Fact Check: Trump’s Claim of 1,000% Cut in Drug Prices Mathematically Impossible

In an era of soaring prescription drug costs, President Donald Trump has repeatedly made a bold but mathematically impossible promise to the American public regarding his “most favored nation” drug pricing policy.

Throughout August and September, Trump has claimed at numerous public events that his executive order from May will reduce prescription drug prices by staggering percentages – ranging from 500% to 1,500%. At a recent rally, Trump declared, “We’re gonna be reducing drug prices down to a level that nobody – not by 20%, 30% – by like 1,000%.” Just this Monday, he reiterated similar figures, promising reductions of “1,000% – by 900, 600, 500, 1,200.”

Health economists and mathematical reality, however, tell a different story. These claims are fundamentally impossible.

Timothy McBride, a health economist and professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Public Health, explained the absurdity of these statements: “I know of no drug company in the world that would give a person $400 to buy a drug that they are now pricing at $100.” As McBride points out, even a 100% reduction would merely make a drug free – anything beyond that would mean pharmaceutical companies paying consumers to take their medications.

A 500% price reduction on a $100 drug, for instance, would result in a negative $400 price – an economic impossibility in any market.

Trump’s “most favored nation” policy, introduced through an executive order earlier this year, aims to ensure Americans pay no more for prescription drugs than the lowest price offered in other developed countries. This approach targets the significant price disparities between the U.S. and other nations, where Americans often pay several times more for identical medications.

In a confusing Fox News interview last week, Trump attempted to explain his strategy, suggesting that he would pressure pharmaceutical companies to both lower U.S. prices and moderately raise prices in other countries to offset their losses. “The drug companies agree that I’m right,” Trump claimed, adding that he would use tariffs against uncooperative countries.

During this explanation, Trump described a scenario where a pill priced at $10 elsewhere but $100 in America would be harmonized – with foreign prices rising to $20 while U.S. prices fell to $20. This would represent an 80% decrease for Americans – significant, but nowhere near the 1,000% reduction he continues to promise.

When CNN questioned the White House about these mathematically impossible claims, spokesperson Kush Desai sidestepped the specific percentages, instead focusing on Trump’s broader point: “President Trump has correctly identified how Americans pay several times more for the same exact drugs as their peers in other wealthy nations.”

When pressed further, White House officials speaking anonymously offered an example of a drug that costs $521 in the U.S. versus $45 in Australia – a difference they characterized as “roughly 1,000% higher.” However, reducing that price from $521 to $45 would constitute a 91% decrease, not the 1,000% cut Trump continues to promote.

The pharmaceutical industry has historically resisted such pricing reforms, and experts question whether the executive order alone can accomplish meaningful price reductions without additional legislative action.

While addressing the genuine issue of prescription drug affordability, Trump’s persistent claims of 1,000%+ price reductions represent mathematical fiction rather than achievable policy outcomes – a distinction that matters to millions of Americans struggling with medication costs.