Barack Obama has said Donald Trump’s claims linking paracetamol to autism in infants is “violence against the truth” that could harm pregnant women if they were too scared to take pain relief.
Obama, who was being interviewed by David Olusoga at the O2 Arena, told the audience that Trump’s claims about paracetamol – branded as Tylenol in the US – had been “continuously disproved” and posed a danger to public health.
“We have the spectacle of my successor in the Oval Office making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproved,” he said. “It undermines public health … that can do harm to women.”
On Monday Trump had said: “Taking Tylenol is not good … All pregnant women should talk to their doctors about limiting the use of this medication while pregnant.”
The comments were criticised by the UK health secretary, Wes Streeting, who encouraged women to ignore the president’s comments.
Obama argued there was a “tug of war” between two visions for the future of the US and humanity. On one side the progressive view where change came through democracy, the other driven by populists including Trump wanting a return to an older, more conservative worldview.
Barack Obama who is on a European speaking tour was interviewed by historian David Olusoga at the O2 Arena. Photograph: PR IMAGE
He said: “My successor has not been particularly shy about it. That desire is to go back to a very particular way of thinking about America, where ‘we, the people’, is just some people, not all people. And where there are some pretty clear hierarchies in terms of status and who ranks where.”
Obama was also critical of progressives who he said became “complacent” and “smug” in the 90s and 00s, “posturing that we believe in all these values because they were never tested. Now they’re being tested”.
The former president has generally kept a low profile after leaving office. But he has made increasingly frequent interventions as the political landscape in the US becomes more violent, restive and divided along partisan lines.
In London, Obama did not refer to Trump by name, only as “my successor”.
The evening started with Olusoga welcoming the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who had been criticised by Trump on Tuesday during his speech at the UN in New York. Khan had responded by saying Trump had “shown he is racist, he is sexist, he is misogynistic and he’s Islamophobic”.
Obama is in London as part of a European speaking tour, which includes another date in Dublin on Friday. He is due to receive the Freedom of Dublin on Thursday.
