The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday evening that it&#8217;s cracking down on deceptive pharmaceutical ads, issuing thousands of warning letters and about 100 cease-and-desist notifications.
“For far too long, the FDA has permitted misleading drug advertisements, distorting the doctor-patient relationship and creating increased demand for medications regardless of clinical appropriateness,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a statement. “Drug companies spend up to 25% of their budget on advertising. Those billions of dollars would be better spent on lowering drug prices for everyday Americans.”
A press release from the agency said current law requires pharma ads to &#8220;present a fair balance between a product’s risks and benefits; avoid exaggerating benefits; not create a misleading overall impression; properly disclose financial relationships; and include information regarding major side effects and contraindications.&#8221;
That rule, which the FDA did not adequately enforce during the Biden years, will be &#8220;aggressively&#8221; enforced now, the release says. Additionally, the FDA is closing the “adequate provision” loophole created in 1997, which companies have used to &#8220;conceal critical safety risks in broadcast and digital ads, fueling inappropriate drug use and eroding public trust.&#8221;
Television ads are not the only promotional content being scrutinized and regulated. Social media posts, which often feature an influencer talking up the drug, rarely mention &#8220;potential harms,&#8221; or they fail to disclose that the influencers are being paid.
&#8220;[W]hile 100% of pharmaceutical social media posts highlight drug benefits, only 33% mention potential harms,&#8221; the FDA said, citing a 2024 review in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research. &#8220;Moreover, 88% of advertisements for top-selling drugs are posted by individuals and organizations that fail to adhere to the FDA fair balance guidelines.&#8221;
In the thousands of letters sent to drug companies, the FDA warns, &#8220;You are hereby directed to remove any noncompliant advertising and bring all promotional communications into compliance.&#8221;
&#8220;This notice also serves to demand compliance with the [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic] Act and FDA implementing regulations and requires companies to remove any and all DTC (direct-to-consumer) prescription drug advertising that violates the law,&#8221; the letter adds.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. &#8212; the head of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the FDA &#8212; has long been a critic of Big Pharma ads. He said in a statement issued Tuesday that &#8220;pharmaceutical ads hooked this country on prescription drugs.&#8221;
&#8220;We will shut down that pipeline of deception and require drug companies to disclose all critical safety facts in their advertising,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Only radical transparency will break the cycle of overmedicalization that drives America’s chronic disease epidemic.”
While Kennedy was running for president in 2024, before he endorsed President Donald Trump, he said he would &#8220;issue an executive order banning pharmaceutical advertising on television.&#8221;
&#8220;We are one of only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers on television,&#8221; RFK Jr. said on X in 2024. &#8220;Not surprisingly, Americans consume more pharmaceutical products than anyone else on the planet.&#8221;

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Trump FDA Announces Major Crackdown On ‘Misleading’ Pharma Ads

Big Pharma

Health

Politics

Prescription Drugs

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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How Big Pharma Covered Up The Dark Truth About Birth Control

Birth Control

COVID

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Pfizer

Psychology

Santa Barbara

Vaccines

Violent Crime

Monopolies have been rigging the system for decades. They cozy up to Washington, throw cash around, hire armies of lobbyists, and manipulate rules so that everyday Americans always lose.
Thankfully, President Trump isn’t playing by their rules. He’s standing up for Main Street, not corporate boardrooms.
We first saw this with Big Tech. Mark Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/technology/mark-zuckerberg-trump-meta-antitrust.html">thought</a> he could cut a favorable deal to get Facebook off the hook, possibly even counting on Trump to back him. Instead, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/facebook-privacy-practices-focus-8-billion-trial-targeting-zuckerberg-2025-07-16/">allowed</a> the case to go to trial, and Zuckerberg found himself sweating it out on the witness stand. 
Google attempted a similar stunt, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/21/google-argues-doj-breakup-could-hurt-us-economy-in-battle-with-china.html">claiming</a> national security would be at risk if it faced a breakup. Trump’s DOJ wasn’t buying it. 
 
