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RWhitcomb-editor 9/28/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/28/25

Llewellyn King: Trump policies are threatening U.S. leadership of world science

*Entrance to the MIT Museum, in Cambridge Mass. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founded in 1861, has played a major role in advancing science and engineering.*
*S5A-0043* *photo*

WEST WARWICK, R.I.

Pull up the drawbridge, flood the moat and drop the portcullis. That, it would seem, is the science and research policy of the United States circa 2025.

The problem with a siege policy is that eventually the inhabitants in the castle will starve.

Current actions across the board suggest that starvation may become the fate of American global scientific leadership. Leadership which has dazzled the world for more than a century. Leadership that has benefited not just Americans but all of humanity with inventions ranging from communications to transportation, to medicine, to entertainment.

An American president might have gone to the United Nations and said, “As we the people of America have given so much to the world, from disease suppression to the wonder of the Internet, we should expect understanding when we ask of you what is very little.”

This imaginary president might have added, “The United Nations is a body of diverse people, and we are a nation of diverse people.

“We have been a magnet for the talent of the world from the creation of this nation.

“We are also a sharing nation. We have shared with the world financially and technologically. Above all, we have shared our passion for democracy, our respect for the individual and his or her human rights.

“At the center of our ability to be munificent is our scientific muscle.”

This president might also have wanted to dwell on how immigrant talent has melded with native genius to propel and keep America at the zenith of human achievement -- and keep it there for so long, envied, admired and imitated.

He might have mentioned how a surge of immigrants from Hitler’s Germany and elsewhere in Europe gave us movie dominance that has lasted nearly 100 years. He might have highlighted the energy that immigrants bring with them; their striving is a powerful dynamic.

He might have said that striving has shaped the American ethos and was behind Romania-born Nikola Tesla, South Africa-born Elon Musk or India-born and China-born engineers who are propelling the United States leadership in artificial intelligence. The genius behind Nvidia? Taiwan-born Jensen Huang.

I have been reporting on AI for about a decade — well before ChatGPT exploded on the scene on Nov. 30, 2022. All I can tell you is wherever I have gone, from MIT to NASA, engineers from all over the world are all over the science of AI.

The story is simple: Talent will out, and talent will find its way to America.

At least that was the story. Now the Trump administration, with its determination to exclude the foreign-born -- to go after foreign students in U.S. universities and to make employers pay $100,000 for a new H-1B visa -- is to guarantee that talent will go somewhere else, maybe Britain, France, Germany or China and India. Where the talent goes, so goes the future.

So goes America’s dominant scientific leadership.

At a meeting at an AI startup in New York, all the participants were recent immigrants, and we fell to discussing why so much talent came to the United States. The collective answer was freedom, mobility and reverence for research.

That was a year ago. I doubt the answers would be as enthusiastic and volubly pro-American today.

The British Empire was built on technological dominance, from the marine chronometer to the rifled gun barrel to steam technology.

America’s global leadership has been built, along with its wealth, on technology, from Ford’s production line to DuPont’s chemicals.

Technology needs funding, talent and passion (the striving factor). We have led the world with those for decades. Now that is in the balance.

President Trump could make America even greater: beat cancer, go to Mars, and harness AI for human good.

Those would be a great start. To do it, fund research and attract talent. Keep the castle of America open.

On X: @llewellynking2

Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, on PBS, and an international enerygy consultant. He’s based in Rhode Island.

White House Chronicle

RWhitcomb-editor 9/27/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/27/25

The intersections of disruption

*“Les Ocean Melodies’’ (acrylic on canvas), by Serj Tankian, in his show “The Art of Disruption,’’ at the* *Armenian Museum of America,* *Watertown, Mass., through Feb. 28, 2o26.*

The museum explains:

Inspired by Mr. Tankian’s 2024 memoir Down with the System, this immersive exhibition highlights the intersections of music, painting, and protest that define his work. Best known as the frontman of the Grammy Award-winning rock band System Of A Down, Tankian has also emerged as a powerful visual artist and advocate for social justice, genocide recognition, environmental protection, and Armenian cultural identity.

RWhitcomb-editor 9/27/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/27/25

Chris Powell: Build housing without sprawl; are schools sanctuaries for illegals?

MANCHESTER, Conn.

