President Donald Trump relied on what seemed to be a wild Ozempic anecdote to justify his administration’s new remedy to weight out the staggering price difference of medicines in the UK and the UK. The latest revelation has since set the internet ablaze with frenzied reactions, as the POTUS coined a new term to be synonymously identified with viral weight loss medication.
Opting for a story-time, the Republican leader told reporters about one of his “seriously overweight” friends from the UK taking what he now calls the “fat shot drug.”
Trump admits to being on Ozempic while sharing his ‘friend’s’ story
“A friend of mine, who is a businessman… top guy. Most of you would’ve heard of him. Highly neurotic, brilliant businessman. Seriously overweight. And he takes the fat shot drug,” said the 45th and 47th US president. He then seemed to recall that his extremely rich and successful friend in London once told him that while he had consumed the “damn fat drug,” it was not working for him.
What Trump ultimately wanted to underscore by publicly sharing this bizarre instance was the huge divide between the medication’s price listing in the US and the UK. “He said, I just paid $88 and in New York I paid $1,300… So I checked, and it’s the same box made in the same plant by the same company. It’s the identical pill that I buy in New York, and here I’m paying $88 in London, in New York, I’m paying $1,300,” the MAGA politician shared with the reporters in the Roosevelt Room.
Trump on Ozempic: “A friend of mine who is a businessman… Most of you would've heard of him. Highly neurotic. Brilliant businessman. Seriously overweight. And he takes the fat shot drug… I said it’s not working.” pic.twitter.com/pkqf4IQDeX
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) May 12, 2025
Adding that he eventually confronted a pharmaceutical company over the issue, he bemoaned about how companies had been “justifying this crap for years” by citing research and development costs. “Other countries should pay research and development, too. It’s for their benefit … so for the first time in many years, we’ll slash the cost of prescription drugs, and we will bring fairness to America,” he introduced his plan, which seeks to bring down medication prices by 80%.
Trump’s new order: Match pharma prices
Donald Trump’s supposed “most-favoured nation” policy pushes for manufacturers to set pharmaceutical prices for Americans at the same level as the lowest-paying developed countries, according to Independent. In his latest address, the US president also revealed his decision to mobilise Commerce and the Office of the US Trade Representative to “begin investigations into foreign nations that extort drug companies by blocking their products unless they accept bottom line and very low dollar amounts for their product, unfairly shifting the cost burden onto American patients.”
Using threats surrounding non-pharma imports as bargaining chip, he went on to say, “The biggest thing we’re going to do is we’re going to tell those countries, like those represented by the European Union, that, you know, that game is up. Sorry. And if they want to get cute, then they don’t have to sell cars into the United States anymore.”
While medication price caps haven’t been overtly highlighted in the order Trump signed, it pushes the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “propose rules that impose most-favoured-nation pricing.” Additionally, it also orders the government branch to set off aggressive measures so that the cost of prescription drugs could be significantly reduced for the American consumer, while also bringing an end to anticompetitive practices, in case manufacturers fail to follow through with the price reduction for US buyers.
Who could be Trump’s ‘friend’ in this Ozempic story?
The internet speculated that ‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk was possible the man Trump was alluding to at the White House. The Tesla boss has previously spoken about using Ozempic to lose weight. Back in December 2024, he dubbed himself “Ozempic Santa” in a X post, adding, “Technically, Mounjaro, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it.” Others also pointed out that there was no ‘friend’ to begin with, as the US leader was potentially talking all about himself and his Ozempic experience.
Longtime Trump ally Laura Loomer joined the cackling crowd on social media, laughing at how the MAGA boss had dubbed Ozempic “the fat shot drug.” Another user quipped, “From now on, I will refer to Ozempic exclusively as ‘the fat shot drug.'”
“The fat shot drug”
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 12, 2025
Lmao — @realDonaldTrump