The Trump Tylenol Autism Situation Is Crazy & Trump’s UN Speech Was a Weird Humiliating Mess
PDS Published 09/23/2025
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Tylenol causes autism?
That’s what President Trump and RFK Jr. just told America last night, with the president saying:
“Effective immediately, the FDA will be notifying physicians that the use of acet -- well let’s see how we say that -- acetaminophen. Is that okay? Which is commonly, basically known as Tylenol, during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism. So taking Tylenol is… uh… not good. I’ll say it. Not good.” @52:43-53:28
He went on to add that this can be ignored in situations where a pregnant mother has an extremely high fever… although he emphasized that as little Tylenol as possible should be used.
RFK Jr. also spoke, saying that under his leadership he directed various government agencies to look into “all” causes of autism - including the possibility that pharmaceuticals could play a role. [broll @1:06:00]
He went on to say that the previous administration refused to do this and “only” researched the genetic component of autism.
(Which is not true and researchers have long explored a plethora of possible causes with the consensus being that the best studies look at genetic, medical, and environmental data).
To call this controversial is an understatement… but also not a surprise.
That’s because since late last week Trump has been teasing that this was coming, and on Sunday said he strongly believed there was a link between Tylenol and autism.
So that begs the question… is there?
The short answer is “no.”
The more nuanced is still “no,” but it’s not like Trump and RFK Jr. completely made this up.
Their best evidence is a paper from August by Harvard and Mount Sinai researchers which suggests that acetaminophen use early on in a pregnancy MIGHT lead to a TINY increase in autism rates.
The Make America Healthy Again crowd has brought up this paper as “proof” that there’s a link between the two and that Tylenol use needs to be stopped during pregnancy.
But even the researchers on that paper didn’t rule out taking the drug entirely.
Instead they suggested that mothers should take the lowest possible dose since “...the drug is important for treating maternal fever and pain, which can also harm children.” []
Which is in stark contrast to Trump’s recommendation to ONLY take it during an extreme fever… and even then he said “toughing it out” would be better.
However, there’s a lot of research indicating that there’s no link whatsoever.
One of the biggest studies was done by Swedish researchers in 2024.
They looked at cases of autism among nearly 2.5 million kids.
They found what looked like a very small association with acetaminophen use early on in pregnancy and autism…
But when they then compared the findings among siblings who had similar conditions, that link completely disappeared and lead them to conclude that:
“Acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children's risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analysis. This suggests that associations observed in other models may have been attributable to familial confounding.” []
What’s crazy is that even the FDA has distanced itself from claiming there’s any real link.
Right, at the bottom of the page announcing this new recommendation it added:
“It is important to note that while an association between acetaminophen and neurological conditions has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature. It is also noted that acetaminophen is the only over-the-counter drug approved for use to treat fevers during pregnancy, and high fevers in pregnant women can pose a risk to their children.” []
Also you can’t talk about autism without mentioning diagnosis rates.
Trump and RFK Jr. both called it the “Autism crisis,” with Trump going on to say:
“Just a few decades ago 1-in-10000 children had autism… used to be 1-in-20,000, then 1-in-10,000… and now it’s 1-in-31 and in some areas it’s much worse than that.” @50:31
Trump, like many of his followers, has come to the conclusion that SOMETHING is causing it to rise.
But he’s ignoring probably the biggest factor of them all: we actually learned a lot about autism over the years and are FAR better at diagnosing it.
Right, according to Dr. Christine Ladd-Acosta -- who helps gather the data on autism rates that the CDC uses -- the rapid rise in rates is because of two things:
“The first is the broadened definition of Autism Spectrum Disorder, which means that more people are meeting this definition now than previously.”
“Second, there have been many widely successful public health programs that increased screening at wellness visits for children ages 18–24 months to look for signs of autism.” []
She went on to point out that almost everyone in a child’s life is far more aware of the symptoms of autism, making early diagnosis way more common.
Tylenol itself was also not happy that it was being singled-out, saying in a statement on Sunday:
"We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”
"Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy. Without it, women face dangerous choices: suffer through conditions like fever that are potentially harmful to both mom and baby or use riskier alternatives."
Also I wouldn’t be surprised if this announcement is just the tip of the iceberg and we see more moves to “stop” this “epidemic.”
Right, because Trump spent almost half his time also talking about vaccines and suggesting that how quickly they’re given to kids could contribute to autism.
Which again, has zero underlying evidence.
So my money is that’s next on the chopping block.
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Right, we briefly touched on this yesterday, ABC announced he will return to air, releasing a statement saying:
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”[]
For a TLDR on this whole saga, Disney and ABC had been facing a ton of pushback for suspending Kimmel over comments he made following Charlie Kirk’s death.