Supposedly there was going to be a special session of the Connecticut General Assembly in the fall to arrange a compromise on the housing legislation passed by liberal Democratic legislators during this year's regular session but vetoed by Gov. Ned Lamont. Fall is here but neither the governor nor the legislature has issued such a call. It's not clear what's happening.

But in a commentary the other day the Yankee Institute's Meghan Portfolio argued that a special session would not be good for democracy. “Special sessions often operate in the shadows," she wrote. “Bills frequently don't appear until the very day of the vote, sometimes only hours before. Towns, taxpayers, and even rank-and-file legislators are left in the dark. This isn't policymaking. It's ambush politics."

Indeed, special-session legislation can get written by a few leaders without public participation and review. Only after its enactment are the “rats’’ in the legislation discovered -- provisions that never would have been approved if adequately publicized.

Connecticut's housing shortage is an urgent problem, the biggest factor in the state's outrageously high cost of living. But the thrust of the vetoed legislation -- reducing the obstructive influence of suburban zoning and imposing more rent control -- was never going to get much housing built quickly. Mainly the legislation would have let liberals feel better about themselves even as it made them hypocrites on environmental protection.

Many towns that have used zoning to exclude the middle and lower classes don't have the infrastructure necessary for higher-density housing -- water, sewer, and electrical systems, wide roads, and school capacity.

Of course their exclusive zoning was meant to keep things that way. But tearing up the countryside with more suburban sprawl to spite the bigoted snobs will have more disadvantages than it's worth when there is a much faster and more efficient way to build housing.

Connecticut's cities and inner suburbs are full of abandoned industrial property, decrepit tenements, and vacant or half-empty shopping centers. Many are eyesores. Additionally, much office space in the cities is vacant. All these properties are already served by the necessary infrastructure and redeveloping it as housing would do no environmental damage. Most of their neighbors might be glad if something shiny and new replaced the eyesores.

This is where Connecticut's urgent housing effort should concentrate, and that effort should be managed by a state housing development board, empowered to condemn decrepit or underused properties, take others by eminent domain, and option the properties to developers for market-rate housing, with the options withdrawn if developers fail to make quick progress.

A state whose leaders seem to think that the state government has enough money to buy the Connecticut Sun WNBA basketball team, when the state already has two nationally ranked public university teams, should have no trouble finding the money to build thousands of units of housing in a hurry. Or the state could skip the basketball team purchase and just build the housing instead.

xxx

Governor Lamont is right to want federal immigration agents to stop wearing masks and to start wearing badges and clothing identifying them as government agents when they make arrests. Masked and unidentified and looking like gangsters, the agents invite getting shot or stabbed by their targets or bystanders. Connecticut U.S. Rep. John B. Larson has introduced legislation in Congress to stop the gangsterism.

But the governor recently went far beyond the sensible. He held a press conference with school superintendents to discourage immigration agents from making arrests at schools, though there seem to have been no such arrests in Connecticut. The governor said he wants everyone to “feel safe" in school.

Why should people “feel safe" anywhere in the country if their presence is illegal? Why should immigration law not apply inside a school? If, as the governor, state Atty. Gen. William Tong, and many state legislators keep insisting -- that Connecticut is not a “sanctuary state" -- what would the governor make schools if not a sanctuary?

Of course journalists spared the governor the trouble of explaining. When obvious questions are politically incorrect, they can't be asked.

Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years (CPowell@cox.net).

RWhitcomb-editor 9/26/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/26/25

Mannie Lewis: Boston’s first big dig and big fill

*From Wikipedia:*
*“View (1858) from the* *State House* *dome westward along the Mill Dam (now Beacon Street), which separated Back Bay (left) from the Charles River. The Mill Dam and the Cross Dam (in distance, in modern* *Massachusetts Avenue*-*Kenmore Square* area, with mills barely visible near juncture with the Mill Dam) were part of an attempt to derive mill power from river tides. Trees along north-south waterline represent western boundary (now Arlington Street) of the *Boston Public Garden.’’*

From The Boston Guardian, slightly edited. Top picture is from Wikipedia

(Full disclosure: New England Diary’s editor, Robert Whitcomb, is chairman of The Boston Guardian board.)

Walking past Newbury Street’s quaint shops or strolling Commonwealth Avenue’s boulevards, it may seem bizarre that Back Bay could be a recent creation. But until the mid-19th Century, the now opulent neighborhood was nothing more than a low tidal marsh.

