Trump has to disavow his COVID vaccine to keep voters from RFK Jr. and his anti-vax clout

Picture yourself as a politician, holding the nation's highest office during a generational emergency.

You're the president. You take action. You issue executive orders and put $18 billion into play.

And it works! The crisis is met. The goal is accomplished. Lives are saved, and Americans start hoping the country is about to bounce back.

Sounds like a great victory to trumpet when you seek another term in office, right?

Not if you're Donald Trump, the former president who oversaw the Operation Warp Speed development of COVID-19 vaccines. Trump's base despises the vaccines, one of the most significant accomplishments of his one term as president.

And now Trump sees Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Democrat-turned-independent candidate for president with a long history of spreading vaccine misinformation, chipping away at that base.

Picture yourself as Trump. What do you do now?

Trump has to target vaccine remarks from RJK Jr.

Trump, of course, goes on the attack.

And, being Trump, he tries to flip the script. The former president, who once hailed the COVID-19 vaccines he ordered into existence as the height of American achievement, now attacks the country's best-known vaccine critic as … not hating vaccines enough.

Speaking Saturday at a National Rifle Association convention in Dallas, Trump warned the crowd against backing Kennedy, calling him a member of the "radical left" while noting that the independent candidate has at times walked back his criticism of vaccines.

The audacity of RFK Jr.: Calling for Biden to drop out of the race shows his enormous sense of entitlement

"Don't think about it. Don't waste your vote," Trump told the NRA. "Somebody said, well, they like his policy on vaccines. The other day he said, 'No, no, he'll go for the vaccine.' He's got no policy on anything."

Trump, in a May 9 video posted to his social media site Truth Social, also went after Kennedy for maybe not being so anti-vaccine after all.

"He said it on a television show that vaccines are fine, and he's all for them," Trump said in his video. "And for those of you that want to vote (for Kennedy) because you think he's anti-vaccine, he's not really an anti-vaxxer."

Trump appeared to be describing an April interview Kennedy did on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," where Kennedy was pushed on his vaccine misinformation and said, "I believe if people want the vaccine that they should be able to get it. I'm not anti-vaccine."

Trump has to betray one of his presidency's biggest accomplishments

It's no shock that Kennedy is slippery when questioned about the thing he's best known for – pushing vaccine misinformation. But there was a time when Trump was happy to have the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy in the race, which was expected to draw votes from President Joe Biden in November.

Trump's tactics shift with the polling.

New numbers from Siena College, The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer last week showed Kennedy drawing a similar number of votes from Biden and Trump.

Trump on Saturday claimed in his NRA speech that Kennedy draws more Biden supporters than Trump fans. If that were true, why go after Kennedy? Trump made clear he sees the independent as a threat.

"We can't waste any votes," Trump said. "We have to win."

His problem here is that his "Make America Great Again" base has embraced anti-science nonsense about the very vaccines he pushed the government to create.

Will Trump testify? History shows us he is his own worst enemy under oath.

KFF, a nonpartisan health policy nonprofit formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, released a poll in September showing that 84% of Democrats and 54% of independents were very or somewhat confident the COVID-19 vaccines were safe while just 36% of Republicans felt that way.

In March, the Pew Research Center reported that, as fears of the pandemic subsided, 42% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they've received updated COVID-19 boosters while just 15% of Republicans and GOP leaners had.

Trump used to be proud of what he achieved with the vaccine

That's why we rarely hear Trump brag about his administration's achievement with the vaccines anymore. He doesn't mention them during speeches and rallies, as he often did as president and while seeking a second term in 2020.

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, responded to my questions about that in an email calling the vaccine program "a once-in-a-lifetime initiative that gave people the option of utilizing therapeutics if they wished to do so." Cheung also noted that more people have died from COVID-19 during Biden's first term than during Trump's one term.

While Trump doesn't talk about all that, the one-termer left us a long paper trail of archived accolades he awarded to himself and his administration before and after he lost the 2020 election, thanks to the National Archives.

The day before he left the White House in January 2021, he claimed in a farewell address that another president might have taken as long as a decade to get vaccines developed.

"They said it couldn’t be done but we did it," Trump said then. "They call it a medical miracle, and that’s what they’re calling it right now: a medical miracle."

On Dec. 27, 2020, he called the vaccine program "a tremendous success." Earlier that month, he called it "a monumental national achievement."

Trump, speaking 10 days after the 2020 election, touted "the single greatest mobilization in U.S. history." And he said this 17 days after the election: "You wouldn't have a vaccine if it weren't for me."

Now, Trump is campaigning on promises to limit vaccine access

Trump now campaigns for another term as president by vowing to deny federal funding for any school with a vaccine mandate, as he did Saturday in his NRA speech. This "I will not give one penny" pledge is a standard part of his campaign rally speech.

That line usually draws cheers. And it puts Trump's ignorance on full display for crowds that really seem to dig it.

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States have long required some vaccinations for students who attend public schools, with some offering medical or religious exemptions. If you went to a public school and cheered Trump's not-one-penny line, there's a solid chance your parents had you vaccinated for polio, measles, chicken pox and other maladies before you ever walked into a classroom.

But, hey, who cares about all that when Trump is feeding his fans the toxic stew of culture war conflict they crave?

Trump clearly doesn't care. He only stops bragging about accomplishments, like the COVID-19 vaccines, when they no longer prompt applause.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump targets RFK Jr. in an attempt to keep anti-vax MAGA voters