It’s hard to know which member of Trump’s Cabinet is the most unhinged. Some might say it is Kristi Noem, who has a cruelty streak that she showed when she shot her dog in the head and when she glories in sending ICE to beat up immigrants and citizens and to tear families apart. Or it could be Pete Hegseth, who takes pleasure in firing military officers who rank and service far exceed his. Or it could be the Energy Secretary what’s-his-name who prefers fossil fuels and shares Trump’s antipathy to clean energy, wind or solar.

But I nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who embarrasses himself almost every time he speaks.

There are many reasons to question his judgment, including his hostility to science.

He seems to have a particular contempt for Jews. His latest outrage was to convince Trump that there is a well-established link between circumcision and autism. Even in his telling, it’s not clear whether autism is “caused” by circumcision or by the Tylenol that doctors prescribe for pain.

If he were right, a striking proportion of Jewish males would be afflicted with autism. Virtually all Jewish males are circumcised.

Should Jewish families stop circumcising their male children or stop giving them Tylenol? It’s not clear.

Scientific American says that RFK Jr. and Trump are wrong about the connections among circumcision, Tylenol, and autism. The two studies upon which he relies are fundamentally flawed, they say.

Helen Tager-Flusberg, an autism researcher and a professor emerita at Boston University, calls the methods used in those studies “appalling.” Tager-Flusberg leads the Coalition of Autism Scientists, a group that advocates for high-quality autism research.

Neither study shows a causal link between circumcision—or the pain relief medications that are often prescribed along with the procedure—and higher rates of autism. In the decade-plus since each was published, autism researchers have heavily criticized these studies. And after reviewing both studies, scientists last year found no evidence supporting the claim that circumcision leads to autism or any other adverse psychological effects.

But that’s not all.

In 2022, at an anti-vaccine rally, RFK Jr. said that people forced to take vaccines were worse off than Anne Frank or other victims of the Holocaust. He subsequently apologized for his appalling remarks.

Politico reported:

Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., apologized Tuesday for suggesting things are worse for people today than they were for Anne Frank, the teenager who died in a Nazi concentration camp after hiding with her family in a secret annex in an Amsterdam house for two years.

Kennedy’s comments, made at a Washington rally on Sunday put on by his anti-vaccine nonprofit group, were widely condemned as offensive, outrageous and historically ignorant. It’s the second time since 2015 that Kennedy has apologized for referencing the Holocaust during his work sowing doubt and distrust about vaccines…

“Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” he told the crowd.

An investigation by The Associated Press last month found that Kennedy has invoked the specter of Nazis and the Holocaust when talking about public health measures meant to save lives during the pandemic, such as requiring masks or vaccine mandates.

In July 2023, while campaigning for President, RFK Jr. attacked the COVID vaccines and said they were designed to target Caucasians and blacks.

Politico reported:

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. denied allegations of racism and anti-Semitism Saturday after he reportedly suggested Covid-19 could have been genetically engineered to reduce risks to Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.

Kennedy — a longtime vaccine skeptic who is running a longshot primary campaign against President Joe Biden — said during a Tuesday night press event that Covid-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people.” He went on to say that “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

Kennedy believed that his comments were not anti-Semitic. But he insisted they were true.

Asked about his comments from July in which he said Covid-19 was “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, Kennedy acknowledged that some people could be “disturbed” by the comments. But he said he believed “they certainly weren’t antisemitic.”

“I wish I hadn’t said them, you know. What I said was true,” he said. “The only reason I wouldn’t talk publicly about this … is that I know that there’s people out there who are antisemitic and can misuse any information.”

He never offered any evidence that the COVID vaccine was designed to spare Jews and Chinese. Was it a hunch?

RFK Jr. has a problem with Jews.