President Donald Trump has privately pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to accelerate an investigation into a purported link between vaccines and autism, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptic, is being told by Trump that he is not doing enough on the issue even as White House political advisers have urged him to soften his rhetoric ahead of the midterm elections.
During a May lunch at Trump’s golf course in northern Virginia, the president reportedly asked Kennedy Jr. why he had not done more to investigate the alleged vaccine-autism connection.
Kennedy Jr. was “taken aback” by the exchange, according to people familiar with the meeting.
The reaction stemmed partly from conflicting messages inside the White House. While political advisers had encouraged Kennedy Jr. to tone down his vaccine messaging before the midterms, Trump was pushing him to do more.
The issue resurfaced during a mid-June Oval Office meeting, where Trump again complained that Kennedy Jr. was not moving quickly enough.
Trump believes he has given Kennedy Jr. enough time in the role and is frustrated that the health secretary has not accomplished more during his roughly 18 months in office.
What Trump wants
Per report, Trump wants Kennedy Jr. to reduce the number of vaccine doses recommended for children under federal guidelines, believing autism rates would eventually decline as a result. According to report, the vaccine-autism issue as “an ongoing point of tension between the two men,” dating back well before the May and June meetings.
The disagreement reflects a long-running issue for both men. During a Senate hearing on September 4, 2025, Kennedy Jr. repeated claims linking vaccines to what he called an “epidemic” of autism, despite decades of scientific research rejecting such a connection.
The following day, Kennedy Jr. was preparing a report linking pregnant women’s use of acetaminophen, commonly sold as Tylenol and low maternal folate levels to autism, a theory mainstream researchers described as unproven.
Trump has also said he and Kennedy Jr. first discussed the idea that autism is “artificially induced” two decades earlier, telling reporters, “it’s turning out that we understood a lot more than a lot of people who studied it, we think.”
Kennedy Jr. has also sought federal access to Americans’ medical records as part of a broader effort to study a vaccine-autism connection that the medical establishment has repeatedly examined and rejected, according to previous reporting.
The Wall Street Journal has separately criticized Kennedy Jr.’s leadership at HHS, writing that, without adequate oversight, he was “damaging public trust in immunizations” and had drawn the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into what it characterized as an anti-vaccine campaign.
Oz positioned as possible successor
Trump’s frustration followed a Bloomberg profile describing Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz as Kennedy Jr.’s increasingly likely “heir apparent.”
Bloomberg reported that Oz has spent recent months highlighting negotiations with drug manufacturers and efforts to curb fraud in federal health care spending while remaining closely aligned with Kennedy Jr.
Oz is viewed as a serious contender to eventually succeed Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary.
Trump frequently calls or texts Oz on health policy matters outside his agency’s responsibilities and that Oz “takes responsibility for ensuring the president gets what he wants,” according to people familiar with the relationship.
Some of those people said that Oz also advised Trump on marijuana policy before the president signed an executive order in December easing federal restrictions on the drug.
A cardiothoracic surgeon and former daytime television host, Oz was confirmed as CMS administrator and took office on April 8, 2025, after being nominated alongside Kennedy Jr. during the transition.
Since then, the two have appeared together on multiple occasions, including remarks on combating health care fraud and the announcement of a new Healthcare Advisory Committee within HHS in March.