Just this week, six former Surgeons General blasted Robert Kennedy Jr. for “endangering the health of the nation.” Jerome Adams, Richard Carmona, Joycelyn Elders, Vivek Murthy, Antonia Novello and David Satcher coauthored a Washington Post op-ed, trying to raise the alarm yet again that Kennedy is an extremely dangerous person and he should be nowhere near health policy and vaccine policy. They wrote, in part, that “the profound, immediate and unprecedented threat that Kennedy’s policies and positions pose to the nation’s health cannot be ignored.” Well, on Thursday, during Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting, Kennedy went off on a truly bonkers rant about babies in placentas, Tylenol and circumcision.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has claimed that children who are circumcised have double the rate of autism, most likely because they are taking Tylenol. In a wild rant during a Trump cabinet meeting on Thursday, the controversial Health Secretary also suggested some pregnant women were taking the pain relief drug just to spite the president, and accused them of having pathological levels of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
“This morning before I came in here, somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman. She is an associate professor at Columbia Medical School, and she is saying “F Trump” and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta,” Kennedy said, confusing the temporary organ with a uterus. “The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome has now left political landscapes and it is now in the realm of pathology.”
The comments came three weeks after Trump and Kennedy held a controversial press conference in which they suggested that Tylenol—the brand name for the highly popular medication otherwise known as acetaminophen—may be linked to autism. This came despite recent large-scale studies finding no causal link between using the drug during pregnancy and having autism spectrum disorder. Medical groups such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics have also stated that acetaminophen is safe to use as directed during that time.
But Kennedy doubled down on Thursday, and even cited a new link between Tylenol and autism: circumcision.
“Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol,” he said. Trump insisted that “there’s a tremendous amount of proof or evidence, I would say as a non-doctor” to back up Kennedy’s suggestion. “I’ve studied this a long time ago,” he added.
But Erik Polyak, executive director of health advocacy group 314 Action, said it was “peak clownery” for RFK Jr. and Trump giving medical advice, “if clowns were allowed to wreck our health care. Their expertise comes from binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy—no one should ever take medical advice from these two. Their ‘findings’ are like a game of Mad-Libs, picking random words and stringing them together to sow fear and chaos. RFK Jr. is a disgrace to the scientific and medical community and it’s beyond time for him to leave office, before it’s too late.”
As soon as the words “gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta” were uttered, Kennedy should have been locked out of every federal building. These despicable old men don’t know the first thing about women’s bodies, reproductive systems, science, otc medication or anything else. This is a complete nightmare.
RFK Jr: "Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at 8 months pregnant — she's an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School — and she is saying 'F Trump' and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome is now a pathology."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 9, 2025 at 12:56 PM
RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 9, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.
"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive…"
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- US President Donald J Trump makes remarks on the India-Pakistan cease-fire, the new US-China Trade Deal, the return of Eden Alexander from Hamas captivity and the high cost of prescription drugs before signing an executive order that he promises will lower the cost of those prescription drugs almost immediately, during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US Featuring: Robert F Kennedy Jr Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 12 May 2025 Credit: Chris Kleponis/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr; United States Secretary of Education Linda E. McMahon; and Lee Zeldin, Director, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); take part in a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 22, 2025. Credit: Francis Chung / Pool via CNP Featuring: Robert F Kennedy Jr, Linda McMahon, Lee Zeldin Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 22 May 2025 Credit: Francis Chung/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr testifies before the US Senate Committee on Finance on “The President’s 2026 Health Care Agenda” in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill Featuring: Robert F Kennedy Jr Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 04 Sep 2025 Credit: Andrew Thomas/CNP/INSTARimages
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- United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr testifies before the US Senate Committee on Finance on “The President’s 2026 Health Care Agenda” in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill Featuring: Robert F Kennedy Jr Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 04 Sep 2025 Credit: Andrew Thomas/CNP/INSTARimages
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- United States President Donald Trump makes an announcement about a link between acetaminophen and autism in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Featuring: President Donald Trump, Robert F Kennedy Jr Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 22 Sep 2025 Credit: Francis Chung/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks on as US President Donald J Trump announces a drug-pricing deal with Pfizer in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, September 30, 2025. Looking on from left is US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Featuring: Robert F Kennedy Jr Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 30 Sep 2025 Credit: Francis Chung/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
When will someone shut these fossils up?
