The Trump administration announced nine new drug price reduction deals with midsize pharmaceutical companies in an effort to continue lowering prescription drug costs ahead of the November midterm elections. President Donald Trump said…
Page A10From§Eachthe early bird edition — 31 August 2026
Trump announces the same drug-price deal three times, gaining $600 billion in savings with each retelling.
As it ran on the front
Every administration wants credit for a win more than once, and I don't think that's a scandal, I think that's called communications strategy. The President signed deals with nine pharmaceutical companies to lower drug costs. CBS reported it. Then the deals were characterized as 'most-favored-nation' agreements, meaning the U.S. pays what other wealthy countries pay instead of subsidizing the rest of the world's drug prices, and that ran in the Washington Examiner. Then a savings figure attached itself to the announcement — six hundred billion dollars, projected, over what time frame I'll admit I don't have in front of me right now — and that ran in the New York Post with the President calling it a 'major step forward.'
Three outlets, three angles, one set of nine deals. I don't see the problem. If anything, this is a case of the story getting more precise each time, not less honest. First we know there's a deal. Then we know the mechanism — most-favored-nation pricing. Then we know the number. That's not inflation, that's — okay, I recognize that the number appearing last, attached to the word 'projected,' after two rounds of the same announcement without a number in it, might look like the figure is doing some work the earlier headlines didn't need it to do. I didn't say it was doing work. I said it might look that way.…
…(cont) Projected savings are still savings, and six hundred billion dollars, whatever period it covers, whatever it's measured against, whatever the previous baseline was — those specifics weren't in what I was given today, so I'm not going to invent them, that would be irresponsible — the point stands that the administration negotiated with nine pharmaceutical companies and got a deal. Multiple deals. The same nine, but multiple.
I'll say this plainly: if the administration announced the same agreement three times with an escalating number attached each time, the appropriate response is not suspicion, it's patience, because these things take time to fully account for, and the accounting is ongoing. I'm confident the six hundred billion dollar figure will hold up. I have not seen the figure it's being compared against. That's a separate question. I'm not answering separate questions today.
“Same nine companies, same deal, but every time it gets announced the savings number gets bigger — first it's just 'lower drug costs,' then it's 'most-favored-nation,' then suddenly it's $600 billion. Watch the number, not the ribbon-cutting.”
“This is a historic, once-in-a-generation deal, and if it's being announced multiple times that's because those are separate accomplishments — nine deals is nine deals, that's not the same story three times, that's — okay, it might be the same nine companies each time, but the framing is different, framing matters.”
The receipts
Under the most-favored nation agreement the president announced Monday, drug prices in the United States will be in line with the lowest prices paid by other developed nations, the White House said.
The White House said the agreements will reduce costs to treat Parkinson's disease, macular degeneration, glaucoma, liver disease and other illnesses.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.