Trump’s meds ‘could be slowing him down’ and may not be doing him any good, MAHA adviser warns

An adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned Wednesday that President Donald Trump may appear to be “slowing down” because of the medication he takes, as questions continue over the president’s mental and physical health.

In a speech to the European Parliament, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who advised the lobby group Make America Healthy Again, said that Trump, 79, may be suffering from fatigue due to his use of cholesterol medications, or statins, and aspirin.

“President Trump is taking statins; he’s on two cholesterol drugs… This man does not have any cardiovascular disease,” Malhotra said during a launch event for a new European health activism organization, Make Europe Healthy Again (MEHA).

“If you’re over 75 and have no cardiovascular disease, the benefit of statin is – are you ready? One in 446. You have to give the statin to 446 people to prevent one cardiovascular event,” he said. “In other words, no significant benefit.”

Malhotra, a vaccine skeptic whose anti-COVID shot and anti-statin views have been rebuked as misinformation by medical experts, has been a close ally to Kennedy.

His comments come amid claims that the president may be showing signs of “cognitive decline,” due to mixing up names and other gaffes. Despite the speculation, the White House said last week that Trump was in “excellent overall health” following a “routine check-up” at Walter Reed Medical Center.

In addition to concerns about his mental acuity, Trump’s physical health has also come under question. The president has often been photographed with bruising on his right hand, raising concerns that he is suffering from some illness. The White House insists that this is a result of him shaking hands with a large number of people and his use of aspirin, which he takes as a cardiovascular protection.

White House officials revealed earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a non-life-threatening condition caused by the veins struggling to return blood to the heart. The condition is common for people over the age of 70.

During his remarks, Malhotra noted that cholesterol medication often comes with side effects, saying: “The most common ones are fatigue, muscle pain. It can cause brain fog.”

He added: “Now, I know that President Trump is a remarkable man for his age, but there have been reports – probably exaggerated by some sort of devious press for sure. But I know people who are close to him… and of course he is doing a tremendous job and maybe only sleeping four hours a night, and that may be part of it too, but it could also be that he’s slowing down a little bit because of his statins,” he continued.

Malhotra then suggested that Trump go “off his statins, off his aspirin” and would be “feeling great” within a matter of weeks.

He was apparently so concerned about Trump taking the medications that he has reached out to several people close to the president to try and warn him against it, The Daily Beast reported Tuesday ahead of Malhotra’s public remarks.

In a statement to The Independent, the White House said: “President Trump is a champion-level golfer with the mental acuity and energy levels that most young people could not fathom having.”

“So-called medical ‘experts’, especially foreign ones with no relevance or involvement with the Administration, should stop beclowning themselves and marring their credibility by pitching their idiotic hot takes with Fake News outlets that have nothing better to cover,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said.

Along with Trump’s most recent gleaming health report, White House officials noted the president received a flu shot and an updated COVID-19 booster, which Malhotra called unnecessary.

“I think President Trump, I think he genuinely took the [COVID-19] booster, I don’t think that this is a front. I think he believes in what’s happening. He himself is also a victim of medical misinformation,” Malhotra said.

However, recent research shows that COVID shots protect against serious illness and death, especially for people over the age of 65. Researchers from the VA St. Louis Healthcare System looked at data from nearly 300,000 veterans and found that last season’s Covid vaccine reduced the risk of emergency room visits by 29 percent, hospitalizations by 39 percent and deaths by 64 percent for all ages, NBC News reports.

Combining all three outcomes, the shots' overall effectiveness was 28 percent, making it similar to the flu shot, which ranges from 30 to 60 percent protective against severe illness or death.

An April health report also noted that Trump, who was the oldest person to ever take office in January at 78, was in “excellent” health.

The report also noted that Trump had high cholesterol that was being treated with the statin rosuvastatin and ezetimibe, a medication used to absorb cholesterol. He was also taking a low-dose aspirin as part of the treatment, his doctors said at the time.

While there is no evidence that statins alone cause dementia, the FDA added a safety warning to the medications in 2012 to warn of “notable, but ill-defined memory loss or impairment that was reversible upon discontinuation of statin therapy.”

Last month, Malhotra made headlines after suggesting – without evidence – that King Charles III may have gotten cancer because of the COVID-19 vaccine.