Trump Says Americans Won’t Be Treated Like ‘Suckers’ by Big Pharma Any Longer as He Signs Executive Order

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designed to lower prescription drug prices for all Americans.

Trump announced the order at a White House event.

“Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries, which is what we were doing. We were subsidizing others’ healthcare,” Trump said, according to a video posted to X.

“It’s not gonna happen any longer, I can tell you,” Trump said.

.@POTUS: “Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries… and we’ll no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma.” pic.twitter.com/AQpRnnewif

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 12, 2025

“We will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma,” Trump said.

Trump said under his plan, America is “equalizing” what its citizens buy for prescription medicines.

“We’re gonna pay the lowest price there is in the world,” Trump said in a video posted to X.

“So we’re no longer paying 10 times more than another country,” he explained.

Trump said that prior to his order, Americans were taken for “suckers. But we never had a president that had the courage to do this.”

The U.S. will no longer be “suckers” when it comes to prescription drug prices, @realDonaldTrump says. He has announced a new plan to “equalize” costs. pic.twitter.com/086FKEbzgV

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 12, 2025

“In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidizing socialism abroad with skyrocketing prices at home,” Trump said in a fact sheet posted on the White House website.

“So we would spend tremendous amounts of money in order to provide inexpensive drugs to another country. And when I say the price is different, you can see some examples where the price is beyond anything — four times, five times different,” Trump said.

According to the order posted on the White House website, the Trump administration will develop “most-favored-nation price targets … to bring prices for American patients in line with comparably developed nations.”

Once prices are at the level of the lowest nation in the world, drug companies will pass those lower prices along to Americans.

“The United States has less than five percent of the world’s population and yet funds around three quarters of global pharmaceutical profits. This egregious imbalance is orchestrated through a purposeful scheme in which drug manufacturers deeply discount their products to access foreign markets, and subsidize that decrease through enormously high prices in the United States,” Trump wrote in the order.

“Drug manufacturers, rather than seeking to equalize evident price discrimination, agree to other countries’ demands for low prices, and simultaneously fight against the ability for public and private payers in the United States to negotiate the best prices for patients.  The inflated prices in the United States fuel global innovation while foreign health systems get a free ride,” the order said.

“This abuse of Americans’ generosity, who deserve low-cost pharmaceuticals on the same terms as other developed nations, must end.  Americans will no longer be forced to pay almost three times more for the exact same medicines, often made in the exact same factories.”

“As the largest purchaser of pharmaceuticals, Americans should get the best deal,” Trump emphsized.

The order said it ends “global freeloading” and warns drug companies that “should drug manufacturers fail to offer American consumers the most-favored-nation lowest price, my Administration will take additional aggressive action.”

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