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They’re Not After Autism — They’re After Autonomy

RFK Jr. is using pseudoscience to police thought

8 min readApr 25, 2025

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They’re Not After Autism — They’re After Autonomy
Eugenics Building, Fitter Families Contest, Kansas Free Fair. Credit: American Philosophical Society.

Donald Trump is obsessed with genetics, though not in the way a geneticist might be. More in the way a horse breeder eyes a prize stud.

According to Trump’s disturbingly eugenic-lite musings, some people just can’t “genetically handle pressure,” whereas he, the genetic colossus, possesses the “winning gene” and, lest we forget, “German blood.”

But he didn’t stop there, because he never does.

In one interview, he added this xenophobic gem: “We got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.” Trump believes these genetically inferior immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” (For those not fluent in dog whistles, that’s Trumpese for “immigrants are ruining my Aryan purity fantasy.”)

Of course, your first instinct might be to accuse Trump of cosplaying Hitler, or maybe dabbling in Stalin’s greatest hits. But to really understand the depth of this ideological rot, you have to accept a more uncomfortable truth.

Eugenics isn’t a Nazi original. It’s Made in America.

Let’s rewind to the early twentieth century, long before swastikas and jackboots, to a humid summer afternoon at an American state fair. Families stroll past…

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Carlyn Beccia
Carlyn Beccia

Written by Carlyn Beccia

Award-winning author of 13 books. My latest: 10 AT 10: The Surprising Childhoods of 10 Remarkable People, MONSTROUS: The Lore, Gore, & Science. CarlynBeccia.com

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