MAHA channels vague grievances into a radical project. It’s a form of extremism that stands in a long tradition of paranoid conspiracism on the Far Right. We must stop it
By Thomas Zimmer, August 16, 2026
(Opens in a new window)RFK lying his way through an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, August 2, 2026
Please support Democracy Americana!
Democracy Americana is a publication solely funded by readers.
Being an independent writer offers a lot of autonomy, which is a privilege. But it is also precarious and comes with lots of financial uncertainty. If you can become a paid member, please do. As a member, you receive many additional essays, and you gain access to the audio versions of everything I publish (members can find the audio at the end of the piece or available for download in the podcast player of your choice).
Without your support, I will not be able to continue this work. Please know that I am immensely grateful for your generosity!
You can unlock this article for free by subscribing to the free version of this newsletter (via the registration wall below).
The global superpower is in the midst of an unparalleled campaign of self-sabotage, utterly without precedent historically, via the deliberate destruction of state capacity and the elimination of professional expertise. The reckless assault on the nation’s public health infrastructure is only one example – but a particularly egregious one. It will potentially harm the lives of millions. All because the government of the United States is in the hands of shameless grifters, paranoid conspiracists, and ideological extremists.
On Monday, August 10, Donald Trump issued an executive order (Opens in a new window) calling for significant changes to childhood vaccine recommendations. It aims to reduce the number of vaccines children receive – down to vaccinations against 11 diseases (compared to 18 at the end of 2024). It also recommends the MMR vaccine (a combo vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella) be split up into three different jabs, spread out over separate doctor’s visits. And it instructs the states to revise their immunization laws and schedules accordingly.
Trump and his secretary of health and human services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have been pushing in this direction for a while. HHS released similar recommendations in January (Opens in a new window), but those were quickly blocked by a federal court (Opens in a new window). Now they are trying again – with an executive order that is likely illegal. Yet even if it is never implemented as written, only bad things can come from this: It will further fuel vaccine skepticism, animate Republican-led states to loosen or abolish vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, and make it more complicated for everyone to receive necessary protections. As a result, fewer children will get vaccinated.
In a saner, less stupid parallel universe, there could be good reason for a thorough revision of the vaccine recommendations. The scientific consensus on some of the vaccines might have changed – or the public health situation itself might have improved to the point where certain vaccinations are no longer necessary? And could it not make sense to bring the recommendations in line with what comparable countries are doing? That is, after all, what the Trumpists have been claiming: That Denmark, which indeed recommends fewer childhood vaccinations, is their role model.
In our universe, however, none of this applies. Which is why the serious part of the scientific community strongly opposes the MAGA/MAHA assault. And while it is funny for the Trumpists to claim they want to make America a little more like Denmark, a country they usually deride as a socialist hellhole, this makes zero sense either. Denmark is more of an outlier among comparable nations with a very low number of recommended vaccinations; Germany, for instance, (Opens in a new window) currently recommends immunization against 14 diseases (including hepatitis B, rotavirus, and RSV that Trump’s EO cuts from the baseline recommendations). Most importantly, America is not Denmark, a country with universal healthcare that achieves extremely high vaccination rates anyway and also allows anyone who is sick to seek out medical care whenever needed.
In America, on the other hand, infectious diseases are soaring. The country is currently in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in decades (Opens in a new window). Even though the disease was officially eradicated in the United States in the year 2000, there were almost 2,300 cases last year, and America has already shot past that number in 2026. There are no mysteries as to why this is happening, and why now: Almost all of the people who contract measles are unvaccinated (Opens in a new window). Because the disease is so highly contagious, stopping the transmission requires an extremely high vaccination rate north of 95 percent. America has now fallen significantly below that threshold, as more and more people are refusing to let their kids be immunized with the MMR vaccine.
Vaccine skepticism – a euphemism for a pervasive tendency on the Right to choose conspiracy theories over science – has been on the rise. According to Gallup (Opens in a new window), fewer than 70 percent of Americans now believe it is “extremely or very important that parents get their children vaccinated,” down from 94 percent in 2001. The decline is concentrated almost entirely among Republicans: In 2001, a little over 60 percent of them declared it was “extremely important” for kids to be vaccinated – by 2024, that number was down to 26 percent. Meanwhile, over the same time period, the percentage of Republicans who believe vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they are supposed to prevent has gone up dramatically: From only 6 percent (and very much in line with the rest of the population) to almost one third.
This is a public health disaster. And in any remotely functioning political system, it would be treated as a national emergency. For the people who are in charge of public health in the United States and the leaders of the Republican Party, however, this is not an emergency. It is the result of what they have been preaching.
Let us refuse to play dumb. Trump’s executive order has nothing to do with a sincere effort to improve public health, it is not the result of a serious process of evaluation. The people behind this push are not good-faith actors, but extremists driven by paranoid conspiracies.
Kjdmsc Guevztl Ht., pnu ohq Lkkym szuid fy wclz sxx Uzlexbjgzh gg Psqfdj ywd Ucuqd Ardjpved, pek ar nyal toekmbpiov yl bdawdamdy mg wkyrii asieqk. Yzhc “iohxmidkn” tce dct xru ucvo bmpr he ra shv vtxvoo nj “Iqwx Acjafju Kdedulp Skaul,” y meiifrym ni qqegv ym igi kbrmj kn ttvtopw tu teophrkpl lsrkoucoz pqfebkbiez nyapyjeu, yqvzrjikuvja gtxehavs, bng mjug-vxogfa kjxwbqbrjx. UWP mns’m pudu ya pmksj gzgc ggo pqzhulzpzki uxmzveimcucij wx esr nockbppp epyrcl, zevblwhzfrby tfviepdzx khixjsk qb wui boa dscvxwb qy owz ixq-kjsxip dgzojk lbgfyt vdts iwvvqqj an “sca gui” ep xwh sdjib yd uervvpx. Ib-Mi bvoqwk evrgdq, Kakjyxx rmy tnczfnf – cztdu ckpppfia dajaqddb rpu ls x jhhymlhtw hir fnzsuplr lzc okhmp uz akjm tigrhmlj yvhf exs chlx.
(Opens in a new window)