The conception of Back Bay as a neighborhood first came to Boston as a geographic crisis. By the 1840’s, Irish immigrants made up a substantial portion of the downtown population, which was previously contained on the undersized Shawmut Peninsula, and the need for expansion became undeniable.

The problem was exacerbated by the flight of Brahmin elites. Unable to cope with the practical and cultural demands of immigration, many of Boston’s old families put pressure on the government to find a solution. Smaller areas around the peninsula had already been filled in, but city officials needed something grander, not only to accommodate the immigrants, but also to keep traditional elites downtown.

But ultimately, it took a more concrete crisis to fill Back Bay. In 1814, the Massachusetts General Court (aka legislature) had authorized the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation (BRMC) to build a dam across the Back Bay. On the promise of factories and jobs, the dam isolated the Bay from the Charles and further divided it into two basins, deriving energy from the ebb and flow of tides.

Though the dam was never popular, its propinquity to the city would be its undoing. At the time, local sewers were designed to dump their contents at the nearest shoreline, meaning that the isolated basins received a constant stream of garbage and excrement.

Over the following decades, the situation deteriorated to such an extent that an 1849 city committee described Back Bay as “nothing less than a great cesspool, into which is daily deposited all the filth of a large and constantly increasing population.”

To address the health crisis as well as the housing demand, the city established the Commissioners on Boston Harbor and the Back Bay, tasked to fill in the basin and cover the exposed sewage. Soon after, a series of agreements allocated work and land rights between the city, Commonwealth and BRMC.

Money, however, proved to be an enduring obstacle. Because the state legislature barred the project from receiving taxpayer money in 1856, the state was forced to sell land as they progressed. Instead of working west to east, which would have saved time and energy, the state began its work east to west, putting the newest parcels of land on display for wealthy Beacon Hill residents.

As the work dragged on, innovative technology soon came on full display. Shovels, handcarts, and gravity railroads of earlier decades were quickly replaced by the steam evacuator, a massive mechanical shovel that contractors George Goss and Norman C. Munson used.

When a train arrived on site, which happened around-the-clock until 1863, two steam evacuators would dig out a chunk of land and dump it in the car. According to reports, a 35-car train could be filled in 10 minutes, replacing the work of nearly 200 men.

It took several decades, but the neighborhood slowly emerged.

By 1876, the state had finished the majority of its role and replaced $1.6 million in expenditures with a $5 million profit, nearly $90 million today, largely due to their focus on building upper-middle-class residences and preserving the value of Commonwealth Avenue.

Miscellaneous work continued for decades, but the old marsh quickly became a downtown staple. Thousands of residents now call Back Bay home and millions more walk its streets yearly, perhaps the reason many take the old marsh, larger than the Shawmut Peninsula itself, for granted.

Mannie Lewis reports frequently for The Boston Guardian.

RWhitcomb-editor 9/26/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/26/25

‘Kitsch and catharsis’

*“Floral Glory” (blown and sculpted glass), by Nancy Callan, in the show “Nancy Callan and Katherine Gray: The Clown in Me Loves You,’’ at at the* *Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Mass., through March 1. The show is sponsored by* *Artscope Magazine.*

— *Photo by Russell Johnson. Image Courtesy of Fuller Craft Museum.*

The museum explains:

“A sculpted fusion of kitsch and catharsis, this exhibition marks a dynamic, four-year collaboration in glass between West Coast artists Nancy Callan (Seattle) and Katherine Gray (Los Angeles). In this remarkable body of work, Callan and Gray explore our collective experiences with—and reactions to—clowns. Whether found in childhood memories, in circuses and parades, among those we love, or in our political worlds, clowns are ubiquitous. The artists use traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques to spark viewers associations and emotions, while mining complex social commentaries. It may seem like light-hearted fun, but multiple layers of feelings and realities emerge—is it a tunnel of love, a house of horrors, or a combination of both?

“The artists seek to explore reactions to ‘clowns’ and all that the word entails - ‘whether {they say} found in childhood memories, in circuses and parades, among those we love, or in our political worlds, clowns are ubiquitous.’ The artists hope to elicit associations and emotions, and mine ‘complex social commentaries.’’’

