President Donald Trump isn’t here to play games—especially when it comes to your medicine cabinet. On Monday, Trump signed a no-nonsense executive order to slash drug prices in the U.S. to match what other countries are paying. Yep, the days of America footing the bill while other nations get discounts are over.
The order was signed in the Roosevelt Room with quite the power squad standing by: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Medicare and Medicaid boss Dr. Mehmet Oz, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary. Talk about a dream team.
“Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the health care of foreign countries, which is what we were doing,” Trump declared, laying down the law.
And he didn’t stop there. “We were subsidizing others’ health care—countries where they paid a small fraction for the same drug that what we pay many, many times more for, and we’ll no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma,” he added, calling out the pharmaceutical fat cats. He also pointed out that it’s foreign countries who strong-armed these companies into this pricing mess in the first place.
🚨 PRESIDENT TRUMP: “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.”
LFG! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/arYEGyzXEL
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 12, 2025
A White House fact sheet explained that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Rep Jameson Greer are on the case, making sure shady foreign pricing tactics stop messing with what we pay here at home. Finally.
The order goes a step further— telling drug companies exactly what price targets they’ll need to hit to give Americans “the best deal.” That’s right, no more mystery math when it comes to your prescriptions.
Trump’s order also lays the groundwork for Americans to buy medications at the so-called “Most Favored Nation” prices. Translation: If another country gets a better deal, we get that deal too.
And if Big Pharma doesn’t play nice? Kennedy’s got the green light to bring the heat. According to the White House:
If drug manufacturers fail to offer most-favored-nation pricing, the Order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) propose rules that impose most-favored-nation pricing; and (2) take other aggressive measures to significantly reduce the cost of prescription drugs to the American consumer and end anticompetitive practices.
Trump’s not messing around. He said he expects drug prices to drop “between 59 and 80, and I guess even 90 percent.” That’s not a discount—that’s a mic drop.
Oh, and here’s the kicker: America makes up only 4% of the global population, but pharma companies rake in over two-thirds of their profits here. Let that sink in.
President Trump’s message? America First—especially when it comes to your medicine.