The president-elect said he thought that establishing peace between Russia and Ukraine would be a harder task than peace between Israel and Hamas.
President-elect Donald Trump on Dec. 16 hosted his first press conference after winning the 2024 presidential election, addressing a range of topics from the Russia-Ukraine war to his thoughts on the recent drone sightings in the Northeast.
Trump’s remarks covered plans to reevaluate childhood vaccines through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the chances of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointing Lara Trump to fill Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) seat next year, U.S. foreign policy, a potential pardon for indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and the border wall.
Here are seven takeaways from the press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Kennedy to Create Vaccine Report
Trump said he had dinner recently with his nominee to lead HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the heads of Pfizer and Eli Lilly, two major pharmaceutical companies. He said the group would “look at autism … [and] find out about it” because he’s concerned about the rising diagnosis rates. After the initial paper purporting to show a link between vaccines and autism was retracted, subsequent research has repeatedly found no links between vaccines and autism.
Asked whether Kennedy planned to revoke any vaccines, as the former Democrat has criticized early childhood vaccines in the past, linking some to increased rates of autism in children and adults, Trump said he did not want Kennedy to revoke any vaccines.
Instead, he’d “come back with a report as to what he thinks,” Trump said. The report would accomplish two tasks: introduce cost savings and initiate “very serious discussions,” such as limiting pesticides in vaccines.
“I think [Kennedy’s] going to be much less radical than you would think. I think he’s got a very open mind. We’re going to get drug costs down at levels that nobody has ever seen before.”
Trump said he was a big believer in the polio vaccine and does not like schools implementing vaccine mandates for children, comparing them to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
By Jacob Burg
