{"id":624260,"date":"2026-06-24T12:44:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=624260"},"modified":"2026-06-24T12:44:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:44:45","slug":"white-house-shuts-down-claims-trump-is-taking-experimental-weight-loss-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=624260","title":{"rendered":"White House shuts down claims Trump is taking experimental weight-loss drug"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

The White House has refuted a claim that President Donald Trump was given access to a limited-use miracle drug.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Stat News<\/a> ran a bombshell report about a \u201cpowerful new drug\u201d made by Eli Lilly called retatrutide. The drug \u201chas demonstrated bariatric-surgery levels of weight loss,\u201d according to the outlet.<\/p>\n

The report further revealed that Eli Lilly and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have thus far only allowed a single person to access the drug through the federal agency\u2019s \u201ccompassionate use\u201d program. The program grants \u201cpatients with serious and immediately life-threatening medical issues\u201d immediate access to experimental treatments like retatrutide.<\/p>\n

The person chosen for the program was described as 79 years old and \u201cwell connected.\u201d President Trump is 80 years old at this moment, but he JUST turned 80 on June 14. And, of course,\u00a0 he\u2019s deeply, deeply well-connected.<\/p>\n

According to Stat News, the drug was requested by National Institutes of Health Senior Clinician Ranganath Muniyappa to treat a patient for refractory obesity with obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension.<\/p>\n

Based on all this info, the outlet directly asked the White House whether Trump received retatrutide, but the White House punted.<\/p>\n

\n

Sources told STAT that application drew interest from top health officials. Given the demographics and the peculiar nature of the application, I asked the WH if this patient was President Trump, who turned 80 a week ago. I did not get a direct answer.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lizzy Lawrence (@LizzyLaw_) June 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhite House spokesperson Kush Desai directed STAT\u2019s inquiry to the Health and Human Services Department,\u201d according to the outlet. \u201cIn response to STAT\u2019s question about whether Trump has obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension, Desai said a White House memo detailing Trump\u2019s most recent medical evaluation \u2018covers this.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Emily Hilliard also dodged the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FDA supports expanded access programs that can provide patients with serious or life-threatening conditions access to investigational treatments when no comparable or satisfying approved therapies are available,\u201d she said. \u201cEach request is reviewed on a case-by-case basis based on the clinical circumstances and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, after Stat News\u2019 story was published, Desai posted an update to X, outright denying the alleged Trump connection and attacking Stat News reporter Lizzy Lawrence, whom he referred to as \u201can unserious gossip columnist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Because this has to be spelled out for @LizzyLaw_<\/a>, who has proven herself to be an unserious gossip columnist, this application was not for the President. https:\/\/t.co\/TjUOSWISmx<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kush Desai (@KushDesai47) June 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Lawrence responded by reiterating that her question was never originally answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank 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,\u201d she wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n

Desai responded scathingly once more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have to bat down baseless speculation for you to not print it,\u201d\u00a0 he insisted<\/a>. \u201cAny reporter with standards would understand this. Are you going to now go ask this idiotic question to the ~4 million Americans in this age cohort and then speculate about them being the application?\u201d<\/p>\n

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung also took a shot at Lawrence:<\/p>\n

\n

You thought this was your big shot, but in reality, you\u2019re 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\u2019ll never make it. https:\/\/t.co\/r9sbv3tcEK<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) June 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In fairness to Lawrence, Trump was previously one of the first people to receive an antibody treatment from Regeneron during the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want everybody to be given the same treatment as your president,\u201d the president said in a video at the time.<\/p>\n

\n

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT! pic.twitter.com\/uhLIcknAjT<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As for the unidentified patient, Stat News noted that they were previously treated for a year with an FDA-approved Eli Lilly obesity drug called tirzepatide but experienced only minor weight loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuniyappa, who studies endocrine disorders and runs the diabetes services at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, recommended against bariatric surgery because of the patient\u2019s age and comorbidities,\u201d according to Stat News.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House has refuted a claim that President Donald Trump was given access to a limited-use miracle drug. On Tuesday, Stat News ran a bombshell report about a \u201cpowerful new drug\u201d made by Eli Lilly called retatrutide. The drug \u201chas demonstrated bariatric-surgery levels of weight loss,\u201d according to the outlet. The report further revealed… Continue reading White House shuts down claims Trump is taking experimental weight-loss drug<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":624261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-624260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=624260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/624261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=624260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=624260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=624260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}