WASHINGTON — In choosing to unveil a report about autism in the Roosevelt Room of the White House — an august setting just off the Oval Office — President Donald Trump sent Americans a message: For him, the issue is personal.

“I always had very strong feelings about autism,” Trump began Monday, saying he had been waiting for such an event for 20 years. Later, Trump proclaimed: “I’ve stopped seven different wars. I’ve saved millions of lives. I’ve done a lot of things. This will be as important as any single thing I’ve done.”

On and off for an hour, with his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and other top health officials beside him, Trump delivered impassioned — if scientifically dubious — remarks about the rise in autism, calling it “among the most alarming public health developm

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