you hear these numbers, it's not even really sustainable."