U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that rising autism rates in the country must be due to artificial or external factors, once again fueling unproven conspiracy theories related to the disorder.
“It used to be 1 in 10,000, and now it’s 1 in 31 for autism. I think it’s terrible. It has to be external, it has to be artificially induced, it has to be,” Trump said at an event for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, created during his new administration.
Trump has made similar unsupported claims about autism in the past. In a 2007 Fox News interview, he stated, “When I was growing up, autism wasn’t really a factor. And now all of a sudden, it’s an epidemic. … I strongly believe that the massive doses of vaccinations that they are giving small children … has to do with autism.”
According to an April report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the prevalence of autism in the United States has increased from 1 in 36 children to 1 in 31 by age 8.
However, it’s unclear which study Trump was referring to with the “1 in 10,000” statistic, as the CDC does not have records from before 2000, when autism was diagnosed in 1 in 150 children.
Medical experts and the scientific community have rejected the definition of an autism “epidemic” previously used by Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—also present at Thursday’s event—attributing the wide variation to more advanced screening methods and updated diagnostic criteria.
“We will not allow our public health system to be taken over by the very industries that are supposed to oversee it. That’s why we demand answers, the people demand them, and that’s why we’re here,” Trump added.
At Thursday’s meeting, the MAHA Commission presented its new report, which identifies ultra-processed foods, environmental chemicals, digital consumption habits, and over-medication as “key factors” allegedly harming the health of American children.
The 69-page document also calls for increased scrutiny of childhood vaccines (which Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly claimed could cause autism, and Trump has not denied), eight types of food colorings, additives, and pesticides, without providing scientific evidence linking them to autism, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), or obesity.
The report also includes multiple comparisons with European dietary standards and criticises the U.S. food supply for its over-reliance on these colorings and additives, prompting Trump to call on food companies to gradually reduce their use.