Within Trump’s circles, there is a growing sense that encouraging vaccines too aggressively could carry political risks. Like much of the rest of the GOP, the current calculation has been to rail against vaccine mandates but keep quiet on the push for the vaccines themselves.

“I think there was a course correction there and it was pretty apparent,” said a former Trump adviser and campaign strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are working with candidates on different sides of the issue. “He probably has to balance the position of whether he wants to separate himself against DeSantis but also do no harm. So there was a course correction, where being against mandates is a very safe position and leaving it to personal choice and personal freedom is the best course.”…

But in certain corners of the Republican Party, being anti-mandate is not politically sufficient. Influencers and a subset of lawmakers have argued that the campaign to get people vaccinated and boosted itself is problematic. Their skepticism is driven by a belief that government bureaucrats have grown power hungry and that pharmaceutical executives are trying to line their pockets.

Owens, for one, has insisted that Trump was misinformed about vaccines because he has not been privy to Internet research. She declined an interview request for this story, and instead suggested to her followers on Instagram that POLITICO’s request was part of a conspiracy to support the pharmaceutical companies that advertise on the site.