


























(Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP photos)
White House comms officials absolutely slammed a reporter over her suggestion that President Donald Trump was given the opportunity to try a powerful new weight-loss drug as part of a “compassionate use” program.
The drug, retatritude, is an “investigational triple hormone receptor agonist” that has reportedly led to a 30 percent loss of body weight, on par with weight-loss surgery.
In a STATNews.com piece, entitled “Eli Lilly gave extraordinary obesity drug access to a 79-year-old patient. Who was it?” Lizzy Lawrence reports that the drugmaker and the FDA allowed one subject to have access to the drug retatrutide through the FDA’s “compassionate use” program, reserved for patients “with serious and immediately life-threatening medical issues.”
The drug is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials and is not yet available to the public, according to Eli Lilly.
The patient in question was an overweight, 79-year-old male who made a request for the drug back in April. At the time, Trump was 79, having turned 80 on June 14.
While the White House never confirmed or denied to STAT that the patient in question was Trump, the president’s top comms officials, Kush Desai and Steven Cheung, quashed the very suggestion, publicly and with extreme prejudice.
“Because this has to be spelled out for [Lawrence], who has proven herself to be an unserious gossip columnist, this application was not for the President,” Desai posted to X on Tuesday.
Cheung was much more aggressive.
“You thought this was your big shot, but in reality, you’re just a big idiot,” he said, also on X. “You certainly made a name for yourself by completely embarrassing yourself at the expense of being thirsty for clicks and peddling falsehoods.”
Cheung added, “Good job, loser. You’ll never make it.”
You thought this was your big shot, but in reality, you’re just a big idiot. You certainly made a name for yourself by completely embarrassing yourself at the expense of being thirsty for clicks and peddling falsehoods. Good job, loser. You’ll never make it. https://t.co/r9sbv3tcEK
— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) June 23, 2026
In a response to Desai’s post, Lawrence said: “Thank you for clarifying. I asked you, the FDA, and HHS multiple times yesterday whether this application was for the President. No one answered my question directly.”
Trump has been the subject of numerous health concerns over the past year, from bruised hands to swollen ankles to appearing to fall asleep during daytime appearances.
Last month, the president was reportedly evaluated by a whopping 22 medical specialists during a three-hour health visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, his fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since his second term began.
After that visit, Trump proclaimed on his Truth Social account that “everything checked out PERFECTLY.”
—
New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理,仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。