White House officials are considering launching a website that would allow Americans to purchase cheaper prescription drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies, according to a report from Bloomberg. And incredibly, officials are seriously thinking about slapping President Donald Trump’s name on the project.
The potential website would reportedly let consumers search for various drugs and be “connected to platforms that sell them,” though it’s not clear how that would save patients money. One name being floated is, predictably, TrumpRx.
Bloomberg stresses that plans for the website haven’t been finalized and “discussions are ongoing,” but the report is certainly consistent with everything we know about President Trump. He likes to slap his name on things, and he likes to take credit whenever he can. This is the guy who has been personally profiting from the presidency, with his family’s wealth rising by billions of dollars through crypto investments alone, according to the Wall Street Journal.
While all Americans would welcome lower drug prices, Trump’s efforts in that area appear to be more desperate than practical. One of the major reasons that Americans pay more than any other country for drugs is that politicians in the 2000s made it illegal to negotiate for better prices. It’s been illegal for Medicare to negotiate with the drug companies on most medications, though that changed slightly in 2022 with the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, 10 new drugs each year can be negotiated, something the drug companies have fought tooth and nail in court.
Back in May, President Trump ordered drug companies to lower their prices in a move that was met with confusion among pharmaceutical executives, according to STAT. Rather than get legislation passed, Trump thinks he can get the drug companies to make things cheaper simply by demanding they give U.S. consumers the lowest price set around the world.
In July, Trump sent 17 big drug companies letters demanding most-favored-nation pricing, though it’s not clear why they’d do that simply because he’s telling them to. Executive orders aren’t the same as legislation. Trump gave a Sept. 29 deadline for the companies to comply. And while it seems like a safe bet that corporate executives would want to make Trump happy in an effort to avoid his wrath, these folks want to keep making the enormous profits that have driven their business.
On the other hand, American CEOs have been more than willing to play ball with Trump as a new era emerges. Tech executives know they can go kiss the ring at the White House, and it makes a big difference when it comes time for our big fascist president to dole out this month’s new tariffs. The government even recently took a 10% stake in Intel, something that would’ve been considered beyond the pale in a previous administration.
All we know for certain is that it’s just going to keep getting more authoritarian and weird. And TrumpRx isn’t even the weirdest idea we’ve heard this week.
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