| Your 5-Minute Fix author is out Monday. Here are excerpts from three different coverage areas from Washington Post reporters, from RFK Jr.'s sometimes-confusing language on vaccines, to President Donald Trump potentially receiving an airplane from Qatari royal family, to how anti-diversity initiatives are playing out in a Pennsylvania city. By The Washington Post’s Lauren Weber
Early last month, after two Texas children had died of measles, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged that the MMR vaccine prevents the spread of that virus. But later that day, he posted photos of himself with anti-vaccine doctors, calling them “extraordinary healers” and promoting unproven treatments. In a television interview three days later, Kennedy, the nation’s top health official, encouraged vaccination for measles. In the same conversation, he cast doubt on whether one of the children had actually died of measles-related complications. And in an interview with Phil McGraw at the end of April, Kennedy said of the measles vaccine: “HHS continues to recommend that vaccine. But there are problems with the vaccine.” With the nation in the grip of the deadliest measles outbreak in decades, Kennedy is equivocating with a worried U.S. public, health experts said. His mixed message appeals to vaccine believers and skeptics, muddying public health instructions at a time when clarity is essential. Elevated from longtime anti-vaccine activist to guardian of the nation’s health, Kennedy is trying to appeal to both sides: the public, which largely supports vaccination, and the anti-vaccine hard-liners who helped propel his rise. His “doublespeak,” as public health experts and academics who follow the anti-vaccine movement call it, gives him cover with both groups, allowing him to court public opinion while still assuaging his anti-vaccine base. “It’s confusing, and maybe that’s part of the strategy,” said Bruce Gellin, who oversaw HHS’s vaccine program in the Bush and Obama administrations. Gellin noted that confusion could lead parents to opt out of vaccination — exactly what health officials don’t want in an outbreak. Read the full story here. By The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake
It’s one of the most telling occasions in politics these days: when President Donald Trump does something so obviously problematic that even the Trump-friendly opinion hosts at Fox News feel compelled to press his team on it. Such was the case Monday amid reports that the Trump administration is considering accepting a gift of a multi-hundred-million-dollar “palace in the sky” aircraft from Qatar to use as Air Force One. The plane would then, according to an ABC News report Sunday, be transferred to Trump’s presidential library foundation. The potential gift raises major concerns not only about security, but also about corruption and self-dealing. Here we would have a president in the first year of a four-year term accepting a historic and extraordinarily expensive gift from a foreign government that has plenty of interests in his administration’s actions. The plane could seemingly be transferred to Trump’s personal use later on, though Trump said Monday that he would not use it. Some experts have told The Washington Post that this would transparently violate the Constitution’s “emoluments” clause. The news also comes on top of increasingly explosive reporting about Trump getting rich off cryptocurrency — another area in which his White House and administration have rather cavalierly disregarded potential conflicts of interest. There is relatively little polling on views of Trump’s alleged corruption. But the polling we do have paints a consistent picture that people are at least concerned about it: - 61 percent of Americans said “behaved corruptly” described Trump at least “somewhat,” according to a pre-election Marquette Law School poll. (By contrast, just 38 percent said the same of Kamala Harris).
- More than 6 in 10 Americans said the word “corrupt” applied to Trump either “a lot” (46 percent) or “a little” (18 percent), according to a March YouGov poll. Two-thirds of independents agreed.
Conflicts of interest have stalked Trump before, but in ways that are more difficult to explain. Trump’s first big “emoluments” issue dealt with wealthy foreigners doing business at his then-D.C.-based hotel. The big one shortly after his first term was a Saudi-government-linked sovereign wealth fund investing $2 billion with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump’s crypto ventures could be his biggest windfall yet, but the vast majority of people don’t understand crypto — and many people’s eyes glaze over at the mere mention of it. But here we have something very easy to explain: the potential transfer of an extremely valuable gift without the cover of potential legitimate business. And perhaps most politically troublingly for Trump, it would be transferred even as Trump asks Americans to stomach the austerity required for his on-again, off-again trade war. Even for a president who has grown increasingly bold in his disregard for norms, rules and laws, that would be pretty brazen. We’ll see whether the administration decides it’s worth the risk. Read the full story here. By The Washington Post’s Tim Craig
ERIE, Pa. — Darrell Roberts’s life has never been easy. His mother raised 10 children in a three-bedroom house in this weathered industrial city on the shores of Lake Erie. A decade ago, Roberts’s younger brother was shot and killed on a street corner here. Roberts bought a hot dog cart to take his mind off his loss and later opened Triple D’s Tasty Grill. Then in 2023, he received a $15,000 grant from a controversial Erie program that has invested millions into 50 minority-owned businesses, helping him expand his street-front restaurant when he didn’t qualify for bank loans. The money Roberts received from Diverse Erie, a groundbreaking diversity, equity and inclusion program in response to Erie County declaring racism a public health emergency in 2020, helped him buy a new fryer. The 43-year-old Black entrepreneur now dishes out hamburgers and hot dogs with the city’s famous zesty Greek sauce. Now states and cities with programs like Diverse Erie are under new pressures as President Donald Trump targets DEI initiatives, claiming they lead to “public waste and shameful discrimination.” The president’s policies have inflamed divisions over race as programs sponsored by the military, corporations, universities, and state and local governments are in his crosshairs. The impact of the debate could be especially consequential for Erie, an area that emerged as an early warrior in efforts to promote diversity. Even here, however, the debate over these programs has been dividing this Pennsylvania swing district. Read the full story here. | 
