Former president Barack Obama said Wednesday that President Trump was committing “violence against the truth,” citing Trump’s recent announcement that sought to tie autism to acetaminophen use by pregnant women.
Obama made the comment while speaking at London’s O2 Arena as part of a speaking tour in Europe. The appearance came two days after Trump announced his administration would be warning pregnant women about acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, and suggested it could cause autism, alarming health experts who say there is little evidence of a connection between the two.
Obama began by invoking “the spectacle of my successor in the Oval Office making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproven.”
“The degree to which that undermines public health, the degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant, the degree to which that creates anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic – which, by the way, itself is subject to a spectrum, and a lot of what is being trumpeted as these massive increases actually have to do with a broadening of the criteria across that spectrum so that people can actually get services and help,” Obama said. “All of that is violence against the truth.”
Obama’s remarks were notable because he does not frequently comment on domestic politics, let alone while speaking abroad. He shared a video of his remarks Thursday morning on X.
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The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Obama, who served as president from 2009 to 2017, also recently criticized the administration over the pressure it put on ABC over the comments that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. ABC suspended Kimmel’s show last week before allowing it to return Tuesday.
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Trump’s Monday announcement put his administrations at odds with decades of evidence and the guidance of many major medical associations, which say it is safe for pregnant women to take acetaminophen. Trump suggested they avoid the drug unless they cannot “tough it out.”
“Taking Tylenol is not good,” Trump said at the White House alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “I’ll say it. It’s not good.”
While Obama does not normally comment on Trump, Trump has made his predecessor a target during his second term.
In July, Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, accused Obama of a “treasonous conspiracy” to undermine Trump and submitted a criminal referral to the Justice Department on the matter. A spokesperson for Obama issued a rare statement denouncing the allegations as “bizarre” and “ridiculous.”
On Thursday morning, hours after Obama’s talk in London, Trump posted a video on social media of comments he made to reporters in July agreeing with Gabbard’s allegations.