At a Glance
- President Trump told a rural health roundtable that his unnamed friend got “actually fatter” on Ozempic
- The friend pays $1,300 for the drug in New York but only $87 in London
- Trump used the anecdote to push his plan to match the lowest global prescription prices
- Why it matters: The administration aims to cut U.S. weight-loss drug costs to as low as $149 a month
President Donald Trump turned a White House rural-health discussion into a roast session, revealing that a wealthy friend ballooned in size despite taking Ozempic.
Speaking on Friday, Jan. 16, Trump recounted the man’s experience ten minutes into the hour-long event.
Trump’s Ozempic Story
“A friend of mine who is a very smart guy, very, very rich, very powerful man actually but he’s very fat and he took the fat… I call it the fat drug,” Trump said. “I won’t give you which one.”
He paused, then added, “It was Ozempic… I won’t tell you that.”
Trump said the friend, who “can’t walk across the street,” was in London on “one of his many business trips.” The man, “worth hundreds of millions, billions of dollars,” pays:
- $1,300 per month in New York
- $87 per month in London
The president called the gap “too much to bear” and offered blunt advice: “After I told him that the drug does not work on him because I saw him recently and he’s actually fatter than ever, I said, ‘The drug is not working on you, you’re going to have to go to something else but it does work on a lot of people.'”
The friend replied, “Thanks, you make me feel good,” prompting Trump to say, “Well, I gotta be truthful. Always tell the truth.”
Price-Cut Push
The anecdote fed into Trump’s broader push to slash U.S. prescription costs. “Whoever is paying the lowest, we match it,” he declared.
In November 2025, the administration announced Ozempic would drop from $1,000-$1,350 per month to $350 through the TrumpRx program. Medicare and Medicaid recipients will pay $245 starting mid-2026, while an upcoming oral version will cost $149.
“For years, politicians have talked about making health care affordable,” Trump said at the November press conference. “But my administration is actually doing it.”
Fainting Incident
That same November event grabbed headlines when a man standing behind the Resolute Desk collapsed. Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, caught him.
Trump later said, “One of the representatives of one of the companies got a little light-headed and so they went down, and he’s fine.”
Key Takeaways
- Trump used a personal story to highlight global drug-price gaps
- The administration’s plan could cut monthly Ozempic costs by up to 85%
- The president reiterated his pledge to match the lowest international prices
