It’s a Beast of a time in Washington. Donald Trump’s D.C. reality show is full of new characters, plot twists, and cliffhangers, and the Daily Beast will navigate you through it. The 47th president won’t need to drain The Swamp. It’s all leaking here…
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OK, we’re just going to come out and say it: The president is looking pretty good. Or at least better than he did. According to his physician, Sean Barbabella, this glow up can be attributed to the president’s “active lifestyle” and his “frequent victories in golf events.”
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Perhaps that does, indeed, explain why Donald Trump’s suits suddenly fit at the age of 78. Sean Hannity claimed the secret was that the president had started to bin the bun when he ate a burger. Trump said he lost weight “the hard way.”
Maybe we’ve been confusing the war on waste with his war on waist?
That would certainly please RFK Jr., who is vehemently opposed to Ozempic, Wegovy, and other weight loss drugs. He says Americans should invest in gym memberships and good nutrition. Then again, he also said WiFi made your brain leak.
But in the White House, there are whispers that the new slimline Trump used a little pharmaceutical help to lose 20 lbs since his last presidential physical in 2020. The 6-ft-2-in (officially) calorie cutter-in-chief weighs in now at 224 lbs (officially) down from a high of 254 lbs (unofficially). That’s a 12 percent loss of body weight.
Self-proclaimed “first buddy” Elon Musk has been open about his reliance on GLP-1 drugs to shed unwanted pounds, after the Tesla boss had become too Fleshla. “Nothing would do more to improve the health, lifespan and quality of life for Americans than making GLP inhibitors super low cost to the public,” he posted on X.
GLP-1 receptor agonists are used to treat diabetes and obesity, and include Ozempic and Wegovy. GLP-1 would also make an excellent name for Musk’s next child since Æ A-Xii has already been used.
Dr. Lisa Oldson, an obesity medicine specialist, told The Swamp she is doubtful a diet change alone could account for Trump’s distinctly slimmer look. “Most people don’t lose [weight] that fast without meds,” she said.
The doctor explained Trump “looks like he’s lost more than 5-6 percent” of his weight, which is what she would expect the typical person to drop from “just lifestyle modification alone” over the course of a year.
“When we look at people losing 30 pounds, 40 pounds, 50 pounds, 80 pounds, 100 pounds,” Oldson said, “that’s much more often due to the newer meds, the GLP agonists,” and not because of diet and exercise alone.
Dr. Carolyn Williams, a dietitian based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, said it’s possible Trump’s weight loss is a result of GLP-1 receptor agonists. However, she said those drugs can “make you feel bad,” and Trump appears to be happy and healthy on camera.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has no doubts about what’s behind the big trim. “As the results of his recently conducted physical concluded, President Trump is indeed in peak physical and mental condition as a result of his strenuous schedule working 20 hours per day, his exercise on the golf course, and his diet courtesy of the exceptional White House chefs,” she told The Swamp. “The President is in a physical condition that most men his age could only dream about.”
Certainly, the billionaire president would have no problem paying the $1,200 a month for the get-slim-quick medication. But earlier this month, he scrapped Joe Biden’s plan to cover the “obesity drug” under Medicare. It wasn’t such a great surprise. The proposal would have increased federal spending by about $35 billion at a time when Trump’s DOGE is desperate to show it is cutting costs.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did leave itself a loophole, saying it may take another look in the future, and its newly sworn-in boss Dr Mehmet Oz has pitched weight-loss products on his show. Sure, the green coffee extract that Dr. Oz called “a miracle pill” failed to prove effective in a lab, and the original research paper had to be retracted due to invalid data. It’s also worth noting that Dr. Oz shot to TV fame thanks to Oprah Winfrey, who was a big fan. She’s also a big fan of GLP-1 agonists and credits them with her recent weight loss.
So watch this space. Either the president will decide that Making America Healthy Again includes making the “miracle drugs” available to all, or he will deny others the boost that might be helping him. Either way, you can bet he’ll continue to win more championships at his own golf clubs.
Winning is the thin end of the wedge, after all.
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The Swamp team: David Gardner, Josh Fiallo, and Sarah Ewell-Wice.
