Martin Shkreli Declares Trump Will ‘Make Pharma Great Again’ In A Boastful Fox Business Interview

Despite getting his Twitter account suspended for harassing journalist Lauren Duca, former troll and forever “Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli cannot avoid the media spotlight. Over the weekend, the ex-CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals was allegedly pelted with dog sh*t while visiting the UC Davis campus with fellow instigator Milo Yiannopoulos. He followed this up with an appearance on the Fox Business program Mornings with Maria on Wednesday, during which he essentially auditioned for Donald Trump’s favor.

“Donald Trump is a dream for business people like me,” said Shkreli, who endorsed the then-Republican candidate in May. “He’s injecting a bit of reality as well, and across the political spectrum and across our great country. He represents an end to safe space culture and the infiltration of the media by the left. I think he’s putting his foot down on some of these things, and I think that’s what Americans want to see. That’s why I elected him.”

Shkreli, who first gained notoriety for raising the price of a drug essential to AIDS and cancer treatment by 5000 percent, also took the opportunity to appeal to Trump’s supposed business acumen. “I think Trump’s going to make pharma great again,” he told host Maria Bartiromo. “Coming from the business world, he understands that there has to be a profit. But he also understands that drug companies should make it as fairly as possible.”

Whether or not any of this proves to be true during Trump’s first 100 days in office (or the rest of his term) remains to be seen, especially since the president-elect criticized high drug prices last week. Yet what caught the attention of many Fox Business viewers and Twitter users was Shkreli’s claim he’d been booted from the social media platform because of his Republican party affiliation. As Bartiromo noted, her guest said he “was banned from Twitter [because] I’m a republican”:

Chief among the many Shkreli detractors who noticed the troll’s attempt to blame Twitter for his harassment of Lauren Duca was none other than Duca herself. In a tweet responding indirectly to Bartiromo, the occasional Teen Vogue writer quipped “whoa if true”:

Aside from this blatantly false allegation, Shkreli spent most of his time on Mornings with Maria praising Trump. That, and effectively taking a note from outgoing President Barack Obama’s playbook for advising his successor via his final television interviews and appearances, which originated from comments made by former Trump campaign manager turned presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway. Why else would a 33-year-old with no governmental experience suggest the federal government create a drug company?

Who knows? Maybe Shkreli’s latest publicity stunt will actually get him some face time with President Trump.