RFK Jr. Threatens Wild Ban on How NIH Scientists Can Share Work

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn’t want government scientists to publish their work in the world’s leading medical journals.

In the Ultimate Human podcast on Tuesday, the secretary of health and human services accused the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet of being “corrupt” and in the pocket of major pharmaceutical companies.

“Unless those journals change dramatically, we are going to stop [National Institutes of Health] scientists from publishing in them and we’re going to create our own journals in-house,” Kennedy said. The NIH is the world’s largest funder of health research.

Last week, the HHS released a report saying that overprescribed medications were the source of increased chronic diseases in children, blaming the pharmaceutical industry and a culture of fear for preventing doctors and scientists from studying these diseases’ root causes. And earlier this month, the Justice Department sent threatening letters to medical journals around the country, accusing them of partisanship.

“It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications … are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates,” wrote Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia at the time, in a letter to the medical journal CHEST. According to NPR, the letters did not cite any evidence to back up Martin’s claims.

The head of the NIH, Jay Bhattacharya, said in an interview earlier this month that he supports academic freedom, meaning that “I can send my paper out even if my bosses disagree with me.”

On the surface, that would seem to run counter to Kennedy’s proposed ban, but Bhattacharya and Food and Drug Administration chief Marty Makary, who are both also vaccine skeptics, just happen to have launched their own medical journal, Journal of the Academy of Public Health. The two are listed as “on leave” from the journal, which has raised concerns about promoting misinformation.

“It looks like a well-put-together journal, it’s been nicely designed and so forth,” Carl Bergstrom, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington, told the journal Science. “But when you look at the papers that have been published and at the editorial board, you see that it’s really dominated [by] a small clique of contrarians around the COVID pandemic. There is certainly nothing like even representation of consensus viewpoints within infectious disease epidemiology.”

For all of their talk about academic freedom and corruption, Kennedy, Bhattcharya, and Makary seem to be pushing their own views and stifling others’. Their appointments also coincide with mass layoffs and staff purges at their respective agencies, leaving behind smaller staffs less likely to raise objections out of fear of losing their jobs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is no longer recommending Covid-19 vaccines to young children and pregnant women—even though the agency’s own research recommends doing so.

The lifesaving jab was removed from the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule Tuesday at the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another Covid shot despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children,” Kennedy said in a video statement, promising that the move would advance the Trump agenda to “Make America Healthy Again.”

But exactly how Kennedy came to the conclusion that avoiding the booster would be healthier for those groups is unclear, especially when the CDC lists pregnancy as a condition that increases the risk of experiencing “at least one severe Covid-19 outcome” based on its own research.

Young children are also at a higher risk of developing serious illness. Babies 6 months old and younger face the same health risks as adults who are between the ages of 65 and 74, American Academy of Pediatrics vaccine expert Sean O’Leary told The New York Times last week.

But vaccination during pregnancy can actually offset that risk, granting children temporary immunity to some illnesses, such as Covid-19, before they’re even born thanks to the transfer of protective antibodies.

“These antibodies can help protect your baby from those diseases during the first few months of life,” according to the CDC. But after six months of life, they wear off—a detail that alarms medical experts about Kennedy’s new strategy, as removing the vaccine from the vaccine schedule will make it harder for parents and pregnant women to get the shot as insurance companies stop paying for them.

Whatever the rationale for stripping the vaccine, it was made without the input of the CDC’s usual advisers: Its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is not scheduled to meet until the end of June.

What is clear though is that Kennedy—a virulent vaccine conspiracy theorist—has made it his mission to attack vaccine access in his time atop HHS.

Kennedy’s contagious beliefs are spreading in spite of the science. Vaccines have proven to be one of the greatest accomplishments of modern medicine. The jabs are so effective at preventing illness that they have practically eradicated some of the worst diseases from our collective culture, from rabies to polio and smallpox, a fact that has possibly fooled some into believing that the viruses and their complications aren’t a significant threat for the average, health-conscious individual.

The Trump administration is halting all student visa interviews while it decides on how heavily it wants to surveil the social media pages of applicants, according to an order to all U.S. embassies reviewed by Politico.

