President Donald Trump signed a historic executive order on Monday morning in the White House that will take aim at lowering prescription drug prices in America, an action Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described as “extraordinary.”
Flanked by health-conscious executives like Kennedy and Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, President Trump held a press conference bright and early Monday morning, just before departing on his scheduled trip to the Middle East.
The executive order signed by Trump aims to reduce drug prices for customers in the United States, empowering Secretary Kennedy to establish a process to ensure competitive and affordable “Most Favored Nation” pricing from pharmaceutical manufacturers.
This integral EO also demonstrated the president’s willingness to do battle with a deeply powerful global industry, something he described as “the most powerful lobby in the world.”
President Trump said some prescription drug prices will immediately drop by “50 to 80 percent,” and noted that pharmaceutical companies and countries that are price-gouging Americans on critical medicine will be investigated.
“If they want to get cute, then they don’t have to sell cars into the United States anymore,” Trump said, giving an example of how he could leverage trade to ensure European cooperation.
In essence, Trump stressed that with this order, he wants to “facilitate the direct sale of drugs” to American citizens by cutting out the “middlemen” who are driving prices up unnecessarily.
“We will do whatever we have to do with trade,” he added, again highlighting it as a critical negotiating tool on this issue.
“We’ll also open up America’s market to safe and legal imports of affordable drugs,” Trump said.
Secretary Kennedy said of the announcement that it was an “extraordinary day” and pointed out that for many decades, Democrat candidates have promised to hold Big Pharma to account but have failed to do so. Why? “Congress is controlled in so many ways by the pharmaceutical industry,” Kennedy said.
He called the issue “radioactive” and applauded Trump for being a “man of his word” who was willing to stand up to the medical industry on behalf of the American people.
“We finally have a president who’s willing to stand up for the American people,” he remarked.
Administrator Oz additionally called Monday’s executive action “the most powerful executive order on pharmacy pricing and healthcare ever in the history of our country.”
“God bless you for having the guts to take on this industry,” he told the president.
