Bleach Enthusiast, Antisemitic Conspiracist Among Stars of Anti-Vaxxer Event To Be Held at Trump Hotel

WIRED

30-01-2025

Jan 30, 2025 9:32 AM The 'truth seekers' conference, held at a hotel owned and frequented by President Donald Trump, is being organized by Charlie Ward, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist. Photograph:A conspiracy-theory-laden conference featuring anti-vaccine speakers, including one man known for pushing toxic bleach as a cure for cancer and autism, will take place in May at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Florida.
The 'truth seekers' conference, held at a hotel owned and frequented by President Donald Trump, is being organized by Charlie Ward, an antisemitic conspiracy-theory peddler who lives in Spain and has a huge following online where he discusses QAnon, 9/11, the purported flatness of the earth, lizard people, and more.
It will be a who's who of US anti-vaxxers and Covid deniers. The event will feature dozens of speakers, including many who led the effort to undermine the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines, as well as QAnon promoters, election deniers like disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn (though his name was subsequently removed from the website promoting the event), and anti-immigrant campaigners like Christie Hutcherson, who leads Women Fighting for America.
The conference's website also listed Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as a headline speaker, though the event organizer told WIRED that her presence is still not fully confirmed. Hours after WIRED contacted the organizers, her name was removed.
Andreas Kalcker, a German man who has promoted a bleach-like solution as a cure for autism and cancer, will also be in attendance. In an interview this month on Rumble, Kalcker said he would be presenting data and testimonials from users of his solution at the conference.
Kalcker is largely viewed as the inventor of chlorine dioxide solution, also known as Water Purification Solution, Chlorine Dioxide Protocol, or MMS in other similar circles. (The letters stand for Miracle Mineral Supplement, Miracle Mineral Solution, and other similar variants.) Whatever name it goes by, it is a toxic liquid that has been peddled in alternative health circles for years as a 'cure' for everything from autism to cancer, HIV/AIDS, and Covid-19. In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration warned that 'ingesting these products is the same as drinking bleach.' Among the possible side effects listed are abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, and acute liver failure.
Kalcker has focused much of his efforts on selling the solution in Latin America, and his promotion of the toxic solution is credited with helping persuade the Bolivian government to approve it as a cure for Covid.
In 2021, Kalcker was charged by authorities in Argentina 'with illegal practice of the medical profession and selling fake medicines,' Business Insider reported, following the death of a 5-year-old boy whose parents gave him Kalcker's solution with the belief that it would ward off Covid.
It's his presence at the conference that's most concerning to activists who have spent years trying to highlight the dangers posed by selling the toxic bleach-like solution.
As the Trump administration pushes to confirm anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy to head up the Department of Health and Human Services, activists are deeply concerned that dangerous alternative health solutions, such as chlorine dioxide, could become mainstream by being associated with members of the Trump family.
Fiona O'Leary, an Ireland-based activist who has autistic children and has spent years trying to highlight the dangers of toxic bleach solution being sold as an autism cure, worries that the Miami conference will 'platform' Kalcker and allow him to increase his influence in the US.
'Andreas Kalcker has been giving bleach to autistic children for many years,' O'Leary, who has tracked Kalcker's activities closely, tells WIRED. 'Kalcker is not a doctor. His protocol for autism involves poisoning autistic children with chlorine dioxide, bleach. Autistic children are forced to drink this poison all day long and forced to suffer burning bleach enemas. It is child abuse.'
Kalcker did not respond to a request for comment.
Tickets for the two-day conference, which is taking place following a charity golf event also organized by Ward, range from $50 tickets for basic access to $2,300 VIP guests that include accommodation at the hotel and access to the speakers.
Ward, who claims to have been to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on a number of occasions, rose to prominence online in 2020 for spreading Covid-19 and QAnon conspiracy theories on YouTube before his account was banned. Now, Ward primarily livestreams on the alternative video platform Rumble, where he is a verified user and has over 200,000 subscribers. He is very well connected in Trump world: His previous guests on the show have included Flynn, former Trump adviser Roger Stone, and Trump's current nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel.
Stuart Leary, the conference's director, told WIRED that the majority of attendees are from the US, but up to one third of guests will travel from abroad to attend. Between 900 and 1,000 people will be attending the conference, Leary says.
When asked if Eric Trump would be speaking alongside his wife, Lara Trump, Leary told WIRED he didn't know. However in a conversation with O'Leary, the activist, a recording of which was shared with WIRED, Leary says he has 'heard unofficially that two [members of the Trump family] will be there,' adding that they would not be making that public due to security concerns.
Leigh Dundas, a California attorney who became a prominent pusher of Covid-19 conspiracies before attending the January 6 attack on the Capitol, will be in attendance, as will Sherri Tenpenny, an anti-vaxxer who shot to fame when she claimed the Covid vaccine makes you magnetic. Tenpenny also claims vaccines cause autism.
Scott McKay, known as the Patriot Streetfighter, is also slated to speak. He streams on Rumble and, in addition to promoting QAnon conspiracy theories, has inserted himself into local school board debates about mask mandates. McKay has pushed wildly antisemitic conspiracy theories in the past, including claims that Jewish people orchestrated the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as well as the assassinations of presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and William McKinley. He routinely pushes the centuries-old claim that Jewish people torture children and drink their blood.
In 2023, McKay was banned from speaking at another conspiracy-filled conference at Trump's Doral resort after media reports revealed his antisemitic comments. That event was one of dozens of stops on the ReAwaken America tour, a traveling conspiracy circus organized by Flynn and filled with Christian nationalists, election deniers, conspiracy theorists, and numerous members of Trump's own family.
Ward was also banned from that event, due to his history of spewing antisemitic and Hitler-praising social media content. Media watchdog Media Matters outlined multiple occasions where Ward's official Telegram channel, which was subsequently deleted, posted deeply antisemitic content, including a post that said 'Hitler was warning us' about Jewish people.
When WIRED asked Ward about these posts, he denied making them, claiming initially that the channel referenced in the Media Matters article was a fake channel.
When it was pointed out to Ward that an archived copy of his own website linked to that channel directly, and it had been promoted on his livestreams, Ward claimed that the account may have been hacked. He also claimed he had never posted anything on Telegram and that he had a team of people who did that for him.
Ward did, however, admit to saying that more people were killed by the Covid vaccine than in the Holocaust. 'How many people in here know that more people have been killed by the jab than were killed in the Holocaust? And they're still doing it because nobody can stop them,' Ward said at a ReAwaken America tour stop.
Ward told WIRED that 15 million people were killed by the Covid-19 vaccine, 'and that's a fact.' This is not true. When asked for evidence to back up his claim, Ward could not provide it.
It appears, however, that Ward's antisemitic comments have not damaged his relationship with the Trump organization. 'Interestingly, it was Trump Doral who approached us to come for our event this year,' claims Ward. 'So maybe they realize the truth.'
The Trump Organization did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the event.