RFK Jr. Gets Outquacked
The man who feigns medical expertise was interrupted by a quack of his own making during a Friday press conference.
Photo: Screenshot/Fox Now PoliticsTrump Administration RFK Jr.
On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before the press in Rochester, Minnesota, to announce the National Autism Missing and Endangered Person Alert Initiative—an AMBER Alert-style system in partnership with the Justice Department and FEMA, and “to improve preparedness and response when autistic individuals are reported missing.” The press conference was going according to schedule… until it was interrupted by a quack. And I’m not talking about the man who hawks pseudoscience and peddles debunked claims about autism, but rather a literal quacking sound, a stifled cry, blaring from that man’s right breast pocket.
“We have a responsibility to do better—” RFK Jr. started. Then came the sound that middle schoolers and single uncles know all too well: the infamous iOS anatine ringtone.
RFK Jr. gets interrupted by his “quack” ringtone during his speech on autism. pic.twitter.com/cNkvK2YVDy
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 22, 2026
“Sorry about that,” he said, blushing. First of all, how could he move on in the remarks without acknowledging the quacking? And second, why must God (she/her) always laugh at us?
The alert initiative marks another of RFK Jr.’s habitual forays from the gilded woodwork to announce an initiative focused on autism. In April 2025, he pledged that his agency would launch a massive research initiative to identify the environmental causes or triggers of autism, claiming that answers would be found “by September.” (The “cause” he discovered was Tylenol, if you recall.)
“President Trump has made improving the lives of Americans with autism and their families a priority,” Kennedy said in his Friday statement. “We are bringing federal, state, and local partners together to improve prevention, speed the response, and help bring autistic children and adults home safely.” Last year, the agency also launched a so-called “disease registry” to “track Americans with autism,” drawing on private medical records from various federal and commercial databases.
Irony aside, what sane individual is still using this ringtone in 2026? This man is a government official who went out of his way to tap his big thumbs through the corridors of his iPhone settings to change the default ringtone to a duck. But he couldn’t be bothered to put his phone on silent for a press conference??
The takeaway here is twofold: 1. Don’t put your loved one’s safety in the hands of a man on an ableist crusade to dehumanize autistic people. And 2. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck…
Keep scrolling for more great stories.