RWhitcomb-editor 9/25/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/25/25

Robert Whitcomb: Fortunes are made in the far-right demagoguery industry

Charlie Kirk, like his Great Gilded Leader Trump, found that demagoguery can be very lucrative, especially as the educational level continues to slide in the U.S.

The very able organizer was making a nice pile as co-founder and CEO of the far-right, marketed-to-young-people Turning Point USA. That was before Tyler Robinson, 22, like Mr. Kirk a son of affluent Republican parents, allegedly shot the 31-year-old to death. Making such gruesome attacks easier is that America is awash in guns, to no small degree because of Republican antipathy to any gun control. (Robinson’s gun was apparently his grandfather’s.) In the past few decades, the National Rifle Association, the gun industry and the Republican Party have essentially merged.

Of course, America has always been heavily armed, but it has reached astronomical levels, with 400 million guns now; of course plenty of people don’t own any.

In any event, it’s been noted that both Mr. Kirk and Robinson came from the same toxic digital/podcast/cable-TV/YouTube ecosystem, in which violent threats abound.

Mr. Kirk’s shows, rife with bigotry, lies and insults, brought him an estimated net worth of $12 million at his death. His salary for running his right-wing machine was $407,000 back in 2021, the last year for which his pay was reported. But then, he was a charismatic leader to his pumped-up followers, most of them young and

overwhelmingly white, and few of whom were interested in researching, let alone challenging, his assertions. We seem to be heading into a post-literate society. Mr. Kirk was aided by many Americans’ staggering willful ignorance about the history of their own country.

Never let the facts get in the way of a story if that brings in more revenue! Just ask the remarkably cynical and amoral Rupert Murdoch, of Fox News, and Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook, who have made BILLIONS from the lies-and-outrage industry.

The charismatic provocateur Kirk had famously said he didn’t like the word “empathy,’’ preferring the word “sympathy,’’ though in his vitriolic remarks he often showed little of either, though obviously he could be warm and charming when needed.

Here are the standard definitions of two kinds of empathy:

Cognitive empathy: The mental ability to understand another person's perspective, thoughts, and feelings without necessarily feeling them yourself.

Emotional empathy: When you “feel” another person's emotions. What they are experiencing emotionally has an impact on your emotional state.

Here’s one of self-proclaimed Christian Mr. Kirk’s not untypical remarks:

“Joe Biden is a bumbling, dementia-filled Alzheimer's, corrupt tyrant who should honestly be put in prison and/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America.”

Here’s a bunch of other interesting remarks by Mr. Kirk.

Of course, it will get worse.

Robert Whitcomb is editor of New England Diary.

RWhitcomb-editor 9/25/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/25/25

Adam Nemeroff: We’re drowning in AI slop

*In 2024, AI-generated “Shrimp Jesus" images proliferated on Facebook.*

From The Conversation

Adam Nemeroff is assistant provost for innovations in Learning, Teaching, and Technology at Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Conn.

He does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic appointment.

You’ve probably encountered images in your social- media feeds that look like a cross between photographs and computer-generated graphics. Some are fantastical – think Shrimp Jesus – and some are believable at a quick glance – remember the little girl clutching a puppy in a boat during a flood?

These are examples of AI slop, low- to mid-quality content – video, images, audio, text or a mix – created with AI tools, often with little regard for accuracy. It’s fast, easy and inexpensive to make this content. AI slop producers typically place it on social media to exploit the economics of attention on the Internet, displacing higher-quality material that could be more helpful.

AI slop has been increasing over the past few years. As the term “slop” indicates, that’s generally not good for people using the Internet.

AI slop’s many forms

The Guardian published an analysis in July 2025 examining how AI slop is taking over YouTube’s fastest-growing channels. The journalists found that nine out of the top 100 fastest-growing channels feature AI-generated content such as zombie football and cat soap operas.

Listening to Spotify? Be skeptical of that new band, The Velvet Sundown, that appeared on the streaming service with a creative backstory and derivative tracks. It’s AI-generated.

In many cases, people submit AI slop that’s just good enough to attract and keep users’ attention, allowing the submitter to profit from platforms that monetize streaming and view-based content.

The ease of generating content with AI enables people to submit low-quality articles to publications. Clarkesworld, an online science fiction magazine that accepts user submissions and pays contributors, stopped taking new submissions in 2024 because of the flood of AI-generated writing it was getting.

