Trump Offers Support to 'Dilbert' Creator Scott Adams for Cancer Care Assistance

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On Sunday, former U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to assist Scott Adams, the mind behind the “Dilbert” comic strip, in his battle against metastatic prostate cancer. This commitment came after Adams reached out to Trump via social media for help.

Trump responded with a succinct “On it,” following Adams’ request for assistance in expediting his treatment. Adams is seeking to get his healthcare provider, Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, to schedule him for treatment with the advanced radiotherapy drug, Pluvicto.

Expressing urgency, Adams shared on platform X, “I am declining fast,” highlighting that the treatment “will give me a fighting chance to stick around on this planet a little bit longer.”

The cartoonist revealed that although Kaiser Permanente had approved his use of Pluvicto, there had been delays in arranging his necessary intravenous infusion.

Kaiser Permanente said in a statement that Adams’ oncology team “is working closely with him on the next steps in his cancer care, which are already underway.”

Scott Adams, the creator of “DILBERT” the comic strip, in a 1998 photograph with his cartoon alter ego. (Photo By MICHAEL MACOR/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

It added that, since the drug’s approval, it had treated more than 150 patients with the drug in Northern California. “We know this drug and this disease,” it said.

The White House did not respond to queries about help for Adams, who has been a vocal Trump supporter over the past several years.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy also responded on social media: “The President wants to help.”

Swiss drugmaker Novartis NOVN.S, which makes Pluvicto, said last month that the drug reduced the risk of progression or death in patients with prostate cancer by 28%. Pluvicto is part of a class of drugs that combines cell-killing radioactive particles with molecules that attach themselves to tumors.

The “Dilbert” comic strip was first published in 1989 and ran for decades. At its peak, it was one of the most widely circulated comic strips in the United States, but many newspapers dropped it in 2023 after a racist rant by Adams appeared on YouTube.

Adams called Black Americans a “hate group” and suggested white Americans “get the hell away from Black people,” in response to a conservative organization’s poll purporting to show that many African Americans do not think it is OK to be white.

He later said that his comments were intended as hyperbole and that he disavowed racists, while media reports had ignored the context of his comments.