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By Andrew Stanton
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The White House has denied that President Donald Trump was given an experimental new obesity drug through the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) “compassionate use” program.
Trump, 80, became the oldest person to take office as president in January 2025. Some questions have emerged about his advancing age, and there have been instances of Trump being seen with bruising in recent months. Trump, however, has maintained that he is in perfect health.
White House Denies Report: 'Sick and Deranged'
STAT News reported on Tuesday that a clinician at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requested Eli Lilly’s unapproved obesity drug, retatrutide, through the compassionate use program to treat an unidentified 79-year-old man for “refractory obesity with obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension," which can be life-threatening.
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The health news outlet reported that it asked the White House whether the patient was Trump, who turned 80 last week, given the patient's demographics. A memo released after Trump’s most recent physical in May made no mention of either condition.
The White House criticized the report on social media, clarifying the application was not for Trump.
“No, it wasn't President Trump — and you people are truly sick and deranged (though the Bluesky link in your bio already gave that much away),” the White House’s Rapid Response account wrote in a post on X directed at a STAT reporter.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai wrote on X that the "application was not for the President."
In an exchange with the reporter on X, White House spokesperson Kush Desai wrote that the "application was not for the President" and called it "baseless speculation."
"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?" he wrote. The White House pointed to Desai’s post when reached by Newsweek.
Newsweek also reached out to Eli Lilly and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment on the report via their press contact forms.
What the Compassionate Use Program Allows
Eli Lilly describes the Compassionate Use program as something that "may be an option for a limited number of individuals with serious or life-threatening conditions, who have exhausted all available medical options and do not qualify for clinical trials."
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What We Know About Trump’s Health Disclosures
Trump’s latest physical memo describes him as being in “excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function.”
“His demanding daily schedule, including multiple high-level meetings, public engagements, and regular physical activity, continues to support his overall well-being. Cognitive and physical performance are excellent. He is fully fit to carry out all duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State,” the report reads.
The report states that he is 75 inches tall and weighs 238 pounds. He had a resting heart rate of around 73 beats per minute and a blood pressure of 105/71 mmHg.
Still, some critics have raised concerns about his health following images showing bruising on his hands and accusations that he fell asleep in meetings, though the White House has pushed back on those claims.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Trump asked his aides to put fewer meetings on his schedule, but denied that it had anything to do with needing to slow down as he gets older.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement to Newsweek in response to the report, "President Trump is the hardest working president the American people have ever had. He is literally always working around the clock, seven days a week, to better our country.”
What Is Retatrutide?
Eli Lilly describes retatrutide as an “investigational once-weekly triple hormone receptor agonist.”
It is not available for public use and is being studied in Phase 3 clinical trials for “obesity, type 2 diabetes, knee osteoarthritis pain, moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), chronic low back pain, cardiovascular and renal outcomes, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
The medication is sometimes referred to as a GLP-3 because it “simultaneously targets three receptors, GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon,” according to Eli Lilly.
Eli Lilly has touted several effects of the drug, including studies showing that patients with obesity lost 28 percent of their body weight and adults with type 2 diabetes experienced drops in blood sugar levels, Reuters reported.
What Has Donald Trump Said About Using GLP-1s?
Trump addressed whether he has used an obesity drug in an interview with The New York Times in January.
"No, I have not,” he said. “I probably should.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabe Whisnant and Sam Wilson.
Correction 6/26/2026, 9:20 a.m. ET: This article was updated to correct Trump's age and the date when he took office for his second term.
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