President Donald Trump’s latest affordability pitch came riddled with head-scratching math.
The 79-year-old president appeared to wing the numbers as he announced TrumpRx, a website he claims will offer discounted prescription drugs.
Trump credited himself with forcing drugmakers to lower prices before citing a series of price cut percentages that quickly fell apart under basic math.
Announcing that Novo Nordisk had cut the price of its weight-loss drug Wegovy from $1,300 to $199, he said, “Nobody can even believe it. A 578 percent difference.”
Trump’s math doesn’t add up. A 578 percent reduction from $1,300 would mean the drug would cost negative $6,214—in other words, drugmakers would be paying patients thousands of dollars to take it. In reality, the price drop is closer to 85 percent.
But before anyone had a chance to crunch the numbers, Trump’s numbers went off the rails again.
“AstraZeneca is slashing the price of a common inhaler from $458 to $51, a difference of nearly 800 percent,” he announced.
A reduction of $407 works out to a roughly 89 percent decrease from the original price. To reach an 800 percent reduction, the inhaler would need to cost negative $3,206.00.
Yet the president, who earned a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School, kept spinning wildly fantastical percentages, claiming his new website would have prescription drugs “available for differences of five, six, 700 percent, even in some cases more than that.”
Strangely, Trump seemed to be reading from a teleprompter, raising questions about who cooked up the numbers.
He wrapped up by declaring: “Now you can be getting those drugs at numbers—not with a one or two or 10 percent discount—but think of it, 80 percent, 90 percent in some cases, numbers nobody’s even thought possible.”
The oldest person ever inaugurated as president, Trump told NBC’s Tom Llamas in an interview, aired on Wednesday, that he “physically and mentally” feels like he did “50 years ago.”
But he has fueled speculation about cognitive slippage, with his drowsiness, frequent mental flubs, erratic behavior, and rambling speech drawing scrutiny.
“There’ll be a time when I won’t be able to give you that answer,” Trump told Llamas, before defiantly adding, “But that time hasn’t come, you know.”
He then pivoted to his usual bragging about having “aced” Montreal Cognitive Assessments, a test designed to screen for early dementia or mild cognitive impairment.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
