President Donald Trump is a noted soda lover, and his well-documented devotion to the bubbly beverage is apparently rooted in his belief that he might one day (or 12) avoid cancer.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, revealed that Trump defends his massive intake by claiming that soda can kill cancer cells — because it kills grass, too.
“Your father argues that diet soda is good for him because it can kill grass if you pour it on grass, so it must kill cancer cells inside the body,” Oz tweeted on Monday after Donald Trump Jr.’s “Triggered!” Ma said. podcast.
Oz then recalled a recent interaction with the president.
“We were on Air Force One the other day and I go over there because he wanted to talk about something and he has an orange soft drink on his desk,” Oz said. “And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me!?’
“Fanta. He drinks Fanta,” Trump Jr. interjected.
Oz continued: “So he goes, ‘You know, this stuff is good for me. It kills cancer cells.’ Then he told me this ‘fresh squeeze, so how bad can it be for you?’ “
As both men laughed, Trump Jr. suggested his father “may be on to something.”
“I know a lot of guys pushing 80 and his energy level, his memory, his stamina level is not very high,” Trump Jr. said. “Is that the only exception that proves the rule? I’m not saying we should adapt to it but there is something.”
The exchange comes amid ongoing concerns about Trump’s physical and cognitive health, which health professionals and administration critics have questioned over the past several months.
A senior medical analyst at MS NOW, Dr. Vin Gupta suggested the president was showing signs of dementia after posting insulting threats to Iran on Easter Sunday.
“Irregular. Can’t complete sentences. Often confused. Irrational train of thought. Word finding difficulties. Development and gradual deterioration. President is exhibiting all symptoms of dementia,” Gupta wrote on social media platform X.
A cardiologist who treated former Vice President Dick Cheney and now works as a CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner offered a similar assessment after Trump shared graphic surveillance footage of the deadly attack on his Truth social account last weekend.
“Now he posts a video of a woman being beaten to death,” Reiner posted on X. “To put it mildly, it’s about behavior. If he’s a member of your family you’d ask him to see a doctor. He should have a medical evaluation.”
Experts like Reiner and Gupta have pointed to Trump’s slurred speeches and frequent gaffes as signs of cognitive decline — charges he has repeatedly dismissed, boasting of passing multiple cognitive tests. Trump has not been publicly diagnosed with dementia.
The president’s physical health and diet have also come under scrutiny as he has been seen several times with swollen feet and bruised hands since returning to office in January 2025.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Wall Street Journal in January, Trump said he regretted taking more aspirin than doctors recommended, stopped wearing compression stockings for swollen feet and had advanced imaging given the scrutiny he had invited.
White House physician Sean Barbabella, the president’s doctor, said in a statement to the Journal that Trump is in “exceptional health and fully fit to carry out his duties as commander in chief.”
While Barbabella has given Trump a clean bill of health, some of the president’s closest aides have expressed concern about his enthusiasm for soda and fast food.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump reportedly drinks several Diet Cokes every day, with an on-demand soda button installed on his Resolute desk in the Oval Office.
“The interesting thing about the president is that he eats really bad food, which is McDonald’s, and you know, candy and Diet Coke,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in January. “He’s always drinking Diet Coke. He has the constitution of a god. I don’t know how he’s alive, but he is.”
Tracking the Trump Administration
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