President Trump stunned many of his supporters Friday when he came out against Florida’s move to eliminate school vaccine mandates. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump called it a “very tough position” and insisted that most vaccines are “incredible.”
The comments come just two days after Trump’s controversial dinner with Bill Gates—a meeting that infuriated much of his base, who believe Gates should be facing justice for his role in pushing experimental COVID-19 injections and advancing globalist health agendas. Instead of distancing himself, Trump appeared to echo Gates’s line of thinking.
“I think we have to be very careful. You have some vaccines that are so amazing,” Trump said, specifically praising the polio vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine, which was developed during his first term.
“You have some vaccines that are so incredible. I think you have to be very careful when you say some people don’t have to be vaccinated,” Trump continued. “It’s a very tough position. Just initially I heard about it yesterday, and it’s a tough stance.”
“Look, you have vaccines that work. They just pure and simple work. They’re not controversial at all, and I think those vaccines should be used, otherwise some people are going to catch it, and they endanger other people,” Trump added. “And when you don’t have controversy at all, I think people should take it.”
The words rang hollow for many who remember Trump’s earlier campaign trail rhetoric promising freedom of choice and an end to COVID-era medical coercion. His praise for COVID-19 shots—products that even mainstream sources now admit have caused serious side effects—left many wondering whether Gates’s influence is steering Trump further away from his America First base.
Meanwhile in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo have moved in the opposite direction. On Wednesday, Ladapo announced he will repeal what vaccine mandates fall under his authority, while the state legislature takes on the rest.
In a fiery statement, Ladapo compared vaccine requirements to slavery—an unapologetic rebuke to the pharmaceutical lobby and government overreach.
Currently, school districts in Florida, like elsewhere in the nation, require injections for polio, diphtheria, measles, rubella, pertussis, mumps, tetanus, and more. Whether those mandates remain will now be up to the Florida legislature—and the will of the people.
Trump’s remarks, coupled with his Gates dinner, send a clear message: the former president may be drifting back toward the establishment’s narrative on vaccines. For supporters who rallied to him as a champion of freedom against medical tyranny, that shift raises uncomfortable questions about where his loyalties now lie.