Good morning, it's Tuesday, August 11. President Trump signed an executive order yesterday rewriting America's childhood vaccine schedule — and ordering a split that no approved vaccine can deliver.

Also in today's issue: DOJ sues three more states, Private prisons hit record revenue, Military families caught in ICE net, Gas prices and the Iran stalemate.

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If your child sees a pediatrician in America, what happened yesterday could more than double the number of times you walk through that office door — and double the copays you pay each visit. President Trump signed an executive order on August 10 that shrinks the list of recommended childhood vaccines from 18 diseases to 11. Shots for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, flu, and COVID-19 would move into a new category called "shared clinical decision-making" — given only if a parent and doctor specifically agree. The order also directs that children receive just one vaccine per visit, instead of several at once. That means more than twice the appointments, each one requiring time off work, a drive, and a copay. For a working parent without paid leave, that math is not abstract.

The order also calls for splitting the MMR vaccine — the combined measles, mumps, and rubella shot used since 1971 — into three separate injections given at three separate visits. No standalone measles, mumps, or rubella vaccines are FDA-approved or sold anywhere in the United States. The president signed an order calling for a product that does not exist. The American Academy of Pediatrics says it could take a decade to develop individual versions.

Now look — this isn't the first attempt. In January, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed through a nearly identical change to the CDC's vaccine schedule, bypassing the agency's own scientific advisory panel to do it. In March, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts blocked those changes, ruling they likely broke the law. Yesterday's executive order is built as a workaround — using presidential authority to get around what courts wouldn't let the agency do on its own.

And the timing is worth sitting with. The U.S. has recorded its most measles cases since 1991 — over 2,300 confirmed infections in 2026, with five months left in the year. Measles was declared eliminated in this country in 2000. Health experts warn the U.S. may lose that status when the Pan American Health Organization reviews it this November. This is the moment the White House chose to tell parents to reconsider routine shots.

The AAP called the order "disheartening" and "dangerous." Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — a physician who voted to confirm Kennedy — said the president has "no expertise" to make these changes. Japan tried splitting the MMR in the 1990s. Mumps vaccination there dropped to about a third of children. Hundreds of kids lost their hearing.

Georgetown Law professor Lawrence Gostin said this order is almost certain to be blocked in court. But the legal outcome may matter less than the message. Every time federal leaders cast doubt on vaccines without evidence, some parents hear it and skip the appointment. That's not a court ruling. That's a measles case in a classroom. What to watch: whether states follow this new guidance or stick with the AAP's schedule heading into the school year — and whether courts act before families start making fall decisions.

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The Justice Department filed lawsuits against New York, Connecticut, and Vermont on August 10 over state laws allowing undocumented students to receive in-state college tuition, bringing the total to 17 states targeted. The DOJ has already won permanent court orders ending similar policies in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Illinois, according to Inside Higher Ed. The suits landed the same day Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump's former personal criminal defense lawyer, confirmed 50-49 on August 8 — was sworn in as the 88th attorney general. About 408,000 undocumented students attend U.S. colleges, many of whom grew up in the states where they now study, according to the National Immigration Law Center. What the administration calls a defense of citizens' rights looks, in practice, like systematically pulling the ladder out from under people who have spent their whole lives in American communities.

CoreCivic and GEO Group, America's two largest private prison companies, reported a combined $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue for April through June as immigration detention nears record levels at almost 66,000 people, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. CoreCivic also sold four detention facilities to the Department of Homeland Security at an average price of $307,000 per bed — then signed contracts to keep running them. GEO Group's government ties run deep: former company executive David Venturella is now the acting director of ICE. He told lawmakers he has divested his GEO Group stock. When the government's contractor becomes the government's regulator, the question is not whether there's a conflict of interest — it's who is minding it.

An Associated Press investigation found that more than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. service members have been detained by ICE since January 2025, with at least six deported. Army Staff Sergeant Alexis Jaramillo in Louisiana now drives eight hours round trip to visit his wife, a Brazilian national held at a rural ICE processing center, instead of training soldiers at Fort Polk. Military families had been largely shielded from deportation under both parties for decades — a protection created under President George W. Bush in 2007 and formalized under President Obama. A new ICE policy adopted in April 2025 states that military service "alone does not exempt" relatives from removal, according to a PBS News report on the AP findings. The military still uses these family protections as a recruiting tool. The Marine Corps quietly stopped advertising them last year.

The national average gas price stood at $4.01 per gallon on August 9, according to AAA — up from $2.98 the day the Iran war began on February 28. Trump told Axios the U.S. is "low-keying" negotiations with Iran, signaling a shift toward economic pressure over military action. Oil tankers remain largely unable to pass through the Strait of Hormuz after a June ceasefire collapsed in July, and Iran issued new demands for reopening — including a full end to the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions relief. Since the war started, Americans have spent an estimated $40 billion more on gasoline, according to a Brown University estimate reported by NBC News. At $4 a gallon, the phrase "it will work out" does not land the way it used to.

Average price per bed American taxpayers paid when CoreCivic sold four detention facilities to DHS. The company then signed deals to keep running the same buildings it just sold. Its CEO told investors the sales support the administration's goal of reaching 100,000 people in detention at once, according to NPR.

P.S. Should the president set the vaccine schedule? Hit Reply — one word is enough.