Many argued this was at odds with free speech, that Disney was caving to the FCC after its chairman suggested he might take regulatory action against the network.
Kimmel’s suspension also came after two major station owners, Nexstar and Sinclair, denounced Kimmel and said they would not air him last week. []
And now, it seems both companies are sticking with that decision even though ABC is bringing him back.
Yesterday, Sinclair said Kimmel’s show would be replaced with news programming and “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”[]
Which some found unsurprising, because in addition to pre-empting the show last week, Sinclair also demanded that Kimmel apologize to Kirk’s family, and make a “substantial” donation to the family and Turning Point USA. []
Then, this morning, Sinclair was followed by Nexstar, which said:
“We made a decision last week to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s ‘ill-timed and insensitive’ comments at a critical time in our national discourse. We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.”[]
And this could really limit Kimmel’s audience, right, Nexstar owns around 30 ABC stations, and Sinclair owns and controls around 40.[]
In fact, between the two, Deadline reports that they make up around 25% of ABC’s affiliate reach.[]
So that is less eyeballs watching Kimmel’s return.
And you might think, that’s no big deal, right anyone who wants to see it can probably watch it on streaming or even YouTube.
But for advertisers, that could be a problem, because they buy time during the broadcast, and now their reach has gone down a big chunk.[]
So we will have to see where this fallout leads us, because both Nexstar and Sinclair might face viewer backlash from those who want access to this program, Disney will also be likely exploring what actions it can take here. []
Nexstar in particular is already catching a ton of heat for its decision today because it is currently in the middle of a $6 billion merger that will need FCC and Trump administration approval, so you have people like Elizabeth Warren writing:[]
“If approved, Nexstar would control TV stations reaching 80% of households — violating the cap set by Congress to protect against monopolies. This censorship of Kimmel reeks of corruption.”
But then, as for how Kimmel came back on air, reports say he had been meeting with Disney execs since Thursday to discuss his return.[]
He has not publicly addressed the situation yet, right, we will have to see what he says tonight to get his thoughts on the matter.
But there were a ton of people speaking out in his favor, as well as many efforts to boycott Disney and cancel streaming subscriptions in hopes that withholding dollars could force the company into changing course.
And AnnaM. Gomez, the sole Democratic commissioner of the FCC, actually gave a lot of credit to those boycotts, writing yesterday:
“I am glad to see Disney find its courage in the face of clear government intimidation. More importantly, I want to thank those Americans from across the ideological spectrum who spoke loudly and courageously against this blatant attempt to silence free speech.”[]
“we must combat these efforts to stifle free expression.”
“It will continue to be up to us as citizens to push back against this Administration’s growing campaign of censorship and control. I will keep fighting ensure local broadcasters have the independence to stand up to government threats.”
And even though many, especially on the right, have argued that ABC’s initial choice to suspend Kimmel was not the result of government-pressured censorship and just a regular business decision, Gomez argued that is not the case.
Calling it, “corporate capitulation,” and claiming that the Trump administration is:
Of course, all eyes will now be on Kimmel tonight to see what he ends up saying about all this, but in the meantime I would love to know your thoughts here.
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The Secret Service just took down a network that could’ve “crippled” New York’s telecom systems – this as more than one-hundred world leaders have gathered in the city for the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, including Donald Trump.
And we’ll get into what Trump had to say and what else is going on with this meeting, but first, let’s talk about this crazy situation uncovered by the Secret Service.
Right, it reportedly followed a monthslong investigation into what authorities have described as anonymous “telephonic threats” made against three high-level government officials – one in the Secret Service and two who work at the White House. []
With CNN reporting that these threats may have been something like the swatting calls we’ve seen directed at more and more public figures over the past few years.
But in any case, back in August, it led to the discovery of an operation the likes of which – according to at least one official – the agency had never seen before.
Right, it reportedly would have been capable of sending an encrypted and anonymous text to every human being in the country within 12 minutes.
With investigators finding more than 100,000 SIM cards and 300 servers at several locations within a 35-mile radius of the UN’s headquarters.
And Matt McCool, the top agent at the Secret Service’s New York field office, saying:
“This network had the potential to disable cellphone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network.”
And with all that, it reportedly became clear to law enforcement that what they had discovered had been built for far more than just making untraceable swatting calls.
In addition to jamming the cellular network, for example, the system could be used for surveillance.
And so investigators have been going through the data on the SIM cards they recovered to see if they can figure out exactly what this is all about.
With McCool saying they expect to find that other senior government officials had also been targeted. []
And of course, that begs the question…by whom?