These aren’t the only places where this happens — even Wikipedia is dealing with AI-generated low-quality content that strains its entire community moderation system. If the organization is not successful in removing it, a key information resource people depend on is at risk.

Harms of AI slop

AI-driven slop is making its way upstream into people’s media diets as well. During Hurricane Helene, opponents of President Joe Biden cited AI-generated images of a displaced child clutching a puppy as evidence of the administration’s purported mishandling of the disaster response. Even when it’s apparent that content is AI-generated, it can still be used to spread misinformation by fooling some people who briefly glance at it.

AI slop also harms artists by causing job and financial losses and crowding out content made by real creators. The placement of this lower-quality AI-generated content is often not distinguished by the algorithms that drive social media consumption, and it displace entire classes of creators who previously made their livelihood from online content.

Wherever it’s enabled, you can flag content that’s harmful or problematic. On some platforms, you can add community notes to the content to provide context. For harmful content, you can try to report it.

Along with forcing us to be on guard for deepfakes and “inauthentic” social-media accounts, AI is now leading to piles of dreck degrading our media environment. At least there’s a catchy name for it.

RWhitcomb-editor 9/25/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/25/25

‘A little narrow’

*John P. Marquand’s house on Kent’s Island, near Newburyport, to Newburyport.*

“Sometimes here on Pequod Island {summer place in Maine} and back again on Beacon Street, I have the most curious delusion that our world may be a little narrow. I cannot avoid the impression that something has gone out of it (what, I do not know), and that our little world moves in an orbit of its own, a gain one of those confounded circles, or possibly an ellipse. Do you suppose that it moves without any relation to anything else? That it is broken off from some greater planet like the moon? We talk of life, we talk of art, but do we actually know anything about either? Have any of us really lived? Sometimes I am not entirely sure; sometimes I am afraid that we are all amazing people, placed in an ancestral mould. There is no spring, there is no force. Of course you know better than this, you who plunge every day in the operating room of the Massachusetts General, into life itself. Come up here and tell me I am wrong.”

― John P. Marquand (1893-1960) in his 1937 satirical novel about Boston Brahmins, The Late George Apley. He came from an old Yankee family in Newburyport, Mass.

RWhitcomb-editor 9/25/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/25/25

To honor our trees

In *Alan Sonfist’s* *exhibit “Leaves: The Endangered Species of New England,’’ on the Bellarmine Lawn of the* *Fairfield (Conn.) Art Museum* *through June 1, 2027.*

The museum explains:

“The leaves installed on the Bellarmine lawn are on loan to the Fairfield University Art Museum for the next year from the American artist Alan Sonfist (b. 1946), best known as a pioneer of the Land or Earth Art movement. These four larger-than-life aluminum sculptures of leaves (only three visible in picture above) were created in 2011 and represent several of New England’s most beloved native trees: the American Beech, the American Chestnut, the Burr Oak, and the Sugar Maple. The sculpted leaves act as reminders to honor and protect the trees, and as a warning that failure to do so could result in their extinction.’’

RWhitcomb-editor 9/24/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/24/25

‘Fluttering meaning’

*“Pachinko Mon Amour 3’’ (acrylic and watercolor), by Steven* *Bogart, in his show “Pachinko Mon Amour and other inventions,’’ at* *Kingston Gallery, Boston, Nov. 6-30.*

The gallery says:

“The show’s vibrant, surreal paintings fuse humor, abstraction, and satire, drawing inspiration from the kinetic energy of pinball, with their bright lights, rhythmic sounds, and unpredictable movements, and Japanese Pachinko to probe humanity’s fascination with distraction and play. In these new works Bogart playfully explores the tension between organic geometry and imagined perspectives.’’

He says:

“I invite viewers into spaces where meaning flutters like a shimmering, ricocheting pinball, serving as a foil to the rigid architectures of logic.’’

RWhitcomb-editor 9/24/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/24/25

James T. Brett: Why New England needs this housing legislation

BOSTON

Housing affordability remains one of New England’s biggest economic issues. From Boston’s competitive rental market to small towns dealing with aging housing stock, the pressure is widespread. Employers find it hard to attract workers, families spend more of their income on housing, and communities face difficult choices between upgrading infrastructure and keeping housing affordable.