“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued [in a separate telegram], which we anticipate in the coming days,” read the cable, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

While the cable does not specify what platforms or content the State Department will be targeting, it’s likely that the process will target international students who showed solidarity with Palestine online. However, all student visa applicants are expected to undergo the social media vetting.

This move will impede the visa processes of thousands of students, upturning their education, and delay a massive portion of the student population of many American universities.

Donald Trump’s administration may have condemned a 4-year-old girl with a rare bowel condition to death by terminating her legal status as part of the president’s crackdown on immigration, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

The young girl, who was identified by her initials S.G.V. by the Times, and her family were granted humanitarian permission to enter the U.S. legally from Mexico in 2023, so that she could receive treatment for short bowel syndrome, which prevents her from absorbing enough nutrients to remain healthy.

Deysi Vargas, 28, was committed to getting her daughter better treatment than they had received in Mexico City, where her daughter had been kept alive but inadequate care prevented her condition from improving. An appointment in Tijuana they’d made through the CBP One app was their best hope.

“God knew she needed better treatment,” Vargas told the Times. “When we got to the entrance, they saw her and asked us if we needed medical help.”

But last month, the family received a notice telling them to leave the country—threatening the child’s access to the care she needs to live.

In a letter requested by the family, Dr. John Asenault, who treats S.G.V. every six weeks at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, said that any interruption in her daily nutrition regimen could prove “fatal within a matter of days.”

Arsenault said that patients such as S.G.V., who use an IV-administered nutrition system at home called Total Parenteral Nutrition, are typically not permitted to leave the country at all.

S.G.V.’s treatment is incredibly complex. She must be hooked up to an intravenous feeding system for 14 hours a night, and must be administered additional nutrition for an hour, four times a day.

The family’s attorney, Rebecca Brown, of the pro bono legal firm Public Counsel, said that she believed the family’s status had been revoked by mistake.

“This is a textbook example of medical need,” Brown told the Times. “This child will die and there’s no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined the Times’ request for comment.

In April, the Trump administration deported a mother to Honduras, alongside her 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, the latter of whom had been diagnosed with cancer. The Trump administration claimed that the mother had requested her children be removed from the country with her, despite her attorney’s insistence that she wished for her children, both citizens, to remain in the U.S.

Trump’s immigration crackdown has already proved deadly: At least seven immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody died in the president’s first 100 days in office.

Donald Trump has resorted to vague threats against Vladimir Putin in the hopes of getting him to agree to a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The president posted to Truth Social Tuesday morning claiming that if it wasn’t for him, “lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” accusing the Russian president of “playing with fire.”

Trump told the press on Sunday that he was “not happy with what Putin’s doing.”

“He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” Trump said. “We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don’t like it at all.”

Trump’s comments follow Russia’s largest drone and missile attack on Ukraine since the start of the invasion in 2022, with a barrage of bombs falling on Kyiv over the weekend. Putin hasn’t officially responded to Trump’s post, but Russian state media mocked the president.

Russian state television also dismissed the idea of an immediate ceasefire, with one host asking, “Why would we stop? The enemy is strong and cunning, and we are winning.” TV host Vladimir Solovyov also belittled the U.S.-European alliance, pointing out that Trump was pushing high 50 percent tariffs against the European Union.

Trump has long been deferential to Putin, irking Democrats and even some Republicans, and Putin probably feels as though Trump can do nothing to pressure him. And why would he? Trump has a long history of giving Putin whatever he wants. Meanwhile, Russia continues to bombard Ukraine no matter what Europe or the U.S. says.

Paul Walzack, a former nursing home executive guilty of tax fraud, got a full and unconditional pardon from President Trump after his mother attended a $1 million-per-person dinner with the president, according to The New York Times. His mother, a major Trump supporter, also happened to be involved in the 2020 plot to publicize Ashley Biden’s stolen diary.

