Instead of spreading Christmas cheer, a Santa Claus suit-clad Elon Musk marked the holiday by hyping weight loss drugs while showing off his figure.
On Wednesday, the tech billionaire caused a stir on his platform X, formerly Twitter, when he posted a photo of himself in front of a Christmas tree sporting Santa’s traditional red suit and white beard — minus the large, round belly St Nick is known for.
“Ozempic Santa,” he captioned the photo.
The Tesla CEO, whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to co-lead his proposed Department of Government Efficiency after the election, teased in a follow-up post, “Like Cocaine Bear, but Santa and Ozempic!”
Musk clarified in a separate post that he wasn’t actually taking Ozempic, but “technically Mounjaro,” though he said the latter “doesn’t have the same ring to it.”
Ozempic and Mounjaro are medications intended to help people with diabetes regulate their blood glucose and insulin levels. However, the drugs, which are sometimes prescribed off-label for weight loss by health professionals, have skyrocketed in popularity since celebrities and influencers started touting them as a way to shed pounds.
In another post, Musk admitted to trying Ozempic first but said the high doses made him “fart & burp like Barney from the Simpson’s.”
“Mounjaro seems to have fewer side effects and be more effective,” he added.
The SpaceX founder’s stance on the controversial medications notably contrasts with that of Robert F Kennedy Jr — Trump’s pick for the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
While Musk has expressed his support for the widespread use of drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro to tackle America’s obesity epidemic, Kennedy has argued that getting Americans to eat healthier would be more effective.
“If we just gave good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight,” Kennedy told Fox News in October.
He added that the makers of weight loss drugs are “counting on selling it to Americans because we are so stupid and so addicted to drugs.”
Musk, however, argued in an X post earlier this month that making the drugs “super low cost to the public” would significantly improve the health of Americans.
“Nothing would do more to improve the health, lifespan and quality of life for Americans than making GLP inhibitors super low cost to the public,” he wrote. “Nothing else is even close.”
