In a move he’s touting as one of the most consequential in U.S. history, President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he will sign a sweeping executive order aimed at slashing the price of prescription drugs for American consumers—with savings projected between 30% and 80%. The announcement, made on Truth Social, signals a dramatic escalation in Trump’s long-running battle against Big Pharma and price gouging.
Trump didn’t mince words. He laid the blame for decades of inflated drug prices squarely at the feet of pharmaceutical companies and the politicians they influenced. “For many years the world has wondered why prescription drugs in the U.S. were five to ten times more expensive than in other countries,” he wrote. The answer? “There was no rightful answer,” Trump asserted—just a system rigged by campaign contributions and corporate lobbying.
Now, he says, that system is about to be blown wide open.
The cornerstone of the order is a Most Favored Nation policy, a mechanism that forces drug manufacturers to offer the U.S. the lowest price they offer anywhere in the world. If France or Canada gets a better deal, so will American patients. This approach, long debated in policy circles, would obliterate the existing price structures that have forced American families to pay disproportionately more for lifesaving medications.
Trump argued that the global pharmaceutical market will recalibrate, with prices rising slightly elsewhere to offset America’s gain—but for once, fairness returns to the U.S. healthcare system.
The executive order also builds on prior efforts. Last month, Trump signed another order standardizing Medicare drug payments across treatment settings. The administration says this could slash prices for cancer treatments and other specialized drugs by up to 60%, closing a loophole that allowed price variability depending on where care was delivered.
Further, the new order directly targets insulin and epinephrine pricing—bringing insulin costs down to as little as 3 cents for low-income and uninsured patients, and capping injectable epinephrine at just $15, plus a small administrative fee.
But the reforms don’t stop at the federal level. The order empowers states to import cheaper prescription drugs, while enhancing access to discounted medications for conditions like sickle-cell anemia, especially through Medicaid partnerships.
Under the order, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is tasked with reviewing the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program—a controversial feature of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Trump’s move could potentially reshape or even replace that framework, aiming for faster, more transparent, and more aggressive cost reductions.