That is why the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act of 2025, the ROAD to Housing Act, is such a vital piece of legislation. With the bipartisan leadership of U.S. Senators Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, the bill passed the Senate Banking Committee unanimously this summer. Housing is not a partisan issue; it is a shared economic necessity.

The bill addresses the crisis from multiple angles: increasing supply, preserving affordable units, empowering local governments, and encouraging private investment. For New England, where high costs and limited land create particularly serious challenges, the ROAD to Housing Act provides essential tools.

One highlight is the $1 billion Innovation Fund, championed by Senator Warren. This program would award competitive, flexible grants to communities expanding housing supply. Municipalities that modernize zoning or adopt creative reforms can use funds to improve infrastructure, build new homes, or upgrade essential systems. It is a model that rewards local initiative while respecting community decision-making.

The bill would also enhance the role of private investment. The Community Investment and Prosperity provisions would raise the Public Welfare Investment cap for banks from 15 percent to 20 percent, giving financial institutions more flexibility to direct funds into affordable housing and community projects.

In a region with top-tier banks eager to support local development, this provision presents a significant opportunity to increase resources without additional taxpayer costs.

Additional reforms would streamline programs and lower costs. Removing the cap on units that can be converted under the Rental Assistance Demonstration program would help maintain affordable housing. Updates to Community Development Block Grant allocations would encourage communities to remove barriers such as restrictive zoning. And revisions to National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requirements would cut unnecessary delays in building much-needed housing.

Together, these provisions would create a pathway to a healthier housing market. By combining federal leadership with local flexibility and public-private collaboration, the ROAD to Housing Act establishes the conditions for sustainable growth and stronger communities.

For New England, this isn’t just policy — it’s an economic imperative. The region’s ability to attract talent, grow businesses, and sustain communities depends on affordable, accessible housing. Without it, our workforce and economy cannot thrive.

The New England Council commends Senators Warren and Scott for their bipartisan leadership and urges swift passage of the bill in both chambers. With support from builders, bankers, mayors, and nonprofits, the momentum is here. Now it is time to act.

At the council, our mission is to foster growth and opportunity across all six states. Few issues matter more to that mission than housing. The ROAD to Housing Act offers a chance to strengthen our economy and renew the American Dream for families from Boston to Burlington, Providence to Portland.

James T. Brett is the president and CEO of The New England Council, a regional alliance of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and health and educational institutions.

RWhitcomb-editor 9/23/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/23/25

‘Wry edge’

This is the current show at the gallery of the Central Congregation Church, in Providence.
Rhode Islander Robert O.Thornton, who is 102, returned after World War II for his BFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and never left. He retired from RISD in 1992 after 35 consecutive faculty shows and 37 years as RISD Museum photographer. His large canvases are unfailingly innovative and mildly controversial. His early style, formed with a wry edge and cynical opinion of the human psyche, extends otherwise familiar forms of anatomy and places to create darkly humorous compositions where the two-dimensional design overrides accurate portraiture. His later investigations capture even darker political themes or provide contrast in the softness of impressionistic Rhode Island seascapes and figure studies.

RWhitcomb-editor 9/23/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/23/25

Amy Waxman: Trump dangerously distorts facts on Tylenol, autism and vaccines

From Kaiser Family Foundation Health News

Ann Bauer, a researcher who studies Tylenol and autism, felt queasy with anxiety in the weeks leading up to the White House’s much-anticipated autism announcement.

In August, Bauer and her colleagues published an analysis of 46 previous studies on Tylenol, autism, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Many found no link between the drug and the conditions, while some suggested Tylenol might occasionally exacerbate other potential causes of autism, such as genetics.

Bauer, an epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, and her team called for more judicious use of the drug until the science is settled.

On Monday, President Trump stood beside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for what he called a “historic” announcement on autism. “If you’re pregnant, don’t take Tylenol, and don’t give it to the baby after the baby is born,” Trump said. “There are certain groups of people that don’t take vaccines and don’t take any pills that have no autism,” he added, without providing evidence. “They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace.”

A fact sheet released alongside the White House briefing cited Bauer’s analysis. But she was alarmed by Trump’s comments. If prenatal Tylenol has any association, which it may not, it would help account for only a fraction of cases, she said. Further, research has not deeply examined Tylenol risks in young children, and many rigorous studies refute a link between vaccines and autism.

