President Donald Trump found himself on the receiving end of even more mockery after he—with no sense of self-awareness—complained about "stupid people" running things.
Flanked by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump made the remark as he promoted unproven—and in some cases debunked—links between Tylenol, vaccines, and autism as his administration unveiled a broad initiative to study the disorder’s causes.
He was rambling about high drug prices at the time, saying:
"$1,300 for like, a shot of Ozempic or, the fat, I call it the fat drug. Sometimes it works I guess on people. The ones I've seen it hasn't worked so well, I got a lot of friends, they're fat."
"They said, 'Oh, I've lost some weight.' I said, 'You don't look it to me.' But they paid $1,300, $1,200, and they go to London and they pay $88. And they call me and they say, 'What's this all about?'"
"We're subsidizing the rest of the world stupidly because we've got a lot of stupid people in this country running things. And how big is that? But to me, that's nothing compared to autism."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Those words sure were something coming from the mouth of someone whose rambling remarks about drug prices... really didn't make any sense at all.
For one, what was he talking about?
Trump is of course known for talking randomly and disconnectedly, and he said all of this as Kennedy—a known conspiracy theorist and prominent anti-vaxxer who has been called out regularly for false health claims—stood behind him, a perfect example of the "stupid people" in charge that Trump happened to complain about.
It was quite the self-own.
Trump also said that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would start alerting doctors that using acetaminophen “can be associated” with a higher risk of autism, though he offered no evidence for an assertion that goes against the scientific consensus.
In response to Trump's claims, Tylenol maker Kenvue rejected any connection between the drug and autism, warning in a statement that if pregnant women avoid Tylenol when needed, they could be forced to choose between enduring fevers or turning to potentially riskier painkillers.
Kennedy, meanwhile, has dismissed the idea that rising autism diagnoses are largely the result of improved screening and earlier detection—a position that contradicts conclusions by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and numerous medical experts.
@sama/X
