The Trump administration’s recent report on children’s health issues cites a study linking screen time to sleep problems. It quotes research tying pharmaceutical advertising to increased ADHD prescriptions for children. It refers to a finding that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to mental illness and substance abuse among children and adolescents.
However, these studies — and others cited in the “Make America Healthy Again” report — don’t actually exist. Some experts said they suspect the report, championed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., may have been created with the help of generative artificial intelligence because of a marker that appears in the report’s citations.
‘Not an evidence-based report’
The problems with the report, first reported by the online news outlet NOTUS, raise questions about the validity of the first major health initiative of the second Trump administration, according to health experts.
“This is not an evidence-based report, and for all practical purposes, it should be junked at this point,” Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told The Washington Post. “It cannot be used for any policymaking. It cannot even be used for any serious discussion, because you can’t believe what’s in it.”
What appears in the report?
Kennedy and President Donald Trump released the so-called MAHA report on May 22, and Trump asked Congress to appropriate $500 million to carry out its recommendations.
The report questions the necessity of some childhood vaccinations and says children’s health has been harmed by poor diet, exposure to chemicals in the environment, a lack of exercise, chronic stress and overmedication.
“The health of American children is in crisis,” the report said. “Today’s children are the sickest generation in American history in terms of chronic disease and these preventable trends continue to worsen each year, posing a threat to our nation’s health, economy and military readiness.”
Kennedy called the report a “milestone.”
“Never in American history has the federal government taken a position on public health like this,” Kennedy said in a White House social media post. “Because of President Trump’s leadership, it’s not just one cabinet secretary – it’s the entire government that is behind this. At its core, this report is a call to action for common sense.”
The White House said it will release a follow-up report in August 2025, and Kennedy pledged to announce the causes of autism and to “eliminate those exposures” by September 2025.
Non-existent studies and questions about AI
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The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report on children’s health contained at least seven references to scientific studies that do not exist, according to the online news outlet NOTUS.
The 72-page MAHA report cited more than 500 studies, articles and other sources. Reporting by NOTUS identified seven studies that do not exist, and The New York Times and The Washington Post found others of uncertain authenticity.
Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, was listed as the author of a paper on mental health and substance abuse among adolescents. However, she told the Times she had not written the paper and could not find any paper by other researchers with the same title.
“It makes me concerned about the rigor of the report,” Keyes told the Times, “if these really basic citation practices aren’t being followed.”
Errors in the report’s footnotes suggest to some experts that the administration used artificial intelligence to help produce the document. The Post found 37 footnotes that appeared multiple times, and it reported that some included the word “oaicite” attached to URLs linking to purported research studies. The “oaicite” marker indicates the use of OpenAI software.
“Frankly, that’s shoddy work,” Oren Etzioni, a professor emeritus at the University of Washington who studies AI, told the Post. “We deserve better.”
‘Formatting issues’
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to say during a briefing with reporters whether artificial intelligence was used in the MAHA report.
The administration distributed an updated version of the report later on Thursday, May 29. It no longer contained references to the disputed studies. Some citations were replaced with references to articles with similar titles or with reports by the same authors as those originally listed.
In a statement, the Democratic National Committee said the Trump administration was “justifying its policy priorities with studies and sources that do not exist,” and using fake studies to support Kennedy’s “conspiracy theory-ridden agenda.”
Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said any errors in the report were minor and only involved footnotes.
Leavitt defended Kennedy and the report’s legitimacy.
“We have complete confidence in Secretary Kennedy and his team at HHS,” Leavitt said. “I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed and the report will be updated. But it does not negate the substance of the report, which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the federal government and is backed on good science that has never been recognized by the federal government.”
contributed to this report.
