President Donald Trump has doubled down on his claim of reducing drug prices by amounts that are mathematically impossible.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that his administration had cut the price of some prescription drugs by as much as 1,500 percent.
“Well, one of the things they’re going to be talking about pretty soon are the tremendous drop in drug prices. You know, we’ve cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500 percent. I don’t mean 50 percent. I mean 14-, 1,500 percent,” the president said.
When asked to clarify the president’s remarks, White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Newsweek, “It’s an objective fact that Americans are paying exponentially more for the same exact drugs as people in other developed countries pay, and it’s an objective fact that no other Administration has done more to rectify this unfair burden for the American people.”
Why It Matters
Trump’s remarks signal a misunderstanding of how pricing and percentages work, which could undermine public confidence in his ability to tackle problems such as drug pricing.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
What To Know
Reducing the price of a drug by 100 percent would make it free, and a reduction greater than 100 percent suggests pharmaceutical companies would pay their customers to take their prescription drugs.
Commenting on Trump’s claims, Jeffrey Frankel, a professor of capital formation and growth at Harvard University, told Newsweek that the numbers were “indeed mathematically impossible.”
On Friday, the president made similar claims of bringing drug prices down by “1,000 percent, 1,200 percent” in an interview with Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty.
That came a day after the White House said Trump had written to the heads of 17 pharmaceutical companies outlining steps they needed to take to bring down the prices of drugs sold in the U.S. to match the lowest price paid by a group of other economically advanced countries.
According to a fact sheet the White House released on Thursday, Trump’s letters said the pharmaceutical manufacturers’ proposals for implementing his May executive order—which seeks to achieve “most favored nation” pricing in the United States—had “fallen short.”
However, it did not mention the percentage reductions the president has discussed in recent days.
What People Are Saying
Jeffrey Frankel, a professor of capital formation and growth at Harvard University, told Newsweek: “They are indeed mathematically impossible. If he cut prices 90 percent, the drugs would cost 1/10 as much as before. If 100 percent, then they would cost zero. If cutting 1,000 percent means a thing, then it means that the drug company pays you (a lot) to take the drug.”
He added: “It’s almost as if Trump is making fun of his supporters, seeing what increasingly absurd statements he can get away with.”
Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, told Newsweek: “This is not a question for an economist, but rather a sixth grader. After all, the Common Core curriculum standard 6.RP.3.c states that students should know how to ‘find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100 (e.g., 30 percent of a quantity means 30/100 times the quantity).'”
Wolfers added: “I just checked with my sixth grader (Oliver Wolfers), and he confirmed that he has studied percentages and that the president’s math does not make sense ‘because then the prices would be negative.’ He added, ‘Is he an idiot?’ before returning to watching YouTube. Oliver’s father agrees with Oliver’s mathematical analysis and encourages him to use more positive language when engaging with fellow kids.”
Pau Pujolas, a professor of economics at McMaster University, told Newsweek: “If your grocery bill is $100 and you get a 50 percent reduction in price, you pay $50. If you get a 75 percent reduction, you pay $25. If you get a 99 percent reduction, you pay $1. If you get a 100 percent reduction, you pay $0. You can’t get a reduction larger than that … so 1,200 percent doesn’t make sense.
“Talking about bad math: Firing Erika McEntarfer, the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is way worse than a POTUS not knowing how to operate with basic percentages. Let’s not miss the forest for the trees.”
President Donald Trump said at a Republican dinner in July: “This is something that nobody else can do. We’re gonna get the drug prices down—not 30 or 40 percent, which would be great, not 50 or 60 percent. No, we’re gonna get them down 1,000 percent, 600 percent, 500 percent, 1,500 percent. Numbers that are not even thought to be achievable.”
The White House fact sheet said: “From this point forward, President Trump will only accept from drug manufacturers a commitment that provides American families immediate relief from vastly inflated drug prices and an end to the freeriding by European and other developed nations on American innovations.”
Journalist James Surowiecki wrote on X in response to Trump’s comments on Sunday: “It’s not just that the math here is nonsensical. It’s that Trump hasn’t actually cut drug prices yet at all. He’s literally just sent letters to drugmakers telling them to cut prices. Does he know that and is lying? Or is he deluded? We have no idea.”
What Happens Next
Trump and the White House have not clarified what he means when he says drug prices will come down by as much as 1,500 percent.
The president’s letters to pharmaceutical companies give them a 60-day window to present a viable plan to reduce U.S. drug prices.