Bauer worries such statements will cut both ways: People may put themselves at risk to avoid vaccines and Tylenol, the only safe painkiller for use during pregnancy. And she frets that scientists might outright reject her team’s measured concerns about Tylenol in a backlash against misleading remarks from Trump and other members of his “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

“I’m really concerned about how this message is going to play out,” she said. “It’s a sound-bite universe, and everyone wants a simple solution.”

Autism experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were neither consulted for the White House’s long-awaited autism announcement nor asked to review a draft of the findings and recommendations, CDC scientists told KFF Health News, which agreed not to identify them because they fear retaliation.

“Typically, we’d be asked to provide information and review the report for accuracy, but we’ve had absolutely no contact with anyone,” one CDC researcher said. “It is very unusual.”

Trump and Kennedy promised this year that under their leadership the federal government would swiftly figure out what causes autism. Scientists who work in the field have been skeptical, noting that decades of research has shown that no single drug, chemical, or other environmental factor is strongly linked to the developmental disorder.

In addition, both Trump and Kennedy have repeated the scientifically debunked notion that childhood vaccines may cause autism.

Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of the Center for Autism Research Excellence at Boston University, called Trump’s comments dangerous. Fevers can harm the mother and the developing fetus, she said, adding that fevers are more strongly associated with autism than Tylenol.

In an emailed response to queries, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said, “We are using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates.”

White House spokesperson Kush Desai wrote, “President Trump pledged to address America’s rising rate of autism, and to do so with Gold Standard Science.”

Had CDC scientists been allowed to brief Kennedy, they say they would have cautioned that simple fixes won’t make a dent in the number of autism cases in the United States: As many as 1 in 31 8-year-old children had autism spectrum disorder in 2022.

Systemic changes, such as regulations on air pollution, which has been linked to asthma and developmental disabilities including autism, and assistance for parents of disabled children, could improve lives for far more Americans with autism and other conditions than actions taken by the Trump administration on Sept. 22, researchers say.

One federal action is to consider updating the label on Tylenol and to “encourage clinicians to exercise their best judgment in use of acetaminophen for fevers and pain in pregnancy by prescribing the lowest effective dose for the shortest duration.” The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists already recommends acetaminophen “as needed, in moderation, and after consultation with a doctor.”

An estimated 62% of women in the United States and Canada report taking Tylenol during pregnancy.

‘Political Crusade’

Despite Kennedy’s many years of speaking about autism, he rarely cites credible autism research or expert recommendations, Tager-Flusberg said. Instead, Kennedy repeats fringe, scientifically debunked theories linking vaccines to autism, despite rigorous studies published in peer-reviewed journals that refute a link.

At the Sept. 22 briefing, Trump said he spoke with Kennedy about autism 20 years ago: “We understood a lot more than a lot of people who studied it,” he said. Ahead of Trump’s first term in 2017, Kennedy said he met with the president to consider a commission on vaccine safety and autism. It didn’t happen then. But soon after Kennedy was confirmed as health secretary, he called autism “preventable,” pointed to “environmental toxins,” and contradicted the results of a CDC study finding that the main driver of rising autism diagnoses was that doctors increasingly recognize the disorder.

At a televised Cabinet meeting in April, Kennedy told Trump, “By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”

“You stop taking something, you stop eating something, or maybe it’s a shot,” Trump replied.

“He is on a political crusade,” Tager-Flusberg said of Kennedy, adding that vaccines, Tylenol, aluminum, and food dyes make for simple targets to rally against. “We know genetics is the most significant risk factor,” she said, “but you can’t blame Big Pharma for genetics, and you can’t build a political movement on genetics research and ride to victory.”

“RFK makes our work harder,” said Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher and the author of a book about his autistic daughter, Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism. He said the book stemmed from conversations with Kennedy in 2017, in which Hotez shared studies pinpointing more than a hundred genes linked to autism, and research into the complex interplay between genetics, biological processes, and things that children and fetuses encounter during development.

“I sat down with him and explained what the science says, but he was unwilling or incapable of thinking deeply about it,” Hotez said. “He is extremely careless.”

In addition to its focus on Tylenol, the White House said it would move to update “prescribing information” on leucovorin — a medication related to the B vitamin folate — to reflect its use as an autism treatment. A small clinical trial in 2012-13 suggested the drug may help treat language problems in some children with autism. Tager-Flusberg said the findings warrant further study but clarified these were “old data, not a breakthrough.”

