Trump and the Nobel Prize

by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

I’d like to spend a few minutes discussing the Black Church.

The Black Church is something that I’ve taken for granted. Until recently, I haven’t really studied the matter. The Black Church was just something that existed.

As most of you know, I grew up in Dallas. Almost every Sunday, our family worshiped in a Black Church. I never thought much about it.

Like almost everything in this country, everything comes back to race and racism. Following the American Revolutionary War, Baptists and Methodists spread throughout the South. Ministers were evangelizing and starting churches. The initial thought was to start unified churches, but there was a problem. But because Blacks were slaves, there were many questions.

Did Blacks have souls? If they had souls, could they be saved? If they were saved, should they be freed? Heck, on the basic level, Jesus taught about love, about freedom, about all of us being God’s children. Do you really want to teach that to slaves?

One thing was clear: Blacks and Whites could not and should not exist in the same church, the same ministry. Ministers insisted on converting slaves to Christianity. The atmosphere in the United States allowed slaves to start their own churches. The Black Church was born.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Black Church was the cornerstone of the Black community. The Black Church spawned Black education, Black schools, and Black banks.

In the Black Church, the primary message preached every Sunday pertained to either justice or hope. Outside of the Black Church, society was oppressing Black men and women, but inside the Black Church, you, as a black person, could flourish. You could show your true self. Throughout the civil rights movement, marches started and ended at the Black Church. Organizational meetings were held at the church or at the house of a pastor or deacon.

Right now, in these dark times, we can all use the community, fellowship, and leadership that can be found in the Black Church.

Tylenol

A couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Junior, stood before microphones and declared they found that Tylenol (acetaminophen) caused autism. They advised pregnant women to stay away from acetaminophen and simply “tough it out.”

First of all, acetaminophen has not been proven to cause autism. Autism is a complex syndrome. We know from twin studies that there is a genetic component to autism. Several hundred genes have been linked to autism.

We also know that there is an environmental component. We know that if the mother is exposed to certain factors, her offspring are more likely to have autism. One of the things that has been clearly linked to autism is fever and infection in the mother. Precisely what a fever and/or infection triggers in the mother are still being investigated.

So, what’s the most common drug administered to anybody who has a fever or the aches and pains that are associated with an infection? Tylenol (acetaminophen). There has not been a study that has investigated how to uncouple this relationship. There has been one large population-based study from Sweden, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which included over 2.5 million participants. The authors had access to the medical records of the mothers. Therefore, they knew if the mother was taking acetaminophen. They also had the records of the offspring. They found no link between acetaminophen and autism.

Currently, this is the most comprehensive population-based study that has been conducted. The major societies of psychiatrists, OB/GYNs, and pediatricians have all put out statements clearly stating that the data do not support a link between acetaminophen and autism. Currently, acetaminophen is the safest medication that a pregnant woman can take to relieve pain and fever.

I know I shouldn’t have to say this, but we shouldn’t take medical advice from politicians.

Nobel Peace Prize

Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States (1977-81), won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He brokered a peace between Israel and Egypt back in 1978. He worked tirelessly to end international conflicts even after he left office.

Tawakkol Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights in Yemen. She cofounded a group called Women Journalists Without Chains in 2005. She has been a tireless advocate for freedom of the press.

Malala Yousafzai has advocated for women’s rights and education in Pakistan. She won the Nobel Prize at the young age of 17. At the young age of 11, she began writing a blog documenting the talent and occupation of her homeland. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Now, Donald Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize. He states that he has ended seven conflicts around the world. But like most of Donald Trump’s boasts, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Most importantly, Donald Trump holds most of the cards in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, he sits by and watches Palestinians get slaughtered by the thousands.

Israel has been targeting civilians. Bombing hospitals. Killing journalists. In August, Israel announced that it would clear out Gaza City. Where would these people go? This is a city with a population of approximately half a million people. In September, Israel began its offensive. This is genocide, and until a few weeks ago, Donald Trump had done nothing to rein in Benjamin Netanyahu. I’m sorry, if you sit on your hands and watch genocide happen, you do not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.

