Fact-Checking Donald Trump’s Statements on Vaccines

The president made several misleading statements while announcing an executive order on the childhood vaccine schedule. Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. President Donald Trump signed an executive order August 10 seeking changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. The order calls for reducing the number of diseases for which universal immunizations are recommended from 17 to 11 and designates vaccination for diseases including rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, and meningococcal meningitis as either “recommended for certain high-risk groups or populations” or subject to “shared clinical decision-making” rather than recommended for all children. Ashley Dowdney is a Dispatch intern from Asheville, North Carolina. She graduated in 2026 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in Classics and Peace, War, & Defense. When she isn’t writing, you’ll find her running, making some new fermented food, and maybe even evangelizing about 19th century literature. More We Think You’d Like