Remarks on Health Care Costs and Affordability and an Exchange With Reporters

Well, thank you very much. It's great to be here on this very beautiful day. A lot of very positive things happening.

Less than 4 months ago, I stood before you to announce the launch of the TrumpRx.gov, a brandnew website featuring the largest discounts on prescription drugs in the history of our country—the history, frankly, of any country. And for decades, Americans paid the highest drug prices anywhere in the world by far. But under the most-favored-nation agreements I negotiated, we now pay the lowest price paid for anybody in any country. We went from the highest to the lowest.

And I think, outside of maybe a cure itself, it's the biggest thing to happen to health care and everything having to do with medical in any—in any way, shape, or form. There's never been anything like this. We—think of it: We went from the most expensive to the least expensive.

So, we've slashed the price of dozens of commonly used prescription drugs by differences of 400, 500, and even 600 percent. In my first term, I got it down one-eighth of 1 percent. It's the first time in 28 years it went down. One-eighth of one, and now we're talking about 4-, 5-, and 6-and even 700 percent, including for weight loss drugs, fertility treatments, insulin, and much, much more.

Since that launch in February, TrumpRx.gov has already been visited more than 10 million times and has saved American consumers over $400 million already. And it's truly the hottest thing in medicine. It's been amazing.

I asked Dr. Oz, "How's it doing?" Bobby was there. He said: "Nobody has ever seen anything like this." So, it's great. People are saving a lot of money.

Over the next 10 years, the Council of Economic Advisers estimates that our most-favored-nation drug policies will save Americans over $500 billion. And this has been the greatest breakthrough in lowering health care costs in modern history. But we're just sort of getting started, actually, because we have a lot more to come.

So, today I am thrilled to announce that we're increasing the number of drugs available on TrumpRx by nearly seven times, adding over 600 affordable generics to the website, working with industry partners. Cost-effective generic drugs are often available at just a tiny fraction of the price of their brand name equivalents, and in theory, they're the same thing; sometimes they're better—with the same dosage, the same effectiveness, and the same active ingredients. Yet many consumers do not think to ask for them. They don't know about them.

By incorporating this massive catalog of low-cost generics at TrumpRx.gov, consumers will now have one source to ensure that they're getting the lowest possible cost on their prescription. So, they have a real option now. Today, they have something that they've never had before.

They've never had anything like this or even close.

With these additions, TrumpRx will feature the best and lowest prices on prescriptions used by tens of millions of Americans already. And in some cases, the discounted generics available through TrumpRx may be offered at an even lower cash price than the out-of-pocket insurance cost, which has always been the lowest, but we're going to be lower.

This means that the TrumpRx.gov should always be your first stop before you go to the pharmacy to pick up your prescription, and you'll certainly be checking on your pharmacy by doing this. And at a minimum, you'll know what you're supposed to be paying.

I want to thank the leaders of several major pharmacies and generic drugmakers who are partnering with us on this effort, including the cofounder of Cost Plus Drugs, Mark Cuban.

Mark—thank you very much, Mark. Looking good, Mark. Come here, Mark. Nice to be with you.

Cost Plus Drugs Cofounder Mark Cuban. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

We have the same thing, one thing in common: We want to make people better. And keep them wealthy, right?

Good. Good to be with you.

Vice president of Amazon Pharmacy, Tanvi Patel. Thank you very much.

And the president of RX Marketplace at GoodRx, Aaron Crittenden. Aaron, thank you very much. Great job you're doing.

With these companies as partners, we're also getting and adding new tools to take over websites, which will connect patients with the lowest-price pharmacy right in their own neighborhood, or alternatively, give them the option of getting a discounted prescription shipped straight to their door. They can have it delivered right to their front door.

This will provide American consumers with new options, more savings, and unprecedented price transparency, putting billions and billions of dollars back into the pockets of hardworking Americans. What a difference it's going to make at the end of a week.

For generations, drug prices have only gone up. And under my administration, for the first time in history, drug prices are coming down and they are coming down very, very dramatically and substantially. Politicians from both parties promised for decades to make health care more affordable, but they all failed, every single one of them. And when they thought they had it, they couldn't get other countries to go along.

I got all the other countries to come along. I said: "You don't come along, we're going to tariff you." And they all said: "We'd love to come along, sir." But I'm actually getting it done, and I don't care how I do it. I've got to get it done for the people.

I want to thank the incredible team behind this historic accomplishment, including Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Bobby.

Thank you very much.

Chief Design Officer Gebbia. Thank you. Thank you.

