Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha praised the Trump administration’s latest efforts to make medications such as Ozempic more affordable, saying it could lead to broad health benefits.
“Overall, making America thinner is only good for the workforce in terms of overall health, only good for preventing cardiac issues, only great for people, making them feel better about themselves from a confidence perspective, so we can make weight loss therapy drugs more affordable, who would not be for that?” Concha said Thursday on Hannity.
He noted that cultural dynamics often shape reactions to public figures, saying, “When you grow up in Jersey or the president grew up in next-door New York, the more you bust your friends’ chops, the more that is a sign of affection and respect. I know that sounds backwards, but that’s the way it works.”
Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a deal between Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to sell weight loss drugs at discounted prices.
The Hannity segment then turned to the online backlash surrounding actor Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans advertisement. Concha praised Sweeney for how she handled the criticism, when she said the attention “was a surprise” and described the moment Trump acknowledged the controversy as “surreal.”
“Sydney Sweeney handled that perfectly and calmly and with a maturity well beyond her years,” Concha said. He went on to call the debate “by far … the stupidest controversy of the year.”
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Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans ad sparked criticism earlier this year and quickly grew into a larger cultural debate, with even Trump weighing in on it.
Concha also responded to remarks from Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL), who recently compared Trump and Republican lawmakers to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Concha criticized the comparison, pointing to the government shutdown.
“It is so weird. … Democrats elected literally a communist in New York City and are comparing President Trump and [House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson to an actual communist that killed something like … in Stalin’s case, 50 million people,” he said.
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Concha added that Senate Republicans have voted to advance legislation to reopen the government, saying, “Democrats keep making the argument that it’s Trump’s fault and Johnson’s fault when they keep voting literally to open the government.”
He concluded that such rhetoric has become a pattern: “I guess they ran out of Hitler, so they went to Stalin. Chairman Mao is next. That’s the way it works … as hyperbolic and fearmongering as possible.”