Well, so far, an initial analysis has reportedly identified ties to at least one foreign nation, as well as links to criminals already known to law enforcement, including cartel members. []
And you’ve had experts saying the scale of the operation suggests that it could be part of a nation’s espionage operation.
With one telling The New York Times that only a handful of countries could pull off an operation like this – including Russia, China, and Israel.
Also, notably, this may only be the tip of the iceberg.
With McCool, the Secret Service agent, saying:
“This is an ongoing investigation, but there’s absolutely no reason to believe we won’t find more of these devices in other cities”
And with that, he also said they’re looking into whether this network was aimed at disrupting the UN General Assembly or spying on the people there – but there’s no evidence of that so far.
Though I will say, that wouldn't be without precedent.
Right, a number of countries have been accused of spying on UN officials or at UN facilities – perhaps chief among them being the United States.
In 2009, for example, a classified memo reportedly directed American diplomats to gather intel on UN leadership.
In 2013, Edward Snowen leaked documents indicating that the NSA had successfully hacked into the UN’s internal video conferencing system the previous year.
And in 2013, the UN actually spoke out against the US over reports that it had spied on private conversations involving Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other top officials.
And in 2023, the UN actually spoke out against the US over reports that it had spied on private conversations involving Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other top officials.
But in any case, fast forward to today, and you had Trump addressing the General Assembly for the first time since 2020.
And as you may know, he’s already made it more than clear he’s not the biggest fan of the UN.
Right, back in February, he signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from and ending funding to certain UN organizations – including the Human Rights Council.
And these and other cuts have left the UN short on cash and struggling to stay afloat.
And with today’s speech, Trump made it more clear than ever that he’s not too worried about it.
Though before we get into it I will note that each speaker is traditionally given 15 minutes to address the assembly.
But Trump? He talked for little over 56 minutes – longer than any speech an American president has ever given at the UN.
So we’re not gonna cover every little detail.
But one recurring theme worth pointing out is that as Trump often does, he repeatedly pointed the finger at Joe Biden and the previous administration:
“Four years of weakness, lawlessness and radicalism under the last administration, delivered our nation into a repeated set of disasters.” (1:52-2:02)
And similarly, sort of the flip side of that, he took credit for digging America out of this whole Biden created in record time:
“One year ago, our country was in deep trouble, but today, just eight months into my administration, we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. And there is no other country even close. America is blessed with the strongest economy, the strongest borders, the strongest military, strongest friendships, and the strongest spirit of any nation on the face of the Earth. This is indeed the golden age of America.”
“On the world stage, America is respected again—like it has never been respected before. You think about two years ago, three years ago, four years, or one year ago—we were a laughingstock all over the world." (2:03-2:32)
And with that, he made a number of, let’s say, bold claims about the state of the American economy, saying he “built the greatest economy in history of the world” during his first term and is doing it again now.
And he similarly celebrated other perceived successes – including the drop we’ve seen in crossings at the southern border.
With him saying other countries are in the exact same situation with immigration, and adding:
"It is destroying your country, and you have to do something about it.." (6:22-6:28)
And with that, you actually had him blaming not only Biden, but the UN itself:
“Not only is the U.N. not solving problems it should, too often, it is creating new problems for us to solve. Best example is number one political issue of our time, the crisis of uncontrolled migration, it is uncontrolled. Your countries are being ruined, United Nations is funding assault on West upper countries and their borders.” (23:45-24:08)
And similarly, you also had him accusing the UN of not even trying to end wars while repeating the false claim that he has ended seven of them:
"No president or prime minister, and for that matter, no other country has done anything close to that, and I did it in just seven months. Never happened before. There has never been anything like that. Very honored to have done it. It is too bad I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them. Sadly the U.N. did not even try to help in any of them. I ended seven wars, dealt with leaders of each and every one of these countries and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing a deal. All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up stopped in the middle." (8:33-9:23)
And with that escalator comment, he also went on to complain about the teleprompter, which was apparently not working at the start of his speech.
And this devolved into this weird tangent that seemingly got at the heart of his problem with the UN.
Which is apparently that several years ago, back before he was president, as a real estate developer he bid on a project to remodel the UN building – and the UN had the audacity to go with another offer:
“They decided to go in another direction, more expensive at the time and produced a far inferior product. I realized they did not know what they were doing when it came to construction and building concepts so wrong and product they were proposing to build was so bad and so costly. It was going to cost them a fortune. I said, and wait until you see the overrun, I turned out to be right. Major cost overrun and spend between 2 and 4 billion on the building and did not even get the marble floors that I promised them.” (12:15-12:53)
“Many things in the United Nations are happening just like that, on an even much bigger scale. Much, much bigger. Very sad to see.” (13:34-13:44)
But getting back to ending wars, as far as specific conflicts, you had him touching on Israel and Gaza, and specifically, the question of Palestinian statehood.
