Trump asks if he should be using insulin – a drug that’s fatal for non-diabetics

President says: ‘I don’t use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it’

Donald Trump asked whether he should be taking insulin — a potentially fatal drug for people who use it without a prescription — while announcing his administration struck a deal to limit co-payments for seniors with diabetes.

Speaking at the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, the president said: “I don’t use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it. But I know a lot people are very badly affected, right? Unbelievable.”

When a reporter asked why Mr Trump would take insulin, he called on US Surgeon General Jerome Adams to answer the question, who explained to the president that “your body actually makes insulin” and the drug was meant for people with diabetes.

At one point, Mr Trump added: “You know, if you don’t take insulin, I just wrote this down, go blind, stroke, amputation, kidney failure, and other things.”

The remarks follow a previous controversy the president ignited in April when he used a White House press conference on the coronavirus pandemic to question whether patients who contracted Covid-19 should ingest or inject disinfectants.

“I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?” Mr Trump said at the time. “It’d be interesting to check that.”

The president then pointed to his head and added: “I’m not a doctor. But I’m, like, a person that has a good you-know-what.”

Leading disinfectant brands like Lysol issued warnings to customers against ingesting their products following the president’s comments.

The Trump administration’s new plan announced on Tuesday would cap co-payments for insulin at $35 starting next year, according to the White House.

Patients with Type 1 diabetes, as well as some patients with Type 2 diabetes, do not produce insulin in their pancreas and can require several doses of the drug throughout the day. Over three million people on Medicare require insulin as part of their diabetes treatment.

While touting the new plan, Mr Trump said he hoped “the seniors are going to remember it” come November, while attacking former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.

“We brought all of the parties to the table — insurers, manufacturers, and other key players — and reached an agreement to deliver insulin at stable and drastically lower out-of-pocket cost for our seniors,” the president said. “I hope the seniors are going to remember it, because Biden is the one that put us into the jam, because they didn’t know what they were doing.”