Just how personal is the autism issue to ‘Dr’ Trump?
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As he delivered a passionate appeal about autism and the supposed dangers of paracetamol to pregnant women, Donald Trump said he “always had very strong feelings about autism”.
How long is “always”?
And just how “strong”?
More to the point, why?
As regards the timeline, Mr Trump himself has said he’s been waiting 20 years for a chance to sound the alarm on autism.
Certainly, reports record Mr Trump displaying some interest in autism at least from December 2007. Then, he hosted leading members of Autism Speaks, an autism advocacy group at Mar-a-Lago. It’s not clear if he was doing it as a favour to NBC former chairman Bob Wright, whose grandchild had autism. At the time, Mr Trump was hosting an NBC show ‘The Apprentice’ and it may have seemed politic to pay attention to Autism Speaks, which Mr Wright had founded.
Even so, a senior member of Autism Speaks who attended the Mar-a-Lago brunch, says even then, Mr Trump displayed decided concerns around vaccines and an interest in autism. Alison Singer, then executive vice president of the advocacy group, told The New York Times that both Mr and Mrs. Trump were at the brunch, along with their son Barron, a mere infant at the time. “Melania was carrying Barron, he was a baby, and even at that time, Donald Trump did talk about his interest and concerns around vaccines. I do believe that he comes to the question of trying to find the cause of autism legitimately”.
That offers some sense of the hold the issue has on Mr Trump. Enough in fact for a non-medical US president to turn quack doctor in full view of a watching world, to spout contested medical advice about vaccines and the analgesic and fever-relieving drug acetaminophen.
So here’s the question: Why does autism have such purchase on ‘Dr’ Trump?
LBC’s James O’Brien, one of Britain’s most cerebral and gifted broadcasters, mused on his talk show on September 23 about academic opinions on autism and eugenics. Mr O’Brien was speaking the day after Mr Trump’s passionate commentary on autism. The LBC host wondered if the desire to blame autism on a pain-relieving medicine (as well as the pregnant women who take it) was an exercise in egotism. Was it, in part, because a people who regard themselves as racially superior could not acknowledge the possibility of passing on genetic conditions such as autism?
