Trump Targets Big Pharma: 30–80% Off Medications

In a bold Sunday night announcement, former President Donald Trump revealed plans to sign a sweeping executive order that could drastically reduce prescription drug prices across the U.S. 🇺🇸

Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump declared, “I will be signing one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history. Prescription Drug and Pharmaceutical prices will be REDUCED, almost immediately, by 30% to 80%.” 💥

At the heart of this sweeping promise lies a controversial policy known as the Most Favored Nation (MFN) rule — a proposal originally launched during Trump’s first term, then blocked by courts and later rescinded by President Biden.

🧬 What Is the “Most Favored Nation” Policy?

Under Trump’s revived MFN plan, the U.S. government would peg the cost of certain prescription drugs to the lowest price paid by other developed nations — countries that often pay a fraction of what Americans are charged.

The idea? Use the global market as leverage to drive down prices at home — especially for medications covered under Medicare, which insures over 65 million Americans.

In its original 2020 version, the policy:

• Applied to 50 high-cost Medicare Part B drugs (those administered in doctors’ offices)

• Estimated to save the federal government $86 billion over seven years 💰

• Was fiercely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry and ultimately blocked in court

Now, Trump wants to bring it back — and go even further.

📉 What Could This Mean for You?

If successfully implemented, the policy could lead to:

• Lower premiums for Medicare recipients 📉

• Reduced out-of-pocket costs on critical medications

• Savings for U.S. taxpayers

But it may also come with trade-offs.

Healthcare experts warn that if pharmaceutical companies are forced to accept lower profits, they may:

• Limit availability of certain high-cost drugs in the U.S. 🚫

• Delay or withdraw new treatments from the market

• Pass costs onto other segments of the healthcare system

Put simply: cheaper prices could come at the cost of reduced access.

💣 Tariffs on Medicine?

The new order doesn’t stop at price indexing.

Sources close to the administration say the Trump team is also considering tariffs on pharmaceutical imports, particularly those coming from China and India — two key sources of generic medications.

During his first term, pharmaceuticals were mostly exempt from trade wars. This time, that could change.

While tariffs may push drugmakers to relocate manufacturing back to U.S. soil, they also risk triggering shortages, raising costs on generics, and creating bottlenecks in an already fragile supply chain 🏭💊.

⚖️ A Political and Legal Minefield

Trump’s MFN policy was one of the most aggressive price control efforts ever attempted by a Republican president — and it faces intense resistance.

Pharmaceutical companies, conservative think tanks, and many GOP lawmakers opposed the plan in 2020, calling it “price-fixing” and warning it would stifle innovation. Several lawsuits quickly followed, and federal courts ultimately halted the rule.

Whether the new version will survive legal challenges remains to be seen.

Still, the announcement is already drawing political attention. In an election year, Trump is likely trying to signal that he’s taking on “Big Pharma” — a popular stance with voters across party lines.

🏛️ Why Now?

The timing is no coincidence.

Republicans in the House are currently finalizing a sweeping tax and spending bill, with deep cuts to Medicaid and Medicare likely on the table. A revised MFN order could help fill budget gaps by cutting costs from Medicare drug spending — without having to raise taxes or slash other programs.

It’s also a sharp contrast to Trump’s Democratic rivals, who passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which granted Medicare limited authority to negotiate prices on a small number of drugs per year — but far less sweeping than the MFN model.

🔍 What’s Next?

Trump is expected to sign the order Monday morning. However, the specific details — which drugs it affects, when it takes effect, and how it will be implemented — are still unclear.

If it mirrors the 2020 plan, the savings could be real. But experts say everything will hinge on how the rule is written — and whether it survives the inevitable courtroom battles ahead ⚖️.

📬 Bottom Line: Trump is making a high-stakes play on drug pricing — reviving a rule that could cut costs for millions of Americans, but also spark legal, logistical, and medical controversy. With healthcare inflation climbing and elections looming, this could be one of the most politically explosive policy moves of the year.