RFK jr is a bigger threat to pediatric health than Tylenol by several orders of magnitude.
This right here! Children will die because of this man. He and these other Trumpian fools should be the last people on the planet to decide policies on children’s or women’s’ health. Mothers should tune out these very dangerous men and rely on their pediatricians!
Can Tylenol sue the administration? they keep using the brand name instead of saying acetaminophen.
🎯
A table full of old white men who display their ignorance daily, almost hourly, lecturing pregnant women. This is what republicants have created.
A baby in her placenta???!!! He’s not even aware of how much of a moron he is, which makes it even more terrifying.
Meanwhile I’m struggling to get vaccines for my family so we can visit immunocompromised relatives this winter. I am so angry that this buffoon is negatively impacting the health and welfare of people I love (and all of America).
What a bunch of idiots.
‘we are doing the studies TO MAKE THE PROOF’
You do studies to see IF there is proof
That line said it all, right? Also – the look on Marco Rubio’s face during all of this is priceless. I love that for him and hope he is miserable for the rest of his life.
I was watching Rubio the entire time as well. He knows that his presidential dreams are up in smoke. 🤡🤡🤡
Lol! I was just telling my husband how Rubio looks absolutely miserable since he joined the cabinet.
Everything is pretextual with this administration. Even with the latest indictment of Tish James—they had to comb through everything and then work backwards to come up with some bogus criminal charge.
I can’t with this crazy man. So does this mean there is more autism in communities where circumcision is part of religious practice (eg: Jewish & Muslim) and less among women?
A century ago, this guy would have been touring the country in a wagon, selling “miracle cures” in tiny bottles.
I’d ask someone to make sense of it, but there is no sense. Only an overentitled man-boy and his brainworm.
There probably is some bigoted dovetailing in there. Remember how he said something about Jewish “genes” and Covid? And, odds this is points to a “circumcision is unnatural ” campaign?
Wow. This is outright anti-semitism.
The nonsense factor is magnified by the fact that per the CDC: “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Statistics, as of 2010 (the most recent statistics available), about 58 percent of baby boys in the United States were circumcised in the hospital at birth. This is down from a high of 65 percent in 1981 and up from a low of 55 percent in 2007.”
@Charlotte – I think Muslims also circumcise their sons
if circumcision were a causal link to autism, the incidence and prevalence of autism for Jews and Muslims outside the US would be noticeably higher than it is
@Kaiser I have the tiktok video that Kennedy describes and, suffice it to say she is 28 weeks (so 6.5 months or 7 months if you just think of a month as 4 weeks) not 8 months, she doesn’t say “F Trump” at all and “gobbles” 1 dose (possibly only 1 caplet) of tylenol. I’m not quite sure he could diagnose her baby being in her placenta but, as other noted, if the baby IS inside the placenta, tylenol is the least of the problems with this pregnancy
THIS. I immediately thought, “Well, so you’re saying (not so subtly) that you think communities who have higher rates of circumcision as per traditionally-held religious practices have higher rates of autism so you are therefore saying those communities will never write poetry, hold jobs, pay taxes, etc and aren’t as valuable or worth…” Besides being incredibly ignorant, this feels very xenophobic and racist to me. Also, my kid wasn’t given Tylenol, I never took Tylenol (since I was like 3), and my kiddo writes poems, plays music, gets great grades, and has a little side gig making money. He has his profound social challenges – but we are crazy about him. Grateful for him. Excited about the things he has to bring to the world. This is such incredibly dangerous BS. As an FYI, I was raised Mennonite around a lot of very conservative Mennonites and…all the dudes had circumcision…and we have a very normal rate of persons on the spectrum (addressing the stupid statement that we don’t have any in our community – absolutely incorrect)
“…with her baby in her placenta”
Jesus Christ on a cross. Does he also think we give birth through our butts, and that menstrual blood is like pee and we could hold it in if we really wanted to? What about wandering wombs? Fucking moron.
LOL you just reminded me of South Park and Satan being pregnant with Trump’s butt baby.
They will surely reintroduce hysteria as the only possible illness in women.
