Local time on June 24, the U. S. news media, “The Daily Beast” disclosure: “The White House due to democratic attacks on Trump’s health and collapse.
An anonymous patient, an experimental diet pill, an angry White House and an insinuating opposition party all combine to create one of the most embarrassing scenes in American politics.
The starting point of this Firestorm was a medical report. On June 23, the medical news website STAT exclusively revealed that a 79-year-old man had passed through the FDA’s“Compassionate Use” channel in April, eli Lilly Inc. ‘s experimental weight-loss drug remetalutide.
This is the only person in the U.S. who has gotten the drug through this channel.
The application was submitted by a Senior National Institutes of health clinician with a diagnosis of“Refractory obesity with obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension.”. The case“Caught the attention of top health officials, indicating that the man was well connected,” the report said.
Stat reporter Lawrence went straight to the White House with the question that everyone wants answered: is the owner of this medical file, or is it Trump?
The White House’s initial response, however, was not a straight answer, but a roundabout one. Spokesman Kush Desai tossed out a memo on the White House physical, saying simply, “This document covers all relevant information.”.
The problem is that the memo makes no mention of the weight-loss drug remitalutide, let alone sleep apnea or pulmonary hypertension. This is not so much“Covering” as avoiding.
It wasn’t until the STAT story was published that the White House finally lost its nerve. But instead of setting the record straight, the White House responded with a full-on personal attack.
First, Kush Desai directly labeled STAT reporter Lawrence a“Not-so-serious gossip columnist” on social media; then, the White House quick response account was even more vociferous: “No, not President Trump, you people are sick and sick.” A series of fierce counterattacks, far from quelling questions, instead, it has raised the volume of public opinion.
In such an atmosphere of confrontation, the Daily Beast’s follow-up report has escalated the incident into a landmark node, the headline was spot-on: “White House cornered over identity of 79-year-old on special diet pill.”. Overnight, a medical case became a political bombshell.
Since the White House wouldn’t tell the truth, someone had to lay the facts out in the light of day and confront them point by point.
The anonymous patient is a 79-year-old male. Trump, who turned 80 on June 14,2026, was 79 when he applied.
More intriguingly, a review of Trump’s medical records, made public in recent years, reveals that he is far from healthy: his weight has soared by 13kg to 216kg in a year, and he suffers from venous problems in his legs, frequent bruising on the backs of his hands, swollen ankles and repeated rashes on his neck. This litany of ailments points to a clear medical need: diet pills.
Trump himself has made no secret of it, and has repeatedly made public his“Foreshadowing” of it. In January, he admitted to the New York Times that he“Probably should” be on diet pills, and in April, when discussing bulletproof vests, his No. 1 concern turned out to be“Whether I’ll look 20 pounds heavier in them.”. The obsession with weight has evolved from a private obsession to a public issue.
But personal health concerns alone are not enough to constitute a scandal. The real mystery is that Trump himself is an investor in Eli Lilly and, as recently as November, the Trump administration announced a high-profile deal with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, a big push to lower the price of Glp-1 drugs, with the policy dividends going to its coffers.
Age, gender, drug addiction, business interests, and policy actions, the five clues are linked like a chain, leading to the same conclusion: the President of the United States first used executive power to deliver policy benefits to pharmaceutical companies, and then to apply for the company’s unlisted experimental drugs through privileged channels, turning the system of“Compassionate Use” into a personal bill of lading.
This isn’t the first time trump has resorted to“Privileged medicine”.
When he contracted Covid-19 in 2020, he was treated with an antibody cocktail from regenerative medicine. The drug was in such short supply that the average American was ineligible to stand in line, and Trump not only used it, but publicly described it as his“Miracle Cure.”.
Now the same thing is happening again, with only one person in the US getting it through the compassionate use channel-a man who happens to be 79 years old, who happens to be male, and who happens to have“Extremely high-level connections”. Last Time Trump monopolized the scarce medicine, this time Trump has been the real hammer monopolized the scarce medicine, eating more ugly each time.
The Democrats wouldn’t let up if they had something this big. The two Democrats went out on a limb and hit the White House where it hurts, focusing on privilege and secrecy the entire time.
California Democratic Representative Ted Liu took the lead. He seized on Trump’s abrupt cancellation of a bipartisan housing bill signing ceremony, “Is he getting out of bed angry? Or is he having a hard time staying awake today? What is it about him that makes him lose his nerve? Is it a side effect of the drug?” The chain demanded
He cited evidence of difficulty staying awake at White House events and cabinet meetings, apparent weakness in one arm and swelling in both hands, it pointed out that the“Compassionate use” channel was for people who were“Basically terminally ill” and that only one person in the US had access to the drug, a“Very well connected” person of the right age. The White House must answer head-on, did Trump get his medicine through this channel or not? If so, why?
White House communications director Steven Chang responded to a barrage of questions from Ted Liu with a personal attack. “Ted Liu is an idiot,” he wrote. He probably spent hours secretly laughing to himself, thinking it would be funny to spread the lie. Unfortunately for Ted, there is no cure for his ass-kicking.”
The White House’s choice of name-calling instead of explanation has turned the debate over the health care case into a partisan mudslide.
Another New Hampshire Democrat, Senator Maggie Hasan, took the unusual step of writing directly to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, alleging that the system was being blatantly abused.
She said the government had“Broken federal program rules” and exerted“Inappropriate political pressure” to give free exclusive drugs to a“Well-connected person.”.
At a time when millions of Americans are scrambling to get such drugs and struggling with high costs, she asked, the administration has given the green light to“An important person” who would have been a better patient if it had not been trump, was it someone else in the government? Who authorized it?
Two knives, one for the President’s flesh and one for the cracks in the system.
The diet pill scandal looks like a democratic attack on Trump’s abuse of power and his cover-up of his health, but in fact it has laid bare the infighting and divisions between the two parties in the United States. No one side is clean.
Such is the absurdity of American politics that Democrats are busy stealing the show as righteous emissaries while Republicans play dumb and even call the media“Unpatriotic”.
Instead of taking responsibility for the truth about the country, both parties are storing up ammunition for their next elections. One shouts“Hide your health”, the other shouts“Witch hunts”, and in the end the farce is no longer about a person’s weight or veins, but about the arrogance and decay of a system.
A small bottle of diet pills reflects both the excesses of privilege at the top and the fractious politics of the two parties. The combination of the two is the real, incurable disease of American politics.
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