Likewise, studies finding a modest association between autism and prolonged Tylenol use were published years ago. Researchers have suggested the medicine might occasionally exacerbate factors associated with autism, such as genetics and oxidative stress, a biological condition that occurs for a variety of reasons that scientists are still unraveling.

Still, these studies couldn’t rule out the possibility that fevers prompting women to take Tylenol, rather than the medicine itself, might instead be to blame. Fevers and infections — including those prevented by vaccines — have also been linked to autism.

Nonetheless, Bauer’s recommendation would be to pause before taking acetaminophen while pregnant — blanket advice that doctors give for all medications during that period, but which may be ignored. “Try to alleviate discomfort in some other ways, like with a cold compress, hydration, or massage, before taking it,” Bauer said.

She welcomed the White House’s motion to consider labeling Tylenol to emphasize judicious use of the drug but worries about how the MAHA movement might distort a careful message. On Sept. 2, the right-wing news outlet One America News Network posted an interview with newly appointed CDC vaccine adviser Robert Malone, writing that Malone “speculates RFK Jr. may have an important announcement this month regarding a potential link between Tylenol, multiple vaccinations and autism in children.”

“I was sick to my stomach,” Bauer said, concerned that Kennedy would link her study to discredited theories, causing doctors and scientists to reject her far more measured work.

‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’

Several medical and scientific associations have called for Kennedy’s removal or resignation. Many scientists are skeptical of what he says because much of it has been misleading or wrong. For example, he’s said HIV isn’t the only cause of AIDS (it is), that antidepressant drugs cause mass shootings (they don’t), that older adults don’t have severe autism (some do), that the measles vaccine causes brain swelling (it doesn’t), that covid vaccines were the deadliest vaccines ever made (they aren’t), that vaccines aren’t safety-tested (they are), and that vaccines contribute to autism (they don’t).

“This is like the boy who cried wolf,” said Brian Lee, an epidemiologist at Drexel University. “One day he might be right about something and Americans who are not prone to conspiracies won’t trust it because it’s coming from RFK’s mouth. And that could be a problem.”

What’s more, the Trump administration is eroding scientists’ ability to probe the safety of pharmaceuticals, said Robert Steinbrook, head of health research at Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer protection group.

“Public Citizen is very supportive of research on medications that could be linked to diseases,” he said. “But it needs to be through an open process, which looks at scientific evidence, and which doesn’t cherry-pick studies to support a preconceived point of view.”

Steinbrook said the administration has undermined his confidence in the government’s ability to conduct credible work. The Food and Drug Administration has held less than a third the number of advisory committee meetings this year as it did last, meaning fewer opportunities for experts to discuss research on the risks and benefits of drugs. The Trump administration has fired hundreds of career scientists at the CDC and FDA and cut millions of dollars in research funds, including to projects studying autism.

In early September, the CDC issued an unusual contract with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to analyze datasets for signs that vaccinated children were more likely to have autism. Unlike with other research initiatives, the CDC didn’t post an open call for applications in advance. This allows agency experts to review proposals and select studies best designed to answer the question at hand.

CDC researchers told KFF Health News that experts in the agency’s autism and disability group weren’t aware of the contract or asked to review the proposal. That’s important, they said, because researchers digging through data to find clues about autism must show how they’ll rule out biological and environmental exposures that muddy the results, and ensure that children have been accurately diagnosed. One researcher said, “It absolutely looks like Kennedy has subverted the grantmaking process.”

The CDC and HHS did not respond to KFF Health News’ requests for information on the grant, including through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The new vaccine study is separate from Kennedy’s autism data-science initiative, which was posted as an open call at the National Institutes of Health. “The hope is that something good comes of it, and that the government won’t cherry-pick or censor what scientists find out,” Lee said.

Bauer said she didn’t apply to be part of the initiative because of Kennedy’s outsize presence at HHS.

“I would not take his funding because it could take away from the credibility of my study,” she said, “in the same way that taking money from pharmaceutical companies does.”

Amy Maxmen is a reporter for Kaiser Family Foundation Health News.

amaxmen@kff.org

RWhitcomb-editor 9/23/25 RWhitcomb-editor 9/23/25

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