In just months, TrumpRx has accomplished what Washington said couldn't be done. Those numbers you shared represent huge savings at real scale for real Americans. And none of this would be possible without your leadership and your belief that Americans deserve better health.

So, today's great announcements of more drugs, more pharmacies, and home delivery are making health care simpler and smarter for Americans.

Let's go live to the new TrumpRx experience. So, that $400 million saved for Americans, that means better living and less stress for millions of families.

So, from search to savings to satisfaction, this is health care built for modern life. You compare prices on flights. Why not medicine? Don't just fill your prescription. TrumpRx it. Because the strongest nation on Earth, America, starts with the healthiest people on Earth.

Mr. President, back to you.

Thank you, Joe. Great job. Beautiful. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much. Really amazing, the job you've done and so quickly.

Now I'd like to ask Secretary Kennedy to say a few words and Dr. Oz and Mark Cuban and Chris Klomp. And we'll take a couple of questions maybe at the end. Thank you.

Bobby, please.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Nice job.

Would you like to say something? You're over there. You look so beautiful and nice. You two, come on over here. Just say a couple of words about——Amazon Pharmacy Vice President Tanvi Patel. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, for having Amazon here today. It's really great to work with the administration and the NDS on building TrumpRx.

At Amazon Pharmacy, it's been our mission to build a pharmacy with price transparency from day one, and it's been our mission to make sure that Americans who need their medications know how much they're going to pay out of pocket for brand or generic medications. It's what we're built around, whether you're paying cash or insurance.

And we look forward to continuing to innovate on this.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Good luck with it.

GoodRx President of Rx Marketplace Aaron Crittenden. I'm going to move this up just slightly.

[Mr. Crittenden adjusted the microphone height.]

Thank you for having us, on behalf of GoodRx. Look, we have a shared mission, as everyone up here, to deliver health care that's affordable to every American. We couldn't be prouder by what you're doing and be a part of it.

So, thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Great job.

Well, thank you very much. Any questions of these brilliant—these brilliant people?

Yes, please. Go ahead. Go ahead. Yes. The white, yes.

They're giving a briefing on it in a little while.

At the mosque, they're giving a briefing, and it's a terrible situation. I've been given some early updates, but we're going to be going back and looking at it very strongly.

Yes, please.

Wait. Excuse me.

Well, other countries have come to me and they've said—we were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow. I've put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we've had very big discussions with Iran, and we'll see what they amount to.

I was asked by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, U.A.E., and some others if we could put it off for 2 or 3 days, a short period of time, because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal. And if we can do that, where there's no nuclear weapon going into the hands of Iran, I think—and if they're satisfied, we will be probably satisfied also.

We've informed Israel. We've informed other people in the Middle East that have been involved with us. And, you know, it's a very positive development, but we'll see whether or not it amounts to anything. We've had periods of time where we had—we thought pretty much getting close to making a deal and it didn't work out. But this is a little bit different.

No, we were ready to go in tomorrow very big, and not something I wanted to do, but we have no choice because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

Yes. Please, go ahead.

Yes.

Well, it's been very well received, I have to tell you. I know very little about it. I wasn't involved in the whole creation of it and the negotiation.

But this is reimbursing people that were horribly treated—horribly treated. It's anti-weaponization. They've been weaponized. They've been, in some cases, imprisoned wrongly. They paid legal fees that they didn't have. They've gone bankrupt. Their lives have been destroyed.

And they turned out to be right. I mean, it's—was a terrible period of time in the history of our country.

And they worked on it. I know the Justice Department, it's really been working on it very hard. There's been numerous other occasions over the years where things like this have been done.

But these were people that were weaponized and really treated brutally by a system that was so corrupt, with corrupt people running it. And they're getting reimbursed for their legal fees and the other things that they had to suffer.

Yes, please. Daniel [Daniel Baldwin, One America News Network], go ahead.

Hold it. Hold it. Daniel, please.

Well, he made a mistake. It was a big mistake.

Well, it says we love people. We love our country. He wants to—he's got a good company, and he's going to do a lot of business with this. And I'm going to get drugs out through Amazon, through the whole group, and we're going to get drugs out. And Mark wanted to be a part of it.

And I think Mark was very gracious. He said: "This is something that really works," the first time you've seen it. And he had to believe that if he said it about me. You have to understand that.

But, look, I think—I have a lot of respect for Mark, frankly, and I always have.

Yes.

Go ahead. Ebola. Ebola. You said Ebola.

Go ahead.

