Trump's Campaign Says He is Only Against Covid Vaccine Mandates, not All Vaccine Mandates

An important debate within the Medical Freedom Community

Recently Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has put his full support behind Donald Trump for President, with an exciting plan to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). I fully trust Kennedy, but like many medical and health freedom activists who have paid attention for many years, I do not trust Donald Trump.

These concerns are not just from me; other leaders in the Medical Freedom community have expressed similar (though not identical) opinions including Dr. Mary Bowden, Toby Rogers and John Gilmore among others.

One of the points some have thrown in my face in 2024 as to why my distrust in Trump is misplaced is the claim Trump does not support “any” vaccine mandate. When I have checked the sources on this, they are always the same scripted statement from Trump, read off a teleprompter, saying that he will not “give one dollar to any school with a vaccine mandate or mask mandate.”

“What vaccine mandate is Trump talking about?” I have always asked. All of Trump’s supporters who engaged me on this always told me this meant “any” vaccine mandate.

Yesterday we found out that is not the case.

Coming from The Hill:

Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly said he would “not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.” The Republican nominee’s campaign says he is only referring to school COVID-19 vaccine mandates...”

Why is this important?

There are 5 states in America where it is impossible to get vaccine exemptions for children attending school. California, Connecticut, New York, Maine, and West Virginia. The other 45 states have valid pathways to obtain religious or philosophical exemptions to vaccination. In New York it is now even impossible to get a medical exemption to vaccination; a public health reality that is shocking and frightening.

Many were claiming Trump saying he wouldn’t fund schools with a “vaccine mandate” meant he was pledging to correct this wrong that has occurred in a small minority of states, which is clear discrimination cloaked in false public health rhetoric. However that does not appear to be what he was saying.

So what does all this mean for us?

On Trump’s website, under “platform,” there is no mention of Medical or Health Freedom. None at all. This is an issue. Many non-Trump supporters like myself see the value in MAHA and the major role Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is playing in Trump’s campaign. However, that does not erase our distrust in Donald Trump.

We have not forgotten that Trump promised Kennedy would lead a Vaccine Safety Commission in 2017 and then completely revoked that offer after Bill Gates told him it “wasn’t a good idea.”

We have not forgotten that Trump still touts Operation Warp Speed as having “saved millions of lives,” where he empowered Anthony Fauci to run wild across our nation; nearly destroying it.

While it is clear a 2nd Trump administration would have nothing to do with Fauci, those of us who fight for Medical Freedom and bodily autonomy need assurance not only from our beloved and trusted Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but from TRUMP HIMSELF!

As we can see, words matter. Anyone who felt Trump supported an end to all vaccine mandates now knows they were wrong, as Trump’s choice of words was misleading on purpose.

We need to see our issues on Trump’s website, on HIS platform, not just Kennedy’s.

We need to know precisely what Trump is committed to doing, and not doing.

We need transparency and answers.

Recently Kennedy posted on his X account a powerful video that ends with him saying on day one of a Trump administration, they will declare a “national public health emergency” to end the chronic disease epidemic.

That is fantastic!!!

THAT might be the single best promise I have heard this entire campaign season!

Is it going up on Trump’s website?

Is it going up on his presidential platform?

If not, why not?

THAT is the type of skepticism the Medical Freedom community has. Millions of us across the country feel this way. If you want to make sure these people don’t stay home on November 5th, they will need assurances.

People need to understand that the Medical Freedom community has been burnt many times; including burnt by Trump himself. To get us onboard now, you need to be very concrete with us, in public statements and in writing. This was something I worked on when advising Lee Zeldin’s campaign for Governor in New York. Zeldin responded quite well to our requests, and put out dozens of public statements making clear what his position was on the most important Medical Freedom issues of 2022.

In 2024, Trump saying he won’t support “covid vaccine mandates or mask mandates” is good, but the Medical Freedom community needs more than that to go from MAHA to MAGA, to put a Trump lawn sign out in front of their houses, or to go volunteer knocking on doors in the swing states.

We will do that, if it’s worth our time; if MAHA is real.

Trump needs to put on his campaign website as many of the promises that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making as possible, and he needs to directly state them himself as often as possible.

That will build trust.