Trump issued a disastrous new executive order on August 10, a toxic mix of disinformation and vaccine panic. A Republican in the US Senate, who, like his colleagues, often blames Trump's disastrous decisions on poor advice, denounced the measure. But Senate Republicans insist on appointing Trump advisors who provide this bad advice to his cabinet.
They treat Trump as if he has no power as president of the United States. “Bad advice” is always the charge, because Trump can never be held accountable for listening to advisors he chose and confirmed by the Senate.
US Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician and Louisiana Republican, insisted after the announcement that Trump lacked the experience to make a decision that would "jeopardize the safety of children," but Cassidy cast the deciding vote in 2025 for the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Cassidy did so with the full knowledge that Kennedy was, and remains, a purveyor of conspiracy theories about vaccines and lacked any medical training in this field.
Who was praising Trump's decision while the president was napping in his office on August 10?
Kennedy himself cheered Trump's disinformation after seeing it echoed in the Oval Office. This may be because Trump was unable to stay awake while sitting at his desk announcing his order to divide up childhood vaccines against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR). Perhaps they just lack the courage to fend off Trump's wrath when faced with his disastrous decisions.
When Trump was awake, he looked like a Kennedy puppet, declaring that the two MMR vaccines together could be “absolutely lethal.” When later asked to provide evidence, Trump meekly offered: “There are some people who say it's that way.”
Yes, some people, like Kennedy, giving Trump terrible advice will likely lead to vaccine hesitancy among parents at the same time that America is seeing measles cases rise to a 35-year record.
To be clear — as CNN's excellent fact-checker Daniel Dale points out — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website says the MMR vaccine is "extremely safe," and that "there is no published scientific evidence showing any benefit in separating" those vaccines.
Cassidy is just the latest example of Senate Republicans enabling and then berating Trump's advisers, while treating the president like a passive observer in his administration. US Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, complained that Trump was receiving “bad advice” about his controversial settlement of a lawsuit against the IRS, through a staggeringly corrupt $1.8 billion slush fund for the MAGA rioters who destroyed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Tillis, along with Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, threatened to block Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general, but then gave up after Blanche gave them a pair of unenforceable memos that apparently addressed their concerns.
Trump was asked about the slush fund during his vaccine announcement, and said, “Well, it's up to Todd Blanche,” making clear what was clear to everyone except Tillis and Cornyn — that the slush fund remains in place if the attorney general and the president so desire.
In June, US Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, resorted to the “bad advice” argument when Trump signed a failed memorandum of understanding with Iran regarding the ongoing US war there. “I think the president, unfortunately, is getting bad advice on this deal,” Cruz told Fox News.
In an April interview with NBC News about the war in Iran, Tillis blamed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller for giving Trump bad advice about Iran. Tillis also used the same "bad advice" argument with NBC News in January when asked about Trump's illogical claim that he would seize Greenland, an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark, a US ally.
NBC News found that several Republican senators were eager to blame bad advice for Trump's actions in that story:
US Senator Bernie Moreno from Ohio said that Trump relied on wrong advice in appointing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
US Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky blamed one of the president's economic advisers for Trump's obsession with tariffs.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota also blamed Trump's advisers for calling for a cap on credit card interest rates.
And it's not just Republican senators. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican who heads the Governors' Association, told CNN in a January interview that Trump was "getting the wrong advice right now" on immigration, after federal agents shot and killed two US citizens in Minnesota.
The same pattern repeats itself and the cycle of impunity continues endlessly. Where Republican senators approve the appointment of Trump's advisors, and then he takes their advice, then Republican senators complain about the advice that Trump took from the advisors who approved their appointment.
This episode has one goal, which is to evade holding Trump accountable for his actions.