I'm concerned about everything, but certainly am. I think that, you know, it's been confined right now to Africa, and—but it's something that has had a breakout. I could ask Bobby or Oz to say a couple of words about it, if you'd like. Want to do that?

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead. On Iran. What?

Well, lots has come into fruition. We've——

——taken a country that was going to have a nuclear weapon, and we've virtually destroyed its military. They have no navy. They have no air force. They've been—every—they've been virtually destroyed militarily.

That's a lot. That's a big—we could leave right now; it would take them 25 years to rebuild.

And the last thing they're thinking about, I think, is nuclear. Now they have to put it down in writing.

But when you say "nothing," we've—we've totally destroyed——

Excuse me—from CNN.

We've totally destroyed their military. We've destroyed their leadership. As you know, their leaders are gone. Their leaders are gone at the first level, the second level. We're dealing with half of the third level. And I think we've made a lot of progress.

And it's very simple. You know, we don't want to go through this. We had the greatest economy ever. We still do. The stock market hit a brandnew high a little while ago. I never thought that was going to happen.

We had to make the excursion. You know, we hit 50,000 on the Dow, we hit 7,000 on the S&P, and everyone said that couldn't be done within my 4 years; it would be too big. Well, we did it in my first year. And then I called Scott and Howard—I called them all into my office. I say: "We're going to take a little excursion down to the Middle East, and we're going to confront Iran because they are desperate to have a nuclear weapon. And the only reason they want it is to use it." And I said: "It's—I hate to do this, because we're doing so well, but this is the most important thing we can do. We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon."

So, we did that. And when we did that, we were met with a little force, and we ended up destroying them. We now have a tremendous—we built, really, a steel wall where no boats—the blockade—where no boats are able to—not one boat has been able to get through our blockade.

Look, our military is the greatest military anywhere in the world. I just left China. And I will say President Xi was very, very complimentary of our military. He was amazed, actually, at our military. We have the greatest military in the world. We're not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

So, I was called by these three countries, plus others, and they're dealing directly with our people and, right now, Iran. And there seems to be a very good chance that they can work something out. If we can do that without bombing the hell out of them, I'd be very happy.

Please.

Yes.

It will all be dependent on a committee. A committee is being set up of very talented people, very highly respected people. I think it's a committee of five.

And, again, I didn't do this deal. It was told to me yesterday. They said they're doing something. I do believe there has to be compensation for people that were destroyed. You have families absolutely destroyed. And it's all going to be determined by a committee of four or five people that are respected and very brilliant at what they do.

Yes, please. Go ahead, please.

No, no, one at a time, please. In the blue, yes.

In the blue, yes. Go ahead, please.

Yes. Terrible.

I'm very concerned about it. I'm very concerned about mail-in ballots.

We're the only country in the world that's doing mail-in ballots. And a mail-in ballot is, by just the nature of it, it's going to be corrupt. So many people handle it.

You go into a well-run voting booth in a certain State—you know, we'll pick a State. But you go into—and, I mean, they look—even me, I went in Florida and went to vote, and they said: "Sir, I hate to do it. I'm so embarrassed. Could I see your identification?"

I said: "Really? Do you really want to do that?" "Please, sir. I'll lose my job if I don't do it." I very—I was very proud to hand her identification and everything else.

I mean, you want to have proof of citizenship. You want to have a voter ID. You want to have all these things. But to me, maybe the worst of all is the mail-in ballots, where they come in—So, in—as you know, in Maryland, 500,000 fake ballots were sent out. When they were caught, they said, "Oh, we'll pull them back." And they issued 500,000 new ballots. And as you know, they never got the original ballots back. So, there are a million ballots out there. Many of them went to Democrats, and it's a very serious thing.

And I'll tell you, I've looked at Maryland for a long time, and I know Maryland pretty well. And I was told that it's automatically a Democrat State, and I don't believe that, because I think I did really well there, and I don't believe it.

But they issued, as you—just got caught recently—five—500,000 ballots—illegal ballots were sent out. And they were totally fraudulent. And then they said, "Oh, we'll pull them back." Well, they didn't pull them back, and they have 500,000 new ballots go.

So, what happens to the original? Are they going to come in, and are they going to come in and infect our system? So, it's a very, very serious thing that's happened, and I've asked the law enforcement to look at it very, very strenuously.

I want to thank you all. This is so—we're so proud of it. And I want to thank Bobby and Oz and Mark and all of the people that are here.

And, Joe, great job. You are really something. I heard about you for a long time, and now you're doing something that's more important than anything you've ever done. And you've done some beauties. Thank you very much, Joe.

Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.