Obama rebukes Trump over Tylenol-autism association, saying it's 'violence against truth'

Former US President Barack Obama has publicly rebuked President Donald Trump over the current president’s claims linking acetaminophen (Tylenol) to autism.

Obama labels the claim as “violence against the truth”.

This rebuke comes in the wake of Trump's September 22, 2025, announcement urging pregnant women to limit Tylenol use due to observational studies from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Mount Sinai suggesting a correlation with increased autism and ADHD risks in children. Trump's warning has triggered a firestorm.

Other studies, however, citing improved diagnoses and the widening of the autism spectrum cases, point to a lack of correlation between Tylenol use by pregnant women and autism in children.

World officials and healthcare professionals also cautioned against Trump’s warning, with authorities from Australia to Europe noting there was no conclusive evidence to support the possible association between autism and acetaminophen.

Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in Tylenol and other widely used medications.

There’s no new evidence to warrant a change in guidance. Moreover, in scientific research, even a high degree of correlation does not mean causation.

Obama's comments, made during a speaking tour in London at the O2 Arena, reflect a broader tension between the two leaders, with Obama accusing Trump of undermining public health and creating unnecessary fear among pregnant women and families of autistic children.

The controversy is part of a larger narrative where Trump’s administration has been criticised for spreading misinformation, as seen in previous instances like the COVID-19 response and vaccine rollout, where public health messaging was often contradictory.

Paracetamol is a widely used name for Tylenol beyond the US.

Politicisation of science

Obama’s critique also aligns with ongoing debates about the “politicisation” of science, with Trump’s statements on Tylenol drawing backlash from medical professionals and organisations like ACOG and the FDA, who maintain there is no causal link and affirm short-term use safety.

“Available evidence has found no link between the use of paracetamol during pregnancy and autism,” said the European Medicines Agency (EMA). 

The timing of Obama’s remarks coincides with a surge in public discourse around Tylenol’s safety, fuelled by unverified reports of emergency room visits from intentional overdoses amid the controversy, highlighting the real-world impact of such claims.

Rhetoric

This exchange underscores a recurring theme in US politics where scientific consensus is challenged by political rhetoric, a dynamic that has been particularly pronounced during Trump’s tenure and continues to shape public health policy discussions.

In an interview with Nature, published on September 23, 2025, James Cusack, chief executive of Autistica, a charity for autism research and campaigning in London, said: “There is no definitive evidence to suggest that paracetamol use in mothers is a cause of autism."

And when any associations are "seen", they are "very, very small," said Cusak, who is autistic. "At the heart of this is people trying to look for simple answers to complex problems.”

Sura Alwan, a clinical teratologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, also chimed in: "The evidence does not support a causal link between acetaminophen or vaccines and autism,”

Alwan is also executive director of the PEAR-Net Society, a non-profit organisation in Vancouver advocating for maternal–fetal health and research. “Suggesting otherwise may fuel misinformation and undermine confidence in safe treatments and immunisations.”

Autistic people show differences in social communication and interaction, and, over the past few decades, the reported prevalence of the developmental condition has risen in some countries.

But many researchers who study autism caution that there are insufficient data to link it with acetaminophen, and that focusing on this is merely a distraction.

What is acetaminophen?

The painkiller acetaminophen, or paracetamol, is one of the most widely taken drugs during pregnancy, used by roughly half of all pregnant people worldwide.