“I’ve studied this a long time ago” apart from being grammatically incorrect, what does he mean he studied this??
He read about it on one of those extra crunchy Facebook mommy groups when he was scouting for a new braindead and backwards sidepiece.
Don’t you know he knows everything about everything? Even more than the experts in those fields??
LOL remember when he said he knew more about war than the generals?
There probably is some bigoted dovetailing in there. Remember how he said something about Jewish “genes” and Covid? And, odds this is points to a “circumcision is unnatural ” campaign?
Yet somehow this fool is not the target of the administration’s antisemitism witch hunt. These monsters are the very definition of every accusation is a confession.
Tylenol is the only otc pain medication I can take and these fools are not going to be happy until it’s blamed for everything and banned, I will admit to stocking up on Tylenol just in case. I long for a return to the days when sane people were in charge.
Interesting. Having watched a circumcision in nursing school they give the baby sugar water, not Tylenol. But what do I know?
Yup. And when done in a Jewish home they’re often given a wee drop of Kosher wine, the longterm impact probably being…nothing.
This man is clearly mentally ill. And that is who this…..thing….selected to head this agency. We are actually living through this time. This is horrifying. And as we head into flu season…..Mask up, people, mask up.
Not mentally ill–just incredibly, astoundingly, impressively stupid.
Also, undermining willingness to circumsize could lead to increased transmission of HIV. These people are malevolent.
I am a healthcare provider who does circumcisions every day that I work. We don’t give these babies Tylenol before, during, or after. In fact, we recommend against giving Tylenol at all for the first two months because we don’t want to potentially mask a fever in a baby. A fever before the age of 2 months in a baby is a big deal and is most often referred to the ER for full evaluation. Therefore, these babies shouldn’t be getting Tylenol at all and we certainly don’t give it around circumcision/the immediate newborn period.
THANK YOU for saying this. It’s not a thing. And it’s terrifying that he’s saying it is – against the experience of all the parents out there who had their kids circumcised. So. Dumb….
Thank you Mariana for your knowledge and experience and being the voice of reason.
This administration is doing a great job of undermining experts like you in favor of inexperienced RW kooks peddling laughable and dangerous conspiracy theories.
Exactly! I’m a little surprised he isn’t going after Big Sugar on this one
First off, it is dangerous to continue to embark on these divisive rants on autism as it continues to stigmatize and marginalize those who have it. Kennedy and the rest of these morons just need to STFU already.
Secondly, does this man wake up every day obsessively thinking about autism? Does his brain worm feed him AI like chatter on supposed root causes? First Tylenol and now circumcision? What’s next? Women drinking red wine increases a baby’s chances of being autistic? Can the media please stop covering this man already?!!!
Thirdly, ENOUGH coverage of these batshit crazy cabinet meetings where nothing but vicious and harmful lies are being spewed on a regular basis. These meetings and pressers prove that it is not just Trump who needs to be placed in a straitjacket and carted off to a padded room.
Yes! I don’t understand why we’re always getting trump’s ugly mug on TV! All these televised press conferences & cabinet meetings! No other president has done that & for good reason! They were actually working!
I’m from Europe and circumcision is generally less of a thing here but a very large percentage of American men have been circumcised, right? So are their completely made up data of of ‘more circumcision in America’ + ‘more (diagnosed) autism in America’ correlation must mean causation thing?
Circumcision rates in the U.S. are declining significantly. It’s now about 50/50 for new baby boys. I don’t live in California but have been told insurance there no longer covers circumcisions, as the medical evidence to circumcise is quite weak.
And yet part of the alarmism is that cases of autism have been rising. If it’s related to circumcision, shouldn’t they be declining?
I have a kid who has an autism diagnosis, but they told me that he would have never gotten one even 10 years ago. (Honestly, it might not be a “stable” diagnosis if he were to be retested.) He’s a quirky and brilliant STEM nerd, and his existence is a huge blessing and not any kind of tragedy. I definitely wouldn’t trade him for any other kid.
Anyway, he asked me the other day if I’d taken Tylenol while I was expecting him. It broke my heart. I didn’t need Tylenol because I never had any fevers or substantial pain during my pregnancy, and we didn’t have him circumcised either. In our family, he’s perfect, and RFKJR can go f*** right off.
Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry he had to hear RFK Jr’s stupidity! These fools really don’t know how they’re affecting people’s lives.
I cannot listen to his “swamp frog on the brink of death” voice anymore. What are these studies that he keeps referencing and don’t seem to have any merit? Are they Facebook posts from random “wellness” conspiracy theorists?
He is a walking clown car of baseless conspiracy theories. Seems like he announces a new one every week.
This is crazy. RFK jr is very dangerous.
He is an absolute stain on his father’s initials. My sister & I call him “Bobby the Lesser” (wishing the moniker would go viral) as David Simon noted on Bluesky:
“I just can’t help but reflect on Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 campaign and how focused & deliberate he was on making vulnerable American lives better & using government as a means to do so. And how what’s left of him must be a g*ddam turbine right now spinning furiously between the grass at Arlington.
EDIT: BENEATH the grass. Autocorrect is both an assassin & a moron.”
The secretary of Health and Human Services does not know the difference between a placenta and a uterus. And, in defense of Grey’s Anatomy, I think you could get a more scientifically accurate medical education binge watching that than listening to Dumb and Dumber.
I’ve been listening to a pod about incels that said studies show that there are higher rates of autism among the incel community. This is NOT at all to suggest that there’s a link between violent ideology and autism–TO BE AS CLEAR AS POSSIBLE. But in the incel realm there’s a very dangerous perception–rooted in internalized ableism–that autism is an inherent flaw that prevents young men from finding a girlfriend. Makes me wonder if this is the same, deeply dangerous, fringe RW ideology bleeding into the brain of RFK Jr. Of course, it could just as well be that RFK Jr has always been an ableist monster. Either way, the abhorrent and baseless lies he keep putting out there about autism harms and endangers the entire autistic community.
ETA: Meant to add that I only bring this up because I cannot for the life of me understand why they’re targeting neurodivergent folks so deliberately and consistently. It’s baffling.
They’re acting as if autism is the worst thing that can happen to a person, parent or child.
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH it’s all just so fn DUMB I hate it here!
My husband and I both retired from healthcare on April 1, 2025 specifically because of this man (and thank God we could!). The death toll from this administration is going to make the pandemic look like nothing.
He must have been circumcised twice.
Good Lord, his face!
Notice he doesn’t produce said video. He claims it’s true without any verification.
“PolitiFact found video of a since deleted TikTok that appears to be of Michelle Vu, a Columbia University fellow in the department of obstetrics and gynecology.
“28 weeks pregnant, you know what I’m gonna take? Some Tylenol, acetaminophen,” Vu said while taking pills out of a Tylenol bottle. “It’s gonna work like a charm and my baby won’t have autism.”
Vu appears to take two pills, in line with the typical recommended dose.
The worm has full control.
So he hates Jews, autism and over-the-counter pain relief drugs. When will he and his fascist buddies outlaw all of them? Letitia James has just been indicted. They are very serious about eliminating all enemies, including the first three on the list. Why can’t it stop?
i remember the birth of my placenta fondly. came out like a delicate flower, we unfolded it and there it was, our baby boy <3
jesus.
Oh my God! This sheer madness, this unbelievable stupidity and ignorance leave one speechless.
Women … don’t forget women. I can assure that Bobby Kennedy loathes women.
And please tell me Trump didn’t weigh in on women enduring pain in his fantasy opinions.
And BTW quit calling it Tylenol. I saw some MAGA chickadee on TikTok talking about “finding a substitute …”. You guessed it I’m sure … she bought a massive bottle of ACETAMINOPHEN.
“And I’ll take one uncircumcised nephew, whose Mother didn’t take any medication or get any vaccinations while pregnant, but is STILL non-verbal and autistic versus RFK Jr.’s nonsense for $500, Ken!”
All three of my sons were circumcised. No religious reason. Their father was so they were. I was present for my first son’s circumcision. They clamped the foreskin and clip it then place the bulb to hold foreskin back. The Dr wanted me to see it didn’t hurt them. He screamed with the cut but as soon as the Dr relieved the clamp he instantly stopped crying. He said when they are 1/2 days after birth, they forget. That said, Ratfuq, Jr. needs to be in jail forthwith.