Trump claims ‘fat shot’ buddy ‘very happy’ to have story out — but won’t name him

President Trump said in a new interview that the pal who inspired a viral “fat shot” anecdote Trump told while unveiling his sweeping pharmaceutical reforms Monday is glad to have his plight made public.

During a White House event, Trump riffed about an unnamed “highly neurotic, brilliant businessman” who had complained about getting his “fat shot” much cheaper overseas than in the US.

“He’s very happy. He knows exactly who I was talking about,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview that aired Tuesday evening.

“He called me. He said, ‘That was interesting.’ He said he was very concerned that I might use his name, I might slip. No, he doesn’t have to worry.”

The president noted that the story was “well-received” by the public and claimed to have exaggerated his friend’s girth, telling Hannity that his buddy was “slightly overweight, to put it mildly.”

While rolling out an executive order meant to push down drug prices in the US, the president claimed his friend had called him to say “I’m in London, and I just paid for this damn fat drug I take … He said, ‘I just paid $88 and in New York I pay $1,300. What the hell is going on?’ He said, ‘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, and New York, I’m paying $1,300.’”

Trump told Hannity in the interview, which was recorded aboard Air Force One Monday evening, that he didn’t know which drug his friend purchased but said it was “maybe Ozempic.”

“And he called me. He said: ‘He,y a strange thing happened. I just bought a drug. Same company, same plant, same everything. Everything was the same. In one case, I paid in New York $1,300. And, in London, I’m paying $88,’” the president recalled.

“I said: ‘That’s right. The drug laws are very screwed up. And I’m doing something about it.’”

The president signed what he called one of his “most important orders” ever to reform drug pricing Monday morning before jetting off to the Middle East on a three-country trip.

The policy revives the “most favored nation” program of Trump’s first administration, in which federal health authorities leverage rulemaking powers and government purchases of drugs to pressure pharmaceutical companies to lower prices in line with what’s charged overseas.

The order calls on US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to “take all appropriate action against unreasonable and discriminatory policies in foreign countries that suppress drug prices abroad.”

Some health care experts have accused other developed countries of “freeloading” off the US by artificially pushing drug prices down, resulting in US consumers paying higher costs to compensate for research and development costs.

On average, developing a new drug costs $1.3 billion when accounting for products that never make it to the market, according to a RAND Corporation study.

In other words, foreign countries benefit from lower drug prices without shouldering the consequences of less drug development.

“Even though the United States is home to only 4% of the world’s population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two-thirds of their profits in America,” Trump explained the dynamic Monday.