Health Care

Oz says Trump defended diet soda habit, joking it ‘kills cancer cells’

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by Sophie Brams - 04/15/26 6:16 PM ET

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by Sophie Brams - 04/15/26 6:16 PM ET

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Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed on Monday that President Trump has an unusual defense for his diet soda habit, joking that the president often says the beverage “kills cancer cells.”

“Your dad argues that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass. It’s poured on grass, so therefore must kill cancer cells inside the body,” Oz told Donald Trump Jr. on “Triggered,” the president’s son’s podcast.

Oz recalled a recent occasion on Air Force One where he questioned President Trump about a Fanta, an orange soft drink, that was sitting on his desk.

“I say, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Oz recounted. “So, he starts to, like, sheepishly grin. He goes, ‘You know, this stuff’s good for me, it kills cancer cells.’”

“And then he tells me it’s fresh-squeezed, so how bad could it be for you?” he said, eliciting laughter from the eldest Trump son, who responded that maybe his father was “onto something.”

“I know a lot of guys pushing 80. Not a lot that have his level of energy, recall stamina,” Trump Jr. said.

The interaction went viral online, with doctors chiming in to remind people that the president’s comments were not based on medical science.

“Friendly reminder from a doctor, diet soda or soda does not kill cancer cells,” Owais Durrani, an emergency medicine physician in Texas who interned at the White House during the Obama administration, said in a video on Instagram.

Aspartame is the artificial sweetener used in most diet beverages, and there has long been speculation that the ingredient is linked to cancer development despite inconclusive scientific evidence. Still, it has been labeled as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt laughed off Trump’s claim on Wednesday, saying that she had heard the president make the same joke before.

“Look, as we all known in this room, I think you know, the president has a very good sense of humor,” she said during a press briefing at the White House. “It’s one of his most underreported characteristics.”

“I think The Wall Street Journal should get a better sense of humor,” she added in a swipe at the reporter who asked the question.

Trump has a documented affinity for junk food, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. noting on a separate podcast in January that the president has the least healthy eating habits of anyone in the administration.

“The interesting thing about the president is that he eats really bad food, which is McDonald’s, and, you know, candy and Diet Coke,” Kennedy said. “He drinks the Diet Coke at all times.”

But, he added, “He has the constitution of a deity. I don’t know how he’s alive, but he is.”

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