Right, because yesterday, there was a meeting – which was boycotted by the US and Israel – focused on drumming up support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
And it ended with several countries – including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and Monaco – announcing or confirming their recognition of a Palestinian state.
With this coming a day after the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal did the same.
But Trump repeated the argument that has been made by Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, which is that doing so is just a “reward” for Hamas.
Although, notably, you had Secretary-General Guterres pushing back on that idea yesterday – saying statehood is a right, not a reward.
But moving on, you also had Trump addressing the war in Ukraine, which like Israel and Gaza, is going to be discussed a lot this week.
And in fact, yesterday, you had an emergency meeting of the UN security council focused on recent and repeated incidents of Russian aircraft flying above or crashing in NATO countries .
With the UK and Poland vowing to shoot down any Russian aircraft violating their airspace.
But as far as what Trump had to say, you actually had him admitting he thought ending it would be easier because of his relationship with Putin – even saying he thought it “would be the easiest one.”
And beyond that, he claimed the US was willing to do more, but that Europe had to do more first:
“In the event Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs which would stop the bloodshed, I believe very quickly. But for those tariffs to be effective, European nations, you gathered here right now, would have to join us in adopting the exact same measures.” (20:48-21:13)
But finally, the last bit I’ll touch on are Trump’s comments on climate change.
And you should probably just hear for yourself.
“It is the greatest con-job perpetrated on the world, in my opinion. Climate change, you are involved in that. No more global warming or global cooling, all predictions made by United Nations and others often for bad reasons, were wrong. They were made by stupid people that have coast their countries fortunes and given countries no chance for success. You don't get away from this green scam, your country will fail and I'm good at predicting things.” (40:14-40:48)
And with that, you had a BBC reporter in the room reporting that there were actually audible gasps when Trump called climate change a con job – even if it’s not all that surprising. []
Right, Trump is pulling the US out of the Paris agreement and his administration is dismantling climate policy within the US.
Although, notably, of course, the whole world is having a hard time.
There's actually a special climate summit that will be taking place tomorrow at the UN.
And it’s focused on the commitments most nations besides the US have made to weaning themselves off fossil fuels.
But notably, while they were supposed to come up with new five-year plans for curbing carbon emissions by February, it’s now September and only 47 of the 195 nations have done so. []
But that’s where we’re at right now and I’d love to hear your thoughts on any and all of what we talked about here.
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The Trump administration is taking a baseball bat to environmental protections!
Including delaying the cleanup of chemicals putting military communities at risk and trying to axe the basis for nearly all greenhouse gas regulations.
And those chemicals? They’re known as PFAS (P-F-A-S) or forever chemicals.
And they’re called forever chemicals because instead of breaking down, they’re incredibly long-lasting in the environment.
Now, the Pentagon has been one of the most prolific users of PFAS - in part because they’re a key ingredient in firefighting foam. []
For decades, crews at military bases across the country have started jet-fuel fires for training purposes and then put them out using mass amounts of this foam.
Which leads to PFAS leaching into the soil and groundwater.
And in 2017, military communities across the country started reporting alarming levels of forever chemicals in their drinking water.
And the significance of that can’t really be understated - a growing body of research has linked exposure to PFAS to serious health concerns including some types of cancer as well as child developmental and fertility issues.
New Mexico even sued the Air Force over it in 2019 - saying the federal government should clean up the pollution and pay for damages to the natural resources and private property.
But there’s a couple pretty massive problems with that cleanup effort - the sheer scale and the price tag.
According to the New York Times, the Defense Department has spent $2.6 billion since 2017 just investigating the extent of the contamination.
And the government estimates that the process for cleaning up all of the PFAS around contaminated military sites will take decades and cost nearly $7 billion a year.
With the director of defense capabilities and management at the Government Accountability Office saying,
“It’s a very long-term process, and there’s just so much uncertainty. This is going to be a massive effort.”
And the reason we’re talking about this now is because the DoD actually just quietly delayed the cleaning up of PFAS at nearly 140 military installations across the country.
You see, in the last days of the Biden administration, the Pentagon released a general timetable for handling the PFAS pollution problem.
But a revision was recently posted by Trump’s DoD with no announcement and a New York Times analysis found that this new timeline would delay cleanup around military sites by a decade in some cases.
Right, specifically these delays are messing with the work that needs doing before the actual cleanup can even begin - which can, in itself, take years to complete.