Walzack was found guilty of stealing over $10 million from the paychecks of the nurses and doctors who worked for him to finance a yacht and other luxury items. He was charged in February 2023 on 13 counts of tax crimes, and eventually pleaded guilty and paid $4.4 million in restitution as Trump won back the White House in November.

Walzack initially received no response from the Trump administration regarding a pardon request he submitted around Inauguration Day. But in April his mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a $1 million entry dinner that included guaranteed face time with the president. The dinner was sponsored by MAGA Inc., a PAC that backs causes and candidates supported by Trump.

It’s not clear whether Fago donated to MAGA Inc., or how much, but three weeks later her son got his pardon.

Walzack and his mother are well established within the MAGAverse. Fago has donated millions of dollars to GOP campaigns. She’s hosted at least three Trump fundraisers and went to the VIP portions of both Trump inaugurations, where she cozied up to the president in photos posted on her Instagram.

Fago was also deeply involved in a scheme to publicize the diary of Ashley Biden, former President Joe Biden’s daughter, after she left it at a beach house in Florida. Aimee Harris, and Robert Kurlander, the individuals who stole the diary, brought it to a fundraiser at Fago’s home in 2020 where it was shown to a Trump campaign organizer. Harris was sentenced to a month in prison, and Kurlander is awaiting sentencing.

This is yet another example of Trump’s flippant use of his executive pardon power. Show him some loyalty, and some money, and you could get out of jail too.

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett dodged an important question Tuesday about Donald Trump’s latest threat to place a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made Apple products.

During an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, a chipper Hassett was asked if there was an off-ramp to prevent an American-manufactured iPhone from costing up to $3,500.

“What is Tim Cook supposed to do?” asked co-host Joe Kernan.

“Right, well, you know, we’ll see how it works out,” Hassett replied. “The bottom line is that what we’re trying to do is onshore as much as we can in the U.S. and make it so the U.S. is not hyper-dependent on imports from China.”

Hassett insisted that an increase in U.S. equipment investments was a sign that supply chains were already adjusting to the president’s sweeping tariffs on foreign-made goods. In reality, Trump’s vacillating tariffs have resulted in uncertainty for the U.S. manufacturing sector and a dip in orders placed with U.S. factories for business equipment.

“In the interim, you know, then we’ll see how things work out,” Hassett repeated, providing no actual answer for how they planned to offset major price hikes for consumers. While Cook could placate Trump by announcing his intention to shift assembly to the U.S., shifting wholesale production could take years.

Hassett downplayed concerns over soaring prices, claiming that CEOs were simply overstating how disastrous the tariffs would be as a negotiating tactic. “Everybody is trying to make it seem like it’s a catastrophe if there’s a tiny little tariff on them right now, to try to negotiate down the tariffs,” he said. “And so, in the end, we’ll see what happens, we’ll see what the end game is, but we don’t want to harm Apple.”

It looks like Donald Trump is seeking to further cash in on cryptocurrency while he’s president. 

The president’s social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, announced Tuesday that it plans to sell $1.5 billion in stock and $1 billion in convertible notes to buy bitcoin. The company will hold bitcoin as one of its assets along with cash and investments that were worth $759 billion at the end of March. 

“This investment will help defend our Company against harassment and discrimination by financial institutions, which plague many Americans and U.S. firms, and will create synergies for subscription payments, a utility token, and other planned transactions across Truth Social and Truth+,” said the company’s CEO Devin Nunes in a press release. 

Trump is making tons of money off cryptocurrency. On Thursday, he held a dinner at his Virginia golf club for the top buyers of his  $TRUMP meme coin, earning a tidy $148 million from the contest, with the “winners” getting a crappy steak dinner for their efforts, aside from the blatant pay-for-access scheme. 

Indeed, everyone who paid to attend the dinner admitted that they were doing so to try to influence the president. It’s corruption taking place right out in the open, with Trump raking in cash from anyone willing to pony up, whether they’re foreign governments or shady businessmen.

There’s no hope of oversight, either, as the White House has unceremoniously ended cryptocurrency investigations and Trump administration staffers scoff at the idea that the convicted felon president could ever be involved in anything unethical. It seems for the next few years, Trump will continue to make bank in questionable ways, despite supposedly having more important duties as president.