“You know what is dangerous?” Antitrust chief Gail Slater <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/30/business/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-testifies-extraordinary-doj-remedies-would-cause-many-unintended-consequences/">asked</a> outside the courthouse. “The threat Google presents to our freedom of speech, to our freedom of thought, to free American digital markets.” That case has now <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2025/08/20/google-will-soon-learn-its-fate-as-judge-prepares-to-reveal-antitrust-remedies/">reached</a> the remedies stage, and for the first time since AT&amp;T in the 1980s, we could see a Big Tech monopoly actually broken apart. That’s how monopolies should be treated.
Now Ticketmaster is running the same playbook. 
Controlling <a href="https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/did-ticketmasters-market-dominance-fuel-the-chaos-for-swifties">80% of the market</a>, the ticket marketplace is infamous for outrageous fees and predatory practices, such as charging junk fees and allowing scalping bots to buy up most of its inventory, leaving regular fans at the mercy of price gougers. Yet now the monopoly wants Trump to think it’s the solution, not the problem. 
Ticketmaster’s owner, Live Nation, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5311464-ric-grenell-live-nation-board-trump-doj-ticketmaster-antitrust/">added</a> a MAGA-friendly face to its board and is now floating “reform” ideas, like capping resale prices. Such caps would <a href="https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2025/07/09/live-nation-asks-the-trump-administration-to-cap-ticket-resale-prices-which-would-conveniently-put-their-competition-out-of-business/">bankrupt</a> almost all of Ticketmaster’s rivals, leaving the company even more dominant while pretending to “fix” the market.
It’s a double scam: they make the mess, then turn around and sell the “solution” as regulation.
It’s like an arsonist showing up with a bucket of water after lighting the fire.
Fortunately, the Trump administration is not paying any attention to Ticketmaster’s desperate attempt to protect itself from the White House’s wrath. It is already <a href="https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2025/03/14/329490.htm">continuing</a> the antitrust suit against Ticketmaster, and a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-will-end-price-gouging-by-middlemen-in-the-entertainment-industry/">ticketing reform plan</a> set to drop in September could put the company’s “business as usual” to an end.
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Big Tech and Ticketmaster aren’t alone.
In June, the Trump administration hit Mexican bank CIBanco with the <a href="https://www.foley.com/insights/publications/2025/07/fincen-new-authority-targeting-mexico-based-financial-institutions-cartel/">toughest sanctions possible</a>, accusing it of aiding the fentanyl trade. A few weeks later, CIBanco — never before a client of Washington lobbyists — <a href="https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/ab337cdd-495b-4498-a1f9-4f3b0ec83631/print/">hired</a> the MAGA-connected Rubin, Turnbull &amp; Associates. The sanctions haven’t moved, and Trump has stood firm.
Amazon has also tried its usual political maneuvering on the president. When Trump won the White House, executives <a href="https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/b22dc7d6-7900-40e4-9f3f-985bbbb32579/print/">hired</a> Brian Ballard — Trump’s former lawyer and Florida finance director — to lobby on Amazon’s behalf. They even contributed <a href="https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/286/201704180300150286/201704180300150286.pdf">over $50,000</a> to the president’s inauguration. Did it work? No. Trump didn’t blink, and Amazon lost its effort to dodge federal antitrust charges.
Hardworking Americans are tired of being taken advantage of. Insider games, where a board seat or a lobbyist equals immunity, have gone on for too long. Trump sees it, and he’s the one president actually saying “No” loud enough for all of us to hear.
Trump is different from most politicians. He doesn’t feel he owes these corporations anything, and he isn’t inclined to give them a free pass. His administration is pushing back against any monopoly that harms consumers or breaks the law.
The bottom line? Corporate America needs to clean up its act or face the consequences. Because the Trump administration isn’t standing up for special interests, it’s standing up for everyday Americans like you and me.
* * *
Haley Kennington (@LadyKennington) is an investigative journalist and conservative commentator. She served as the Research Director &amp; Story Editor for The Daily Wire’s “2020:The Plot Against the President” and the Research/Archive Editor for “What Is a Woman?“
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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In Trump’s White House, It’s Main Street Over Monopolies

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President Donald Trump sent letters to drug company CEOs demanding that they lower prices.
The letters, which Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114949049238065269">posted</a> to social media, say name-brand drug prices &#8220;are up to three times higher on average than anywhere else for identical medicines.&#8221;
&#8220;This unacceptable burden on hardworking American families ends with my Administration,&#8221; Trump said.
The letters were sent to 17 companies and are identical. They give companies 60 days to lower drug prices through most-favored-nation (MFN) pricing as explained in an executive order <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/delivering-most-favored-nation-prescription-drug-pricing-to-american-patients/">titled</a> &#8220;Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients.&#8221;
The executive order, signed in May, orders companies to sell drugs in the United States for the same price charged in foreign countries, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-to-reduce-drug-prices-tells-rest-of-world-to-pay-up">reported</a>. The order says companies charge Americans more for drugs because &#8220;drug manufacturers deeply discount their products to access foreign markets, and subsidize that decrease through enormously high prices in the United States.&#8221;
Both the order and the letters direct companies to charge MFN prices in America.
Some of the companies that received letters include AbbVie, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson and Johnson, Novartis, and Pfizer.
The letters tell companies to provide their &#8220;full portfolios&#8221; of drugs at MFN prices for Medicaid patients, guarantee MFN prices for new drugs, negotiate with &#8220;freeloading&#8221; nations to &#8220;return increased revenues&#8221; to American patients, and allow direct purchasing of drugs at MFN prices.
&#8220;Moving forward, the only thing I will accept from drug manufacturers is a commitment that provides American families immediate relief from the vastly inflated drug prices and an end to the free ride of American innovation by European and other developed nations,&#8221; Trump said in the letters.
Companies have until September 29 to implement Trump&#8217;s terms.
In May, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said other nations should chip in for research and development. He said raising prices in other nations by 20% would drastically reduce costs in the U.S.
Trump signed another executive order earlier in May to reduce the regulatory burden on the domestic production of critical medicines.
&#8220;[If] you refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices,&#8221; Trump said.
The other companies that received letters were Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Sanofi.

