At Cabinet Meeting, RFK Jr. Links Circumcision to Autism

President Trump opened a meeting with his Cabinet at the White House on Thursday by speaking about the ceasefire deal and his plans to travel to the Middle East. Trump said that he will be going to Egypt for a signing ceremony and that he has been invited to speak before the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, during the trip, the AP reports. "If they would like me to, I will do it," Trump said. He said it is a complicated process for the hostages to be released from Gaza, but it will be happening Monday or Tuesday. Trump's eighth Cabinet meeting lasted around an hour, much shorter than other recent meetings. More:

• Autism. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reiterated the unproven link between Tylenol and autism at the meeting. He claimed children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, which is because they're given Tylenol afterward. Kennedy also shared what the Independent calls a "bizarre story" about seeing a video of a woman "saying 'F Trump' and gobbling Tylenol." Trump said vaccines could also play a role in autism, saying, "Obviously, there's something, there's something that's artificially, I think, induced, something, whether it's the vaccines, in terms of these massive vaccines," per NBC News, which notes that the theory of a link has been debunked.

• Chicago, Portland buildings for ICE. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said her department is buying buildings in Chicago and Portland for use in immigration enforcement operations, NBC reports. "We're purchasing more buildings in Chicago to operate out of. We're going to not back off," she said. "In fact, we're doubling down, and we're going to be in more parts of Chicago in response to the people there."
• Shutdown cuts. Trump said only "Democrat programs" would be cut in response to the government shutdown, the Guardian reports. "We will be making cuts that are permanent and we're only going to cut Democrat programs, I hate to tell you," he said. "We'll be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren't popular with Republicans, frankly, that's the way it works."

• Vance calls Schumer a Palestinian. The vice president was praising Trump for the US-brokered deal and then, in an apparent attempt to pivot to discussing domestic matters and the federal government shutdown, joked that Trump benefitted in the negotiations in Gaza because "he also, of course, knew one of the most famous Palestinians in the world, Chuck Schumer," the AP reports. Trump has for more than a year used the term "Palestinian" as a slur against his US political opponents, deploying it during the 2024 election against then-President Joe Biden and more recently against Schumer, who is Jewish.
• A notable absence. One person who was not present at the president's Cabinet meeting on Thursday was Mike Waltz, the newly confirmed US ambassador to the United Nations. That's because the White House has decided that the job will not be a Cabinet-rank position, as it was during the Biden administration, the AP reports, citing two congressional officials familiar with the matter.