Donald Trump took a major action on Monday to significantly reduce the cost Americans pay for pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs.
The latest executive order institutes a so-called ‘most favored nation’s policy’ where the U.S. will only pay the price of those nations paying the lowest prices for the same medicines and drugs.
The president said he would ‘do the right thing’ and not allow himself or the Republican Party to be bought and controlled by campaign contributions made by ‘Big Pharma’ and drug companies.
He placed the blame directly on foreign nations for the price disparities, claiming drug companies were forced to lower costs and allowed to keep them higher for Americans and said that the U.S. would no longer be ‘suckers’ for the rest of the world.
And he also slammed Democrats for ‘protecting pharma.’
Specifically, Trump said during an announcement from the White House that his order would target the highly popular GLP-1 fat loss, which he called the ‘fat shot drug.’
‘The weight loss drug Ozempic costs ten times more in the United States than the rest of the developed world. Ten times more. Why? What did we do? Suckers,’ Trump lamented.
The president then told a story of a businessman friend of his who is ‘seriously overweight’ paid just $88 for the ‘damn fat drug’ when he was in London, but that the same one costs $1,300 when he buys it in New York.
Alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and other top health officials, Trump signed the executive order and announced the new policy from the White House on Monday.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would dramatically reduce the price of prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals
Trump was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz for the announcement
‘Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the health care of foreign countries, which is what we were doing – we’re subsidizing others’ healthcare,’ Trump said. ‘Countries where they paid a small fraction of what for the same drug that what we pay many, many times more for.’
Trump previewed the historic action in a social media post on Sunday evening calling it ‘one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history.’
The action comes just moments before Trump departs Washington, D.C. for the first trip to the Middle East since coming back into office.
White House officials said Monday’s announcement will be broader than a similar policy that Trump tried to push through during his first term.
The earlier proposal would only impact a selection of drugs covered under the federal government’s health insurance plan for roughly 70 million Americans 65 years and older.
That plan only applied to Medicare Part B, which helps cover medically necessary services given during doctor’s visits – like vaccines and infusions that treat cancer.
A Trump official told reporters during a call on Monday morning that drugs most under scrutiny are those that have a large price disparity between the U.S. and other countries.
This includes explosive GLP-1 weight loss medicines like Wagovy or Ozempic.
‘There will be a particular focus on drugs where there is the largest disparities and the largest expenditures,’ they explained. ‘I would say it would be fair to expect that GLP-1s, given that they hit both of those categories, will be a focus. And there will be an expectation that those prices should come down.’
‘And then if they don’t, we will be looking at our various policy levers that can be used to force those prices down,’ the official added.
Trump said on social media it’s ’embarrassing to try and explain why the U.S. pays more than other nations for the same drug, developed in the same labs by the same country.
‘[T]here was no correct or rightful (sic) answer,’ the president wrote on Truth Social over the weekend.
‘The Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the ‘suckers’ of America, ALONE,’ he added.
‘Campaign Contributions can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party. We are going to do the right thing, something that the Democrats have fought for many years,’ he included.
A White House official told reporters GLP-1 weight loss drugs could be targeted since there is a large price disparity between what Americans pay versus other countries. Trump reiterated this during his announcement from the White House on May 12, 2025
A White House official said that action will be taken against drug companies if they do not come to the table to negotiate lowering prices for Americans – including rule making and federal program reduction.
A White House official told reporters on a call previewing the executive order on Monday morning: ‘This is an aggressive sweep of reforms. The president is dead serious about lowering drug prices.’
‘The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but accounts for three quarters of global pharmaceutical profits,’ an official lamented.
They said that foreign nations are ‘free-riding off American patients’ who are ‘forced to pay too much for prescription drugs.’
‘The United States alone should not be paying for all of the innovation in the entire world in this market,’ they added.
Before the White House executive order signing on Monday morning, the president said that his action would cut drug prices by nearly two-thirds.
‘DRUG PRICES TO BE CUT BY 59%, PLUS!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
A White House official detailed to reporters the actions that will be taken to ensure costs are reduced – especially if pharmaceutical and drug companies don’t come to the table to negotiate prices.
RFK Jr. points to a chart detailing former President Joe Biden’s drug price deals that he says left Americans paying much more for pharmaceuticals
The first is implementation of the ‘most favored nations’ policy, which would require U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer and the Department of Commerce to target practices it feels are discriminatory towards the U.S. and suppresses drug prices abroad.
Additionally, they said, Secretary Kennedy would be directed to facilitate direct-to-consumer sales at the most favored nation prices.
Within 30 days of the executive order signing on Monday, RFK Jr. will set targets for where prices can be reduced in the U.S. and would open negotiations with drug industry leaders.
HHS would also impose the lowest available price via the rule-making process if negotiations are not successful as well as expand importing drugs from other nations at a lower price.
The Department of Commerce will also consider placing restrictions on U.S. drug exports that help enable lower pricing abroad while keeping costs higher for Americans.
