Trump Signs Executive Order To Slash Prescription Drug Prices, Says Cuts Could Hit 80%

“Prices will be REDUCED, almost immediately, by 30% to 80%,” Trump announced on social media. “They will rise throughout the World in order to equalize and, for the first time in many years, bring FAIRNESS TO AMERICA!”

The move centers around a revived version of the “most favored nation” policy. It ties U.S. drug prices to the lowest prices paid by other countries, which typically have far stronger negotiating power with pharmaceutical companies. “Basically, what we’re doing is equalizing,” Trump said during a press event. “We are going to pay the lowest price there is in the world. We will get whoever is paying the lowest price, that’s the price that we’re going to get.”

White House officials said the order will affect both public and commercial markets – including Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance – and will specifically target drugs with “the largest disparities and largest expenditures.” That could include widely used medications like GLP-1 drugs, which are popular for weight loss and diabetes.

Trump also promised additional ways for Americans to bypass price markups altogether. “We’re going to cut out the middlemen and facilitate the direct sale of drugs at the most favorite nation price, directly to the American citizen,” he said.

The Department of Health and Human Services has been ordered to set price reduction targets within 30 days. If drugmakers don’t meet them, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will impose most favored nation pricing through formal rulemaking.

AARP backed the move, saying, “For too long, big drug companies have been ripping off America’s seniors—charging the highest prices in the world for lifesaving prescriptions, padding their profits at the expense of American lives, and forcing older adults to skip medications they can’t afford.”

Meanwhile, Trump brushed off concerns about lost profits, saying drugmakers “should pursue deals where they get financially rewarded commensurate the value that they are providing to other nations, health systems.” He added, “Other countries should pay research and development, too. It’s for their benefit.”

Trump insists the U.S. won’t be picking up the tab for the rest of the world’s health care anymore. “Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the health care of foreign countries, which is what we were doing," Trump said, adding the country "will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma."

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