'Don’t pay any attention whatsoever': UK's health minister gives Trump epic putdown

09/23/25 1:46 PM

Global health experts are aghast that President Donald Trump announced an unproven link between autism and commonly used painkillers and vaccines, and they're warning others to ignore his advice.The U.S. president, along with his Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., advised pregnant women not to take acetaminophen, which is used in Tylenol and other products and marketed internationally as paracetamol, but health officials in other nations disputed his claims as unscientific and dangerous, reported The Guardian.“We know that vaccines do not cause autism,” said the World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jašarević. “Vaccines, as I said, save countless lives. So this is something that science has proven, and these things should not be really questioned.”Wes Streeting, the UK health secretary, was even more blunt in his criticism of Trump and Kennedy, a longtime skeptic of vaccines who promised to determine the "cause" of autism within months of starting his job.“I trust doctors over President Trump, frankly, on this," Streeting said. "I’ve just got to be really clear about this: there is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol [acetaminophen] by pregnant women to autism in their children. None."“So I would just say to people watching: don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine," Streeting added. In fact, don’t take even take my word for it, as a politician – listen to British doctors, British scientists, the [National Health Service].”MHRA, the UK’s healthcare regulator, released a statement within hours of Trump's announcement disputing the link between paracetamol use during pregnancy with autism, and the agency's chief safety officer warned that “untreated pain and fever can pose risks to the unborn baby," which contradicts Trump's encouragement that pregnant women "tough it out" rather than use medicine.The European Medicines Agency also stood by its advice, saying its guidelines were “based on a rigorous assessment of the available scientific data and we have found no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children," and Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration confirmed paracetamol was safe for use in pregnancy and rejected any link to neurodevelopmental conditions.

'Dude!' Trump secretary stuns by revealing taxpayer bailout to sway Argentina election

09/24/25 4:57 PM

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent admitted that Donald Trump's administration was trying to help Argentina President Javier Milei maintain power by extending billions of loans to boost that nation's economy.The U.S. will extend a $20 billion swap line to Argentina and may purchase debt from its government to boost the political fortunes for the libertarian Milei, a close ally of Trump, Bessent and other American conservatives, the treasury secretary told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.“I don’t think the market has lost confidence in [Milei],” Bessent said. “I think the market is looking in the rearview mirror and looking at decades — about a century — of terrible Argentinian mismanagement.”Milei is facing growing financial pressure since his party lost a key provincial election earlier this month in a landslide, just weeks ahead of Argentina's Oct. 26 midterm elections, and Bessent told Bartiromo the aid was intended as a political boost."The plan is as long as President Milei continues with his strong economic policies to help him, to bridge him to the election, we are not going to let a disequilibrium in the market cause a backup in his substantial economic reforms," Bessent said.The admission stunned social media users, some of whom wondered why he'd say that out loud."'To bridge him to the election' – dude, you're not supposed to say that part out loud," posted author Rob Tracinski."Scott Bessent links bailout of Argentina to Trump's election interference, even as Argentina poaches U.S. soybean markets," wrote legal expert Marcy Wheeler, linking to her blog post on the topic."Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explicitly states that U.S. intervention in the Argentinian economy is to help Javier Milei in his upcoming election," said political and media researcher Craig Harrington."BESSENT: INVESTMENTS HINGE ON A POSITIVE ELECTION OUTCOME," noted Bluesky user Nacmtrader17. "Vote for our preferred candidate and we will bail you out.""Absolutely NOT!" added Bluesky user Tamela Ehlinger. "None of our tax $$$ go to Argentina for the mad man who tanked their economy & will do the same with a cash infusion Bessent & the orange-tainted howler monkey want to do this to make sure that Milei wins the next election to keep another bastard in power." — (@)

'Everyone else is corrupt': Trump accused of borrowing 'cynical ploy' from Putin playbook

09/26/25 4:23 PM

President Donald Trump has corrupted the Department of Justice to target his political enemies as part of a "cynical ploy" borrowed from Vladimir Putin, according to a former federal prosecutor.A federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey for making alleged false statements to Congress and obstruction of justice, both based on his denial that he had authorized leaks to the media about the 2016 investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails, and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade published a column for Bloomberg examining the case on its merits."The indictment came a week after Trump posted a demand to Attorney General Pam Bondi to charge Comey and other perceived enemies, calling them 'guilty as hell,'" McQuade wrote. "Perhaps cognizant that the five-year statute of limitations would be expiring within days, Trump added, 'We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.'"That social media post made plain the DOJ was acting on Trump's orders, but he made that even more obvious by replacing the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who questioned the case's strength with a former personal attorney of his who has never prosecuted a single case before presenting the Comey evidence to a grand jury."By directing his DOJ to charge Comey, Trump appears to be borrowing a tactic from the playbook of Vladimir Putin," McQuade wrote. "According to Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser, Putin doesn’t try to convince the Russian people that he is honest. Instead, he works to persuade them that everyone else is corrupt.""It’s a cynical ploy meant to condition people to tolerate corruption," she added. "If voters believe that all public officials are crooks, then they will overlook the crooked leader who professes to share their values."Trump, of course, is the only president who has ever been convicted of a felony – all 34 counts against him in the only criminal case out of four in which he faced trial – and McQuade suspects his vindictive prosecution of Comey, and the others he's threatened, shows he's playing the same game as the Russian president he admires."If Trump can make people believe that indictments like the one targeting Comey are meaningless, then the indictments against him can be dismissed just as easily," McQuade wrote. "Indeed, following the Comey indictment, New York Democratic Representative Dan Goldman said, 'The problem is how are you ever going to know whether an investigation by the FBI, an investigation by the Department of Justice, is legitimate or is corrupt.'""Exactly," she added. "When everyone is corrupt, then no one is."