CNN anchor Jake Tapper confronted TV doctor-turned-Trump administration official Dr. Mehmet Oz about the president’s insistence that pregnant women should not take Tylenol.
Trump bizarrely asserted Monday that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, has led to an increase in autism, and that pregnant women should therefore not take the over-the-counter pain relief drug—a claim many medical experts vehemently dispute.
Oz, the administrator of the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, took a more measured approach during a TMZ interview Wednesday, and likewise when questioned by Tapper.
“President Trump, at that press conference, said nearly a dozen times, ‘Don‘t take Tylenol. Don‘t take Tylenol,’” Tapper reminded Oz.
Kimmel’s show put together a montage of Trump insisting dozens of times yesterday to “DON’T TAKE TYLENOL.” Complete insanity. pic.twitter.com/7GlRwc4VpX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 24, 2025
“In a letter to physicians, though, the Food and Drug Administration said that a causal relationship between taking Tylenol by pregnant mothers and autism has not been firmly established,” the host continued. “The HHS says doctors should use their best judgment.”
Tapper then asked: “So why did the president say ‘Don‘t take Tylenol,’ when it seems as though that‘s not the exact specific recommendation?”
Oz replied that one brief comment by Trump at the beginning of Monday’s press conference was a sufficient qualifier.
Trump had said of the Food and Drug Administration’s guidance to doctors: “They are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary, that’s for instance in cases of extremely high fever.”
Oz then admitted “it will take us at least five more years to figure out for sure if there‘s a causal relationship between Tylenol and autism,” before conceding that “we may never know it for sure.”
“Even the company acknowledges that we don‘t know for sure what happens when we take medications during pregnancy,” Oz told the CNN anchor. “That‘s why there‘s almost no medications that you would take for a high fever if you‘re pregnant. And we want people to take Tylenol in that setting.”
“I would argue the majority of consumption of acetaminophen are taken by women who don‘t realize that we don‘t have that level of security around its safety, and they have a minor ache and pain, or they have a low-grade temperature, which by themselves may not be a problem anyway. And they just popped a pill because they think it‘s not a problem.”
Oz then argued that relatively new environmental factors, as opposed to genetics, are the main cause of autism.
“A five-fold increase in the incidence of autism in a quarter century is not from your genes. They don‘t change that fast,” he said.
Tapper countered that that could simply be because middle-aged people and older haven’t been diagnosed.
“Part of the reason there has been increased diagnoses is because medical understanding of autism has increased. So there’s more understanding and so more diagnoses,” he said.
“Without question,” Oz, 65, agreed. “But in addition, look at someone my age—our age. Secretary Bobby Kennedy’s age. We don’t have a lot of people our age who are on the autism spectrum… I don’t remember ever meeting a child when I was a kid who was on the spectrum.”
Tapper again replied that decades ago there “just wasn’t the same understanding of it.”
Oz agreed, but stood by his belief that “there’s a real increase, not just a measured increase” in diagnosed cases of autism today.
Multiple health authorities have rejected Trump’s assertion.
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, for instance, released a statement saying in part: “Suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are not only highly concerning to clinicians but also irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy.”
The post Dr. Oz Confronted With Reality Check Over Trump’s Autism Claims appeared first on The Daily Beast.
