Trump Says He’s Lowered Drug Prices by ‘1500%’ After Firing Stats Boss
The president’s boast defied basic arithmetic.
President Donald Trump bragged on Sunday that he had lowered drug prices by up to 1500 percent—an arithmetical absurdity, even by his standards.
Trump floated the impossible figure just days after he fired a top government statistics official over numbers he didn’t like.
Trump told reporters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that his administration had brought about a “tremendous drop in drug prices.”
“You know, we’ve cut drug prices by 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500 percent,” Trump said. “I don’t mean 50 percent, I mean 14, 1500 percent.”
He added, “We want the same prices Europe gets, we want the same prices other country gets.”
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 01: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on August 01, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump answered a range of questions from reporters before leaving and is scheduled to spend the weekend in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Win McNamee/Getty Images
“So we’ll be dropping drug prices,” he said, before throwing out another confusing set of figures. “It’ll start over the next two to three months. By 1200, 1300, and even 1400 percent. And 500 percent.”
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Reducing the price of something by more than 100 percent would mean that not only does it become free—the consumer would be getting paid to take the product.
On Friday, Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, after the agency released monthly jobs data showing a slowdown on jobs growth. Trump accused her of rigging the numbers to make him “look bad.”
Trump's complaint about the jobs numbers.
Getty
The move was likened to one from an authoritarian playbook, and marked another escalation in his crusade against inconvenient facts.
As for the drug price boast, it’s one that Trump has floated before. Trump routinely cites fantastical figures that don’t add up, tossing around unlikely claims about inflation, the price of gas and groceries, and his poll numbers, among other topics.
He was widely mocked on social media over his claim.
“Time and again, he’s shown himself to be utterly innumerate‚” said conservative attorney George Conway.
Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen wrote on X, “The guy who doesn’t trust the Bureau of Labor statistics jobs numbers thinks that your drug prices were cut by 1,500%.”
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