GOP senator slams Trump's vaccine order as 'crazy, stupid'

On Sunday, August 16, 2026, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician and chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, sharply criticized President Donald Trump's executive order that mandates the separation of the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate single-disease shots, to be administered at separate medical visits. In interviews on CNN's "State of the Union" and ABC News' "This Week," Cassidy called the order "crazy, stupid" and "wrong on so many levels," warning that it would increase the number of doctor visits and shots for children from two to six, causing inconvenience, higher costs for families, and potentially reducing vaccination rates, thereby increasing the risk of deadly diseases.

Cassidy's criticism came after Trump signed the executive order on Monday, August 10, 2026, in the Oval Office, where he made unsubstantiated claims linking vaccines to autism and described the combined vaccine as "quite lethal" and "sort of like a nuclear weapon." Trump also claimed that the vaccine was "the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child's body." Cassidy, who has long been at odds with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy, emphasized that there is no evidence linking vaccines to autism, citing NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya as agreeing. He argued that the order would drive up healthcare costs and inconvenience parents, and that it would be counterproductive to public health.

Cassidy's outspoken criticism is notable given his political situation. He lost his primary reelection in May 2026 to Trump-endorsed Representative Julia Letlow, becoming the first GOP senator to lose renomination in nearly a decade. Trump had been angered by Cassidy's vote to impeach him in 2021. Cassidy had also cast a deciding vote to confirm Kennedy as HHS secretary, after receiving assurances from Kennedy that he would not undermine vaccine policies. However, their relationship deteriorated after Kennedy's push to revamp the childhood vaccine schedule and the firing of the CDC director. Since losing the primary, Cassidy has felt freer to criticize Trump and Kennedy, though he has said his final months in the Senate are not a revenge tour.

The executive order has been widely condemned by immunologists and vaccine experts, who say there is no valid reason to separate the MMR vaccine. The combined vaccine has been the recommended standard in the US since 1989, and most developed countries recommend a similar two-dose combined shot. Cassidy warned that the order could lead to more children getting sick, and he noted that Trump's poll numbers are down because he has lost sight of affordability and convenience for American families. The White House has not yet responded to Cassidy's criticism.