Donald Trump has admitted that his administration is being “ripped apart” by the fight over COVID-19, which caused chaos in Washington, D.C. last week, after the Daily Beast reported on secret discussions to pull the vaccine.
Trump demanded that drugmakers justify the ongoing use of their COVID vaccines by releasing new evidence in a Labor Day morning rant. It is the first major public indication that Trump is beginning to lose faith in his own vaccine program amid an onslaught of criticism from within the MAGA community.
Vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. limited access to COVID shots last week as tensions within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over how to deal with the pandemic burst to the surface.
The Daily Beast revealed last Monday that one of RFK Jr.’s close advisors expected COVID vaccines to be discontinued within months. Dr. Aseem Malhotra claimed that allies of Kennedy and members of the Trump family were pushing for an immediate ban.
Trump opened the door to a possible policy change by saying he wanted to see more evidence made public.
“It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Up until now, Trump has been happy to claim credit for “Operation Warp Speed,” which resulted in a record-breaking rollout of vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic.
After the Beast reported on possible plans to halt the vaccine program, Trump fired Susan Monarez, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. government’s national public health agency.
The move led to the shock resignation of four of Monarez’s senior CDC colleagues, who warned that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—widely regarded as an anti-vaxxer—was not following science on his vaccine policies.
Now, in a wild social media post, Trump has finally addressed the damage within his administration for the first time.
Saying he’d been “shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary,” but that the companies “never seem to show those results to the public,” he said: “I want them to show them NOW, to CDC and the public, and clear up this MESS.”
In reality, the CDC and other public bodies have access to a vast array of data and results from Pfizer and other vaccine manufacturers.
Invoking his pandemic-era effort, he added: “I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???”
He then admitted: “With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW.”
The turmoil could mark a stunning change in direction from Trump, who spent the first-term boasting about vaccines to a second-term alignment with their detractors. Kennedy’s anti-mRNA crusade has become popular within MAGA circles, leaving Republican voters split on the issue.
Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry quit the CDC in response to the firing of Monarez. She told the Daily Beast that Kennedy’s push would endanger vulnerable Americans, while other departing officials cited political interference.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, HHS, and Pfizer for comment.
The White House has previously defended its approach as grounded in “gold-standard science,” while dismissing outside speculation about policy shifts.
Pfizer did not immediately respond to questions about the data Trump claims to have seen.
The post Trump Admits His Administration Is Being ‘Ripped Apart’ by Vaccine Fight appeared first on The Daily Beast.