Don’t Go There

On September 10, 2025 Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in Utah. Charlie Kirk was the founder of the political action group Turning Point USA. He started Turning Point USA when he was in college. He had funding from prominent conservative donors as well as his wealthy father.

Charlie Kirk was a key figure in Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. He had a way of galvanizing young white men.

In reality, Kirk was similar to all of the other MAGA talking heads. He was anti-immigration. He spread conspiracy theories, supported white supremacy, promoted Christian nationalism, and spread misinformation about Covid-19.

But I want to focus on his comments regarding four prominent black women (Michelle Obama, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, former MSNBC political commentator and host Joy Reid, and former representative Sheila Jackson Lee). He stated that if he called these women affirmative action picks, he would’ve been labeled a racist. Then, virtually without pause, he went on to say that they “do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go and steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”

Many people have focused on these racist and misogynistic comments. But I really want to focus on the fact that Charlie thought that these women took a “white person’s spot.” He is saying that spots in these elite colleges “belong to” white people!

Well, they do not. These slots are reserved for qualified individuals. The universities decide the qualifications. If these women couldn’t cut it, they would’ve been booted out of Harvard or Yale. You have to pass the tests. Affirmative action can get you in the door. However, you must pass the tests and meet the established standards to remain in the room. And once you earn that diploma, it proves that you met all the obstacles thrown your way and passed all the tests.

Many people across the country have been reprimanded or even fired for saying anything remotely critical of Charlie Kirk. But the fact is, that this and other statements Charlie Kirk made are racist statements. They are the statements of a racist. To my mind, that means he was, indeed, a racist.

This is our Joseph McCarthy moment. In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy led a witch hunt in which Americans were dragged in front of the Senate and accused of being communist sympathizers. He had no proof, but he whipped up hysteria. Charlie Kirk was not a saint. He used some of the same tactics that are commonly used on Fox News to promote white nationalism, but Americans are being fired from their jobs because they didn’t pass some Charlie Kirk litmus test. This is wrong.

I’m sorry that Charlie Kirk was shot. I truly am. Nobody deserves to be shot and killed because of their rhetoric. Yet, according to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 24 mass shootings just in September in the United States. 24!

We have to stop gun violence in the United States. Sitting on our hands and doing nothing is unacceptable. If we genuinely are a Judeo-Christian nation that believes in the teachings of Jesus, we have to figure out a way to stop the violence.

Chronic Diseases

Robert F Kennedy, Jr., would like to Make America Healthy Again. He is trying to tackle chronic diseases without doing any of the necessary work. Let me introduce you to some of the patients that I’ve seen recently.

I saw a patient in the clinic who needed a port-a-cath. This is a device that is inserted underneath the skin and threaded into one of the central veins, allowing the patient to receive chemotherapy easily. The patient was 55 years old and had lung cancer. The patient smoked two packs of cigarettes per day for more than 40 years.

There is another patient who presented to the emergency room with abdominal pain as well as shortness of breath. The patient’s abdomen was distended with fluid because he had cirrhosis. The patient needed me to stick a needle into his abdomen and drain off over three gallons of fluid because his liver was failing secondary to alcoholism.

Americans suffer from many chronic diseases secondary to our lifestyle. We smoked too much. Some of us drink too much. And some of us eat too much. These “bad” habits lead to hypertension, heart disease, liver disease, and multiple types of cancer.

Believe me as a surgeon: taking supplements that Kennedy and his friends are pushing on the American people is not going to fix our chronic diseases. We need to commit to exercise. We need to commit to healthy habits. We need better access to more nutritious foods. This is how we make America healthy.

Editor’s Note: As we go to press, the leaders of Hamas and Israel tentatively began implementing a 20-step peace plan that includes releasing hostages and an end to the bombing. The plan is proclaimed to be “Trump’s plan,” though, as the BBC and other media have reported, it “isn’t that different from the kind of deal Biden would have struck and that America’s allies had long endorsed. … Trump has taken a very unconventional path to what is a conventional result. It has been messy. It may not be how they teach diplomacy in Ivy League universities. But, at least in this case and at this moment, it has proven effective.”

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.