While the Trump administration extends its long leash on Russia, Republicans are running out of rope for dealing with the White House.

In reaction to a Wall Street Journal editorial note demanding change in America’s negotiating strategy, Senator Lindsey Graham said that the Senate is “prepared” to do what the president has not, and slap severe sanctions on Moscow.

“I have coordinated with the White House on the Russia sanctions bill since its inception,” Graham penned Tuesday. “The bill would put Russia on a trade island, slapping 500 percent tariffs on any country that buys Moscow’s energy products. The consequences of its barbaric invasion must be made real to those that prop it up. If China or India stopped buying cheap oil, Mr. Putin’s war machine would grind to a halt.

“The sanctions bill has 82 co-sponsors,” he continued. “As [Senator John] Thune said last week, if Mr. Putin continues to play games, the Senate will act. I’m hoping for the best, but when it comes to the thug in Moscow, we should all prepare for more of the same.”

Graham further claimed that Ukraine had been a ready and willing negotiating partner, unlike Russia, and that the Senate would know “which course to take” once Putin provided a “term sheet outlining the requirements for a cease-fire.” But since Donald Trump has taken office, the White House has repeatedly bent to Kremlin demands that prior administrations would have interpreted as outrageous requests.

The U.S. president has claimed that Russia has offered major concessions toward a possible peace deal, although the “concessions” have included staking a Russian flag in Crimea, a deal that would effectively reward Russia for falling short of conquering the entire country.

Senior officials in the Trump administration—including the president himself—have verbally recognized Crimea as a part of Russia, a remarkable reversal of long-standing U.S. policy that made Kremlin propagandists on state-sponsored television laugh at the downfall of American power.

But rising frustration over the ongoing conflict—and Putin and Zelenskiy’s deep hatred for one another—has flustered Trump. Trump has since tried to backtrack his initial promises over the war. In a 100-day retrospective with Time magazine, Trump claimed that his campaign pledge to end the war “on day one” was little more than a joke.

Graham isn’t the only senator going on the offensive against the Trump administration when it comes to Putin. On Memorial Day, Senator Chuck Grassley practically begged the president to do something about the situation in Ukraine.

“I’ve had enuf of Putin killing innocent ppl,” Grassley posted on X Monday after Russia attacked Ukraine with a new volley of drones. “Pres Trump Take action AT LEAST SANCTIONS.”

Federal Judge Brian Murphy lambasted the Trump administration for “manufacturing the very chaos they decry” in a scathing Monday evening order. 

This comes after the Department of Homeland Security deported six men to South Sudan in a hurried move that Murphy identified as a clear violation of his previous preliminary injunction, which required DHS to give “meaningful” notice before deporting someone to  an unfamiliar country, particularly an “unstable” one, without due process. 

“Defendants have mischaracterized this Court’s order, while at the same time manufacturing the very chaos they decry,” Murphy wrote in his Monday order.

“The court recognizes that the class members at issue here have criminal histories,” he continued “But that does not change due process.… The court treats its obligation to these principles with the seriousness that anyone committed to the rule of law should understand.”

Murphy noted that he initially accepted the administration’s own recommendation to keep the men at a U.S. military base in Djibouti rather than send them to South Sudan. But days later, Trump lied about the judge’s order, making it seem as if Murphy had required the men to stay in Djibouti. 

“A Federal Judge in Boston, who knew absolutely nothing about the situation, or anything else, has ordered that EIGHT of the most violent criminals on Earth curtail their journey to South Sudan, and instead remain in Djibouti,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “He would not allow these monsters to proceed to their final destination. This is not the premise under which I was elected President, which was to PROTECT our Nation. The Judges are absolutely out of control, they’re hurting our Country, and they know nothing about particular situations, or what they are doing—And this must change, IMMEDIATELY!” 

This was a complete lie, according to Murphy. 

“The court never said that defendants had to convert their foreign military base into an immigration facility,” he wrote in the memo. “It only left that as an option, again, at defendants’ request.”