President Donald Trump has promised to reduce American drug prices by mathematically impossible figures of up to “1400 percent.”
Speaking during a White House event attended by Republican members of Congress and his Cabinet, Trump said he would tackle the long-running issue of high medication costs in the U.S.
But Trump did not set any achievable targets for that aim, instead outlining a range of percentages which would yield negative prices, meaning drug companies would have to pay people to take their medications.
“We will have reduced drug prices by 1,000 percent by 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 700, 600,” Trump said. “Not 30 or 40 or 50 percent, but numbers the likes of which you’ve never even dreamed of before.”
Trump added that his numbers were previously “not even thought to be achievable,”—mainly because they aren’t—but he believes he can somehow pull it off because “I’ve used a certain talent that I have and convinced the drug companies that you have no choice.”
Trump’s threat involves warning European countries that they will no longer be able to sell cars in the U.S. unless their pharmaceutical companies lower their drug prices.
“You’re no longer allowed to have Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen or any of the other many cars and they will say, ‘Oh, I love the idea of lower drug prices for America.’”
Trump’s bragging about how much he claims he will lower drug costs in the U.S. has been widely mocked after a clip of his remarks went viral on social media.
“Hard to imagine this guy was found liable of fraud for making up numbers,” the liberal media company MeidasTouch posted on X.
Justin Wolfers, economist and professor at the University of Michigan, added: “Thank goodness this guy isn’t negotiating the percentages we pay in tariffs.”
In May, Trump announced his plans to “almost immediately” cut drug prices by the actually theoretically possible figures of between 30 percent and 80 percent. Trump said the move would be one of the “most consequential” executive orders in the country’s history.
During his Tuesday speech, Trump repeated a story about how one of his friends who takes the “fat drug” Ozempic complained to him about how he paid $88 for it in London, whereas it would cost him $1,300 in New York.
“I explained to him that that’s the way it’s been for many, many years,” Trump said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