Which means the actual cleanup process won’t start, in some places, until 2039.
And these delays reportedly caught the military installations affected completely off guard.
With a city councilor in Westfield, Massachusetts - home to the Barnes Air National Guard Base - saying,
“There’s been no discussion of a delay. It’s very upsetting and depressing that we haven’t had clearer communications.”
And we saw Democratic Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet from Michigan speak out against this lack of communication - saying,
“Communities impacted by PFAS chemicals have been waiting decades for cleanup, and they’ve been kept in the dark. When cleanup timelines change, residents deserve to know.”
Now, the timing here is also worth noting because these delays come as the National Defense Authorization Act for 2026 is looking to cut funding for the cleanup of toxic sites.
As well as trying to undo a ban on the purchase and use of PFAS firefighting foam - which could just make this problem worse. []
And we have yet to see a response or explanation about this whole thing from the DoD or the Trump administration - with the Times saying they did not respond to requests for comment.
But this isn’t the only environmental rollback we need to talk about.
Right, Senate Democrats have all come together to sign a letter in opposition of the Trump administration’s proposal to axe the 2009 endangerment finding.
And if you’re unfamiliar, the 2009 endangerment finding is the scientific determination that concludes planet-warming greenhouse gases are, in fact, a danger to the public.
It is the frame on which nearly all greenhouse gas regulations sit upon. []
Both the Biden and Obama administrations used it to set strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants, and other industrial sources of pollution.
But back in July, the Trump administration proposed rescinding the endangerment finding - saying subsequent research cast doubt on its conclusion.
With CNN noting that the studies Team Trump used to support this argument were authored and published by scientists who deny the existence of climate change and have been trying to plant doubt about it for years. []
Regardless, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said this proposal, if approved, would be the “largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States.” []
Promising that revoking the endangerment finding would, quote, “end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers.” []
And, as you can imagine, we’ve seen a lot of pushback to this.
Especially since the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published a report with the strongest evidence to date that greenhouse gases are threatening human health.
But this unification of Democrats is the latest and maybe one of the most important updates.
With the effort being led by Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse - who is also the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee - as well as Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
And their letter reads,
“Scientists, financial experts, international governments, and the American public agree that climate change is a looming crisis.” []
Adding that greenhouse gas-driven climate change is causing all sorts of extreme weather and saying,
“These effects drive illness, hospital visits, and deaths, as well as displacement, asset loss, infrastructure damage, rising insurance premiums, declining home values, and long-term destabilization of the national economy. … And yet, in this proposal, EPA proposes to abdicate all responsibility to address this dangerous pollution.”
From here, we’re just going to have to wait and see how things play out - with the PFAS cleanup delay and the endangerment finding proposal.
In the meantime, I would love to know your thoughts about this in those comments down below.
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But then finally, for your last thing today, I just had a conversation with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro about the state of political violence, especially because he himself was a target.
What's next for our country and how he can justify saying things like, Jalen Hurts is a better quarterback than Josh Allen for a mini episode of my podcast In Good Faith, and that phone conversation that we'll podcast, it'll be out in the next 24 to 48 hours.
But also Kamala Harris's book coming out today. I just had to ask him about an excerpt where he was mentioned on the note of speech.
We might you might not like and on, the note of learning more, I know that in recent podcasts and interviews, you've said that you have not read Kamala Harris's book. One. Do you want a book club it together? And two, apparently in one of the excerpts, Harris said that you were more focused on defining the role of VP for yourself instead of helping her win, and that you were already asking aides about artwork that you could put up in the Naval Observatory. Is that is that true?
No. And listen, the only thing I was focused on was helping her win.
And once she made the determination that Governor Walz was going to be a running mate. By the way, Tim's a really good friend of mine, Gwen. His wife's a really good friend of my wife, Lori's. And I can tell you we were genuinely happy for them.
And then I worked my ass off in Pennsylvania and across this country to try to help them get elected. Traveling with Governor Whitmer, Governor Evers to all the battleground states.
Heck, I was showing up in rural communities in Pennsylvania where the Harris campaign never showed up. I was trying to do everything in my power to help her win.
The only thing I was focused on was making sure she defeated Donald Trump.
Well, that brings us to the end of this video. You got even more just a click away, because I've just been doing more and more podcasts.
I got a brand new podcast with Ed Ellison from Property Markets over here, and I also just did this new podcast with Mr. Beat and click or tap to watch either of those.
But also I've got links in the description to our Spotify, Apple podcast and YouTube version so you can get filled in wherever you like no matter what you do.
Let me just say thank you for watching. I love your faces. And of course I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
