During late September of 2025, the already controversial Trump administration made another questionable claim. At a briefing in the White House, President Trump and a member of his administration, HHSS Rfk Jr, introduced the idea that acetaminophen, a drug used in painkillers like Tylenol, is the underlying cause of Autism and the reason diagnoses have skyrocketed in the past few years. They announced that they would be taking actions to limit the usage of said drug, by changing labels, issuing warnings for pregnant women, and encouraging Federal Authorities to make moves against it as well.

This announcement “stirred up the already simmering pot”  quite a bit, because their claim was based only on surface-level research conducted once. This sort of misinformation could lead to serious consequences, as drugs like Tylenol, which include acetaminophen, are used in almost every American household.

 These “experiments” that the Trump Administration concluded the link between Autism and Tylenol were conducted under very casual circumstances, and were not looked at in depth. They monitored mothers and their kids based only on stats that were incomplete, didn’t follow scientific methods, and also didn’t take into consideration any other variables that might have affected their analysis. Scientifically speaking, their claim was already invalid because, contrary to their studies, numerous pre-existing ones conducted by well-known scientists/groups had already proven them wrong.

 One such study that contradicts the Trump administration’s claims was a case released in 2024 by Swedish scientists. This study was conducted over the span of several years (1995-2019) and followed over 2 million children, their mothers, and their siblings into adulthood, looking for newly emerging symptoms, and concluded that it was actually genetics and saw no links between acetaminophen causing Autism or ADHD, also another claim made by the Trump administration.

Alongside research made specifically towards this misconception, the FDA itself has previously stated that Tylenol is actually one of the safest over-the-counter pain killers for pregnant women; even so, they aren’t actively speaking out against Trump’s announcement, but they have said that his claims need more research and therefore should not be taken too much into consideration.

The WHO, however, has spoken out and taken a more defensive stance. They have stated “…there is currently no conclusive scientific evidence confirming a possible link between autism and the use of Acetaminophen during pregnancy”. This statement undermined the narrative being pushed by the Trump administration.

On a separate side of the same note, however, here are some actions the Trump Administration has enabled in favor of their announcement.

• Leucrovin is being labeled as a treatment for children who are experiencing autism related symptoms.
• The Trump admin. Is funding more and more into studies to prove themselves right

Yes, diagnoses have indeed increased, almost exponentially, in the past few decades; however, it’s not because they’re “spreading”. It’s because, as science progresses, new additions to the diagnoses of Autism increase the space on the spectrum. It has become more socially acceptable to have mental illnesses, and research has advanced. It has nothing to do with Acetaminophen. Especially not when Tylenol was introduced to the public (1955), 12 years after the first known diagnosis of Autism (1943- Dr Kanner).  How is something that didn’t exist back then supposed to cause an illness? I’ll leave you readers to figure that one out!