Trump Pledges to Intervene in Cartoonist Scott Adams’ Cancer Treatment

President Donald Trump said he would personally intervene to try to help the prominent supporter with his cancer treatment.

Scott Adams, who created the 1989 workplace comic strip “Dilbert” revealed in May that he has prostate cancer that has spread to his bones and that he will live only a few months longer, This was stated in a message on social networks on Sunday. that he would ask Trump to help him expedite Kaiser Permanente's treatment schedule after the California health care provider “dropped the ball” with scheduling his IV. The cartoonist said he was approved for treatment with Pluvicto, a targeted radioligand therapy used to treat prostate cancer that was approved by the FDA in 2022. Adams called on Trump to contact Kaiser and get them to “respond and schedule treatment for Monday. This will give me a chance to stay on this planet a little longer.”

“On this!” Trump published on Truth Social on Sunday with a screenshot of Adams' X-post. Before Trump's appointment, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replied To Adams on X: “Scott. How can I contact you? The President wants to help.” Trump's son Don Jr. also responded to Adams' post on X: “I'll make sure my dad sees this. We're all praying for you, keep fighting!”

It's unclear how Trump might intervene. TIME has reached out to Kaiser Permanente and the White House for comment. A medical provider that said it has treated more than 150 patients with Pluvicto in Northern California said Reuters that Adams' cancer team is “working closely with him on the next steps in cancer treatment that are already underway.”

Some on social media criticized the Trump administration for personally responding to Adams' call. deprivation of research institutes of state funding this contributed to scientific breakthroughs such as Pluvicto. The drug was developed by researchers at the German Cancer Research Center and Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany, and research at Purdue University and Johns Hopkins University, funded through the US National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health, contributed to its development.

“It’s not a cure,” Adams said of Pluvicto. “But it does provide good results for a lot of people.” Adams has not yet publicly responded to Trump's post.

Here's what you need to know about Adams and his connection to Trump.

Longtime cartoonist

Adams created Dilbert in 1989 while working for California telephone service provider Pacific Bell. The 68-year-old became a full-time cartoonist in 1995 after the strip's popularity grew in the US.

In 1999, Dilbert was adapted into an animated series of the same name, directed by Adams and Seinfeld writer Larry Charles. The series won an Emmy the year it premiered and aired on UPN for two seasons before being canceled in 2000. In 2020 Adams declared that the show was canceled because he was white and the network wanted to cater to black American viewers.

Adams has since courted controversy with other comments related to race and politics, many of which he made on his video podcast. Real Coffee with Scott Adams and on social networks. During a live broadcast in February 2023, Adams referred to Rasmussen Reports survey The survey asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement, “It’s okay to be white.” The phrase became associated with the alt-right movement after it gained popularity in 2017 and has been used as a slogan by white supremacists, according to Anti-Defamation League. Pointing out that 26% of black respondents disagreed with this statement and 21% were unsure, Adams called Black people are a “hate group” and he said: “The best advice I would give to white people is to stay away from black people; just get the hell out.”

In the same episodeAdams also said he moved to an area with “few black people” and that “as a white citizen of America there is no point in trying to help black citizens anymore.”

Several newspapers, including Los Angeles Times, Washington Postand USA Today Network, as well as distributor Andrews McMeel Syndication. fallen Dilbert in response to Adams' comments. Publishing portfolio also fallen Adams' upcoming non-Dilbert book, slated for release in September. Adams protected his remarks, calling them hyperbole, “meaning exaggeration,” and stated that his words were taken out of context. He relaunched the strip under the name Dilbert Reborn on the subscription site Locals.

Adams has as reported was a controversial figure among cartoonists, especially after he called people who are not vaccinated against COVID are the real “winners” of the pandemic and interrogated official death toll from the Holocaust.

Adams has published several non-Dilbert books, especially with religious themes. His 2001 novella. God's trash describes pandeistic philosophy, and his 2004 novel Religious War tells the story of a man tasked with stopping a catastrophic war between Christians and Muslims. In 2017, Adams said Bloomberg that his “greatest legacy” would be his religious books, not Dilbert.

Trump commentator

In 2015, Adams started writing about Trump in blog posts predicting his victory in the 2016 presidential election. Adams approved Trump for President, just like him approved Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. He also criticized Hillary Clinton, Trump's opponent and the 2016 Democratic nominee whom he initially supported. offering that a Clinton presidency would reduce the status of men.

He described his views as “to the left” of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who ran in the 2016 Democratic primary. At the same time Adams said in 2016: “I don’t vote or belong to a political party,” a point he reiterated in a 2017 interview with Bloomberg.

Adams' blog posts later evolved into daily videos posted on Periscope, which became an official video podcast in 2018. In 2020 Trump general on X (then known as Twitter) podcast episode in which Adams mocked then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Diagnosed with prostate cancer

In May, after former President Biden revealed his own prostate cancer diagnosis, Adams shared on his podcast that he also has prostate cancer. He told viewers the cancer had spread to his bones, including his spine, and that taking ivermectin and fenbendazole had not helped. In June he said he was in so much pain that he contemplated physician-assisted suicide, but was then able to manage his pain with testosterone blockers.

According to Adams, he has already been cast as Pluvicto. The drug was first approved for medical use in the United States in March 2022 and in the European Union in December 2022 for patients whose prostate cancer has progressed after previous treatment. In March, the FDA expanded its indication for use in some adults with metastatic prostate cancer early in treatment.