The new Maha report investigates the root causes of the rise in disease among children and points to factors such as exposure to ultra-processed foods and chemicals.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump held an event at the White House on Thursday, highlighting the first report from the committee to re-healthize America, focusing on improving children’s health.
He promised to make Americans healthier, and said his administration would not be threatened by businesses.
“Unlike other administrations, we are not silenced or threatened by corporate lobbyists or special interests,” Trump said at a White House event.
He urged Cabinet members to take decisive action against interest groups.
“In some cases, it’s not good or clean, but we have to do it,” he said. “And we don’t allow them to be captured by the very industry that the public health system is supposed to oversee.”
Related Stories
The committee, chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, will make policy proposals over the next 80 days.
Trump shared some surprising findings from the report, noting that over 40% of American children have at least one chronic health condition. He highlighted that the proportion of childhood cancer has increased by nearly 50% since the 1970s, and noted a surge in childhood obesity from under 5% in the 1960s to more than 20% today. The autism rate has risen sharply from one in 10,000 people decades ago to one in 31 people.
“They’re really amazing, incredibly, terrible,” Trump said. “There’s something wrong and it won’t stop until we defeat the American chronic disease epidemic.”
The report investigates the root causes of increased illness in children and points to factors such as ultra-processed foods, overdose, and exposure to toxic chemicals.
“Over the past few years, we have built an unstoppable coalition of moms and dads, doctors, young people and citizens from all backgrounds that have come together to protect our children.
“The movement has become very hot,” he said.
He highlighted several actions already taken, including phased out eight artificial food dyes, eliminating the Food and Drug Administration’s major conflict of interest, and approving Nebraska’s snap exemption request to prevent taxpayer funds from contributing to childhood obesity.
Trump said demands are also coming from other states.
At the event, Kennedy said he had never seen a president of a party willing to challenge an industry group.
“My uncle tried to do this, but he was killed,” he said. “Since then, we have been waiting for a president to stand up and speak on behalf of American health.”
He said the government relies on biased research, ignoring common sense and motherly intuition.
Among the guests at the White House event was former House Speaker Newt Ginrich.
“This is a major shift from a disease care system to a health care system,” Ginrich said during the post-event Epoch era.
“I think Bobby Kennedy really made it clear when he talked about what his uncle would have done if he hadn’t been killed. So he’s sitting here now and living what his uncle did.”
After the event, scientist and doctor Robert Malone called the White House meeting “unprecedented.”
“It was a great presentation, and I know the team is completely committed,” he told the Epoch Times, referring to Trump officials who have vowed to deal with the healthcare crisis.
Meanwhile, some critics say the report paints an overly desolate picture of American children’s illnesses and unfairly targets vaccines.
Some groups, including the National Corn Growers Association, criticized the report.
“We are deeply troubled by the fact that claims of this magnitude are being made without scientific evidence or consideration for the long history of EPA expert evaluations of these products.”
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
