Trump Exposes Who in White House Is on Ozempic

President Trump took time out of his Thursday press conference to fat-shame his own staff for taking Ozempic, the popular weight-loss drug. 

The press conference, which featured multiple Cabinet members, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, was to announce a deal with drug manufacturers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly—who make Ozempic and Zepbound—that would lower the cost of their popular weight-loss drugs to around $150 per month (they currently cost around $350 per month).

“Secretary Howard Lutnick. You take any of this stuff, Howard?” Trump asked while making the announcement. 

“Not yet,” Lutnick replied. 

“OK, good,” Trump said before going back to reading names of people on his team. “CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, he doesn’t take it. Food and Drug Administrator, Commissioner Marty Makary, and Director of Medicare Chris Klomp. And we have Steve.… Where’s Steve? Is he here? Head of public relations for the White House? He’s taking it.” 

Now the entire country knows (or at least believes) that Steven Cheung, 43, a longtime comms staffer and attack dog for Trump who once called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis a “desperate eunuch,” is on Ozempic.  

Ozempic has grown increasingly popular as Americans of all demographics look for a simpler way to cut weight. Nearly half of adults age 40–59 are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Former Justice Department paralegal Sean Dunn, who went viral this summer for chucking a Subway sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent during President Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C., has been found not guilty on misdemeanor charges.

Dunn walks free on Thursday after countless attempts from the Trump administration to prosecute him both federally and criminally.

The man known locally and nationally as the “D.C. Sandwich Guy” reportedly called the heavily armed officers “fucking fascists,” and yelled “I don’t want you in my city!” before hurling the wrapped sandwich straight at CPB agent Gregory Lairmore’s chest. The agent was obviously unharmed. Dunn fled the scene but was caught, later saying, “I did it. I threw a sandwich.”

The next evening, Dunn was arrested at his apartment by multiple federal agents in a dramatic operation the Trump administration posted on all platforms.

Lairmore, who was in a bulletproof vest, testified in court that the sandwich “kind of exploded” on him. “I could smell the onions and mustard,” he said.

“This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in August, after the bloodless incident. “You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.” Dunn was then fired from his job. (Bondi’s post ignored that at least one January 6 insurrectionist who was openly hostile to law enforcement currently has a job within the Trump administration.)

Dunn was first tried on a felony assault, but federal prosecutors failed to convince grand jurors that throwing a sandwich qualified—an embarrassing outcome that rarely occurs given how skewed federal grand juries usually are in favor of the government. They then moved on to charging Dunn with one count of misdemeanor assault, which again failed miserably on Thursday.

“I’m relieved and looking forward to moving on with my life,” Dunn said, after the verdict.

The DOJ spent months of its resources and days in court just for multiple judges to tell it that its desired charges for Dunn—from felony assault to a misdemeanor—were completely absurd. This wasn’t the only example of the Trump administration trying and failing to make an example out of someone standing up against the unprecedented influx of armed federal troops into the nation’s capital. It also gave up on charging D.C. woman Sidney Lori Reid with a felony after it couldn’t convince three different grand juries that she deserved eight years in prison for allegedly placing herself between ICE agents and someone they were detaining.

This story has been updated.

Donald Trump is getting more honest about the impacts of his inconsistent tariff plan.

Speaking to the press inside the Oval Office Thursday, Trump admitted to knowing that his overhaul of America’s trade relationships has come at the cost of American consumers.

“Do you agree then that Americans are paying those tariffs?” asked a reporter.

“I think they might be paying something, but when you take the overall impact, the Americans are gaining tremendously,” Trump said. “Look, I’m ending war because of these tariffs. Americans would have to fight in some of these wars.”

Trump has touted himself for months as a great peacemaker, pushing a narrative that he has—so far—solved eight foreign conflicts. He has claimed responsibility for inventing peace between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda, between Cambodia and Thailand, between Israel and Iran, between India and Pakistan, between Serbia and Kosovo, between Egypt and Ethiopia, between Armenia and Azerbaijan (although he has previously forgotten and said Albania instead of Armenia), between Israel and Gaza, and for “doing the Abraham Accords.”

He has repeatedly cited his tariff plan as the key to solving those wars, even though several of them never existed to begin with.

But it’s not the first time that Trump has fessed to the ramifications of his tariff proposals. During a Cabinet meeting in April, the president acknowledged that his plan would spike prices on American goods, such as children’s toys, though his solution that Americans should simply buy less was as anti-American and anti-capitalist as it was anti-Trumpian. (Some of Barron Trump’s childhood toys included a customized mini Mercedes convertible featuring a “BARRON” license plate, several life-sized stuffed animals, and famously, a Louis Vuitton “soot-case” that reportedly now retails for nearly $10,000.)

