Trump pledges to intervene in cartoonist Scott Adams’ cancer treatment

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

Scott Adams, who created the workplace comic strip “Dilbert” in 1989 and who It was revealed in May He has prostate cancer that has spread to his bones and is expected to live only a few months longer. he said in a social media post on Sunday He said he would ask Trump for help scheduling his treatment from Kaiser Permanente, after the California-based health care provider “dropped the ball” on scheduling his IV. The cartoonist said he was approved for treatment with Belovecto, a targeted radiation therapy used to treat prostate cancer that was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2022. Adams implored Trump to contact Kaiser and urged them to “respond and make an appointment for Monday. It will give me a fighting chance to stay on this planet a little longer.”

“On her!” Trump to publish on Truth Social on Sunday, with a screenshot of Adams’ X post. Prior to Trump’s position, Secretary of Health and Human Services was Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He responded To Adams on X: “Scott. How can I reach 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 is not clear how Trump will be able to intervene. TIME has reached out to Kaiser Permanente and the White House for comment. said the medical provider, who said he has treated more than 150 patients with Bluefecto in Northern California Reuters Adams’ oncology team is “working closely with him on the next steps in his cancer care, which are already underway.”

Some on social media criticized the Trump administration for personally responding to Adams’ appeal during this – Stripping research institutions of public funding That fueled scientific breakthroughs like Bluefecto. The drug was developed by researchers at the German Cancer Research Center and Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany, while research at Purdue University and Johns Hopkins, funded by the US National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health, contributed to its development.

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

Here’s what to know about Adams and his relationship with Trump.

Longtime cartoonist

Adams founded Dilbert in 1989, while working for California-based telephone provider Pacific Bell. The 68-year-old became a full-time cartoonist in 1995, after the strip’s popularity grew across the United States.

Dilbert was adapted into an animated television series of the same name in 1999, which was directed by Adams and Seinfeld writer Larry Charles. The series won a Primetime Emmy Award the year it premiered, and ran for two seasons on UPN before being canceled in 2000. He claimed that the show was canceled because it was white and the network wanted to cater to black American viewers.

Adams has since sparked controversy over other comments related to race and politics, many of which he made on his video podcast Real coffee with Scott Adams And on social media. During a live stream in February 2023, Adams referenced A.J Rasmussen Reports poll which asked participants whether they agreed with the statement “It’s okay to be white.” The phrase has been associated with the alt-right movement after it gained popularity in 2017 and was co-opted as a slogan by white supremacists, according to Anti-Defamation League. After noting that 26% of black participants disagreed with the statement and 21% were unsure, Adams said Named Blacks are a “hate group” and he said “the best advice I would give white people is to stay away from black people; just stay away.”

In the same breath episodeAdams also said that he moved to a neighborhood with “a small black population” and that “it makes no sense at all, as a white citizen of America, to try to help black citizens anymore.”

Several newspapers, including Los Angeles Timesthe The Washington PostUSA Today Network, as well as distributor Andrews McMeel Syndication decreased Dilbert in response to Adams’ comments. The book publisher’s portfolio too decreased An upcoming non-Dilbert book by Adams was scheduled for release in September. Adams motive He described his statements as exaggerated “in the sense of exaggeration” and said that his words were taken out of context. He relaunched the strip as Dilbert Reborn on Locals, a subscription site.

Adams has It is said He was a controversial figure among cartoonists, especially after he became… Named People who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus are the real “winners” of the pandemic and He doubted The official number of Holocaust deaths.

Adams published many books unrelated to Dilbert, especially those about religion. His 2001 short novel God wreck describes the philosophy of unity, while his 2004 novel War of religion It tells the story of a man on a mission to stop a disastrous war between Christians and Muslims. Adams said in 2017 Bloomberg His books dealing with religion, not Dilbert’s, would be his “final legacy.”

Commentator on Trump

In 2015, Adams start writing About Trump in blog posts predicting his electoral victory in the 2016 presidential election. Adams He supported Trump for president, just the way he is He supported Republican nominee Mitt Romney for the 2012 election. He also criticized Trump’s rival and the 2016 Democratic nominee he initially supported, Hillary Clinton. suggestion That a Clinton presidency would diminish the status of men.

He has described his views as “to the left” of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I, Vermont), who ran in the Democratic primary in 2016. Meanwhile, Adams He said In 2016, “I don’t vote and I’m not a member of a political party,” a view he reiterated in his 2017 Bloomberg interview.

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

Prostate cancer diagnosis

In May, after former President Biden revealed he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, Adams shared on his podcast that he too had prostate cancer. He told viewers that the cancer had spread to his bones, including his spine, and that taking ivermectin and fenbendazole did not help him. And in June it is He said He was in such severe pain that he prepared to commit physician-assisted suicide but was then able to manage his pain with testosterone blockers.

According to Adams, it has already been approved for 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 treatments. In March, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded its use for use by some adults with metastatic prostate cancer early in their treatment journey.