President Donald Trump has what one analyst described as a "mysterious obsession" with vaccines that could wreak havoc on the American people long after he leaves office.
Trump, along with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has embarked on one of the most flagrant anti-vaccine campaigns in modern history, culminating with revising the childhood vaccine schedule to reduce the total number of vaccines required. Russ Baker, a Democratic analyst, speculated in a new Substack essay on Sunday that the reason why Trump has embarked on such a crusade is that Trump believes vaccines are responsible for the "atypical" nature of his youngest son.
"I can’t read his mind, of course (nor would I want to), but there’s a curious temporal coincidence that might explain Trump’s fixation on the 'harm' caused by vaccination: On March 20, 2006, his son Barron was born," Baker argued. "By the next year, Trump was fulminating about vaccines causing babies to be born with various problems — including autism."
"Now, one wants to be careful about drawing connections — and to say anything about a young person still finding their way in the world, albeit with a lot of help — but Barron Trump has often been described as 'atypical,'" Baker continued.
"If his father, who has been cruel about human imperfections (remember his vicious mockery of disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski), was unhappy dealing with a child possibly born with some impediments — and if that father was the kind of person who cannot accept the reality that such things happen, and therefore likes to blame others, and other causes — then, well, we have a pretty good reason for him to look for an excuse," he wrote. "Like … vaccines."
Baker also warned that Trump's obsession could have devastating consequences going forward.
"This dangerous state of affairs may be one of Trump’s most lasting legacies, having a profound and enduring impact on the US population, its well-being, and even its national security. It stands to touch virtually every family in some irreversible way," he wrote.
