US President Donald Trump is reportedly frustrated with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for not moving fast enough to cut childhood vaccine recommendations or establish a link between vaccines and autism, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Trump is said to be fixated on the scientifically discredited claim that vaccines cause autism and wants an "autism remedy" to form part of his political legacy, believing that scaling back vaccination schedules could help achieve this. The matter is significant because it suggests the White House is pushing for further rollbacks to US vaccine policy despite the health risks and political unpopularity such moves carry.

Kennedy has already taken numerous steps that alarmed public health experts, including reshaping a key vaccine advisory committee with anti-vaccine allies, scrapping recommendations for the hepatitis B birth dose and the combined MMRV shot, and narrowing the US childhood vaccine schedule to mirror Denmark's. Some of these changes have been blocked in court, prompting concern that Kennedy may now pursue harder-to-reverse regulatory measures instead. The Journal reports that Trump has vented directly at Kennedy, accusing him of having "the yips", and that officials are now discussing whether Kennedy could be sidelined or replaced, with Medicare chief Chris Klomp already taking on wider departmental responsibilities and speculation that Mehmet Oz could succeed Kennedy after the midterms.