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is in the midst of debating the validity of Trump’s tariff plan. Justices on both sides of the ideological fence have expressed their skepticism over the policy, questioning the administration’s foundation to base the legitimacy of the supposedly unrestricted levy power on a vague federal law that has never before been used for this purpose.

If they rule against Trump, it will be the first major break between the conservative-majority court and the president since he was inaugurated in January.

So far, the nation’s highest judiciary seems to share little in common with Trump when it comes to their perspective on the trade plan, apparently disagreeing on even the most basic details, such as the definition of “tariff.”

“Chief Justice Roberts said that tariffs are taxes and that they’re paid by Americans. He said this pretty clearly. And yet you’re saying this money is rolling in from other countries. How do you square those two?” asked a reporter.

“Well, it is. It’s coming in because they charged us,” Trump said. “You know those same countries that you talk about are charging us massive amounts of money.”

He then went on to blame the national debt on imbalanced tariff sheets between America and its trade allies.

“We had presidents who didn’t know how to use tariffs, presidents who had no understanding of business,” Trump said.

Once such prior president would be Ronald Reagan, who became a central figure in Trump’s trade war with Canada last month when Ontario’s provincial government aired an anti-tariff advertisement aimed at Americans. The political advert featured snippets of the conservative icon’s 1987 radio address, in which Reagan argued that tariffs undermine economic prosperity, and that they only serve to “hurt every American.”

An 80-year-old congressman representing suburban Atlanta has not voted in six straight elections, including the 2024 presidential election.

Representative David Scott, a Democrat in Georgia’s 13th district, is facing a primary challenge from state Representative Dr. Jasmine Clark, who discovered Scott’s voting record through a public records request and posted about it on X Thursday.

“Our right to vote is sacred and constantly under attack. I cannot fathom any elected official asking his constituents for their votes every two years without even bothering to go vote himself,” Clark posted, claiming that Scott doesn’t live in the district he represents.

Scott has drawn negative attention this year for appearing to drift in and out of lucidity. In June, he claimed to have attended the film premiere for the movie The Ten Commandments in 1956, when he would have been 11 years old. In February at a congressional hearing, Scott gave a long, incoherent speech about tariffs, going over his allotted time before being cut off.

“You have the president just using these tariffs as a means of fight or like a war. And this is not going to do it. Everybody is not going to be Mexico or Canada,” Scott said at the time. In December of last year, Scott also cursed at a photographer for taking his picture as he was being pushed in a wheelchair outside of the Capitol.

Scott’s reelection campaign for his twelfth term in 2024 drew alarm from his colleagues, staff, and lobbyists, who told Politico that the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee has trouble carrying out detailed conversations and often reads from a script. Since then, Scott has seldom given interviews.

This year, three members of Congress, all Democrats over the age of 70, have passed away: Representatives Gerry Connolly, Sylvester Turner, and Raúl Grijalva. Their absence from the House has aided Republicans’ narrow margin in the chamber. Scott represents a safe Democratic district in Georgia. Perhaps he should follow former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lead and announce his retirement.

A man appeared to collapse Thursday during a press conference to debut a deal to make those drugs more affordable, while President Donald Trump simply looked on.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the daytime talk show host Trump picked to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, rushed to help the man to the ground (Oz was a heart doctor before he became a pseudoscience-peddling daytime host). Meanwhile, Trump, who was sitting behind his desk while others ran the show, slowly stood up as he watched the man take to the floor.

As members of the press were quickly ushered out of the room, Trump turned away from the fallen man, staring off into space.

It is unclear who the man is. While some outlets reported that it was Novo Nordisk executive Gordon Findlay, multiple sources told The Washington Post’s Dan Diamond that the man was a patient who uses Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 medication.

CBS journalists Jennifer Jacobs and Aaron Navarro reported that the only two Novo Nordisk executives at the event were CEO Mike Doustdar and Executive Vice President Dave Moore. A spokesperson for Eli Lilly told Navarro that the man was one of their guests.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the man was “okay” and being seen by the White House Medical Unit. Newsmax was quick to report that Trump—who was clearly not involved in the incident at all—was also okay.

Though, Trump didn’t exactly seem up-to-par while dully reading the announcement from his seat.

A senior administration official said that under Trump’s new deal with Novo Nordisk and Elli Lily, weight-loss drugs could have an out-of-pocket cost of between $50 to $350 per month, as opposed to the current list price of more than $1000. However, prices would likely not be significantly cheaper for those whose prescriptions are covered by insurance.

TrumpRx, the president’s scheme to transform the federal government into a pharmacy, is already raising red flags for legal and health experts. They warn that the marketing gimmick isn’t likely to help the average American, and could actually expose private information to a government that clearly doesn’t know how to handle it. Already, other drug companies such as Pfizer and EMD Serono, which produces fertility drugs, have made deals to sell discounted products through TrumpRx, in exchange for being spared from the president’s sweeping tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

This story has been updated.