Johnson And Johnson Headquarters In Madrid

‘Unacceptable Burden’: Trump Gives Drug Companies 60 Days To Lower Prices

Executive

Pharmaceuticals

Americans have waited long enough, and now real relief from sky-high prescription drug prices is finally here. Recently, President Donald J. Trump signed a landmark Executive Order to end the decades-long injustice that has forced American families — especially Hispanic households — to pay more for lifesaving medications than almost anyone else in the world.
Hispanics, who are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured compared to other groups, are disproportionately burdened by high out-of-pocket prescription costs. In fact, according to the CDC, nearly one in four Hispanic adults report not taking prescribed medications due to cost, compared to just 13% of non-Hispanic White adults. This Executive Order directly addresses that disparity by demanding lower drug prices and making medications more affordable and accessible for millions of working families across the country.
This bold order reaffirms the President’s unwavering commitment to putting American patients first by stopping foreign free-riding, crushing the stranglehold of pharmaceutical middlemen, and bringing fairness back to a rigged system.
Under President Trump’s leadership, America is no longer the world’s piggy bank for pharmaceutical giants and socialized healthcare systems abroad. This Executive Order directs the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce to hold foreign nations accountable for the unfair practices that underpay for prescription drugs and undermine lifesaving drug development. In essence, Americans — who fund the bulk of pharmaceutical innovation through our taxpayer dollars and higher prices — have been subsidizing socialism abroad. No more.
For many Americans across the U.S., especially those economically impacted by high healthcare costs, this Executive Order is a game changer. Families working long hours, often balancing multiple jobs, should not have to choose between buying insulin for their children or groceries for the week. President Trump’s directive ensures that low-income patients, seniors, and working-class Americans will now have direct access to the same steep discounts that pharmaceutical companies give to patients overseas through government-negotiated prices.
That means bypassing the costly middlemen and securing medicines at “most-favored-nation” prices that reflect the best deal given to any other country in the world. If drug manufacturers refuse, the Order empowers the Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to act decisively: impose these pricing standards through regulation and take additional aggressive steps to drive costs down. This is what America First leadership looks like.
Let’s not forget: President Trump has been down this road before. In his first term, he introduced bold reforms to ensure that Medicare would no longer overpay pharmaceutical companies — specifically, by requiring that prices for Medicare-covered drugs be no higher than those paid in comparable countries. These common-sense measures were rescinded by the Biden-Harris Administration before they could take effect. The result? A so-called “victory” for Medicare that actually left American taxpayers and seniors paying an average of 78% more for prescription drugs than patients in eleven other advanced nations. That’s not a win — it’s a disgrace.
Now, in his second term, President Trump is finishing what he started. This new action builds upon earlier victories, including transparency in hospital pricing, the push for generics and biosimilars, and expanded drug importation options. These initiatives are part of a comprehensive, America First healthcare agenda focused not on enriching bureaucracy, but on empowering patients.
For those disproportionately affected by chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and asthma, this move provides tangible economic relief. It ensures families can access the medicine they need to stay healthy. It means hardworking Americans can afford care without risking financial ruin. And it signals that forgotten communities are no longer overlooked — they are being heard and prioritized.
We should also be clear: this isn&#8217;t just good policy. It’s great politics. President Trump is showing the American people that he’s not afraid to stand up to entrenched interests to deliver real results. He’s not beholden to Big Pharma, nor is he willing to play nice with foreign governments who exploit our generosity while we suffer at home.
In an era where politicians too often offer empty promises and soaring rhetoric, President Trump delivers. His commitment to reforming healthcare pricing is not just about economics—it’s about justice. And make no mistake: justice is exactly what millions of Americans, especially those in underserved communities, have been demanding for years.
President Trump said it best: “Our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory.” That ends now.
This is more than an Executive Order. It’s a promise fulfilled, a burden lifted, and another bold move in President Trump’s mission to restore prosperity, fairness, and dignity to the American people.
* * *
Bobby Jindal is the former Governor of Louisiana and Chair of the Center for a Healthy America at America First Policy Institute.
Jorge Martinez is National Director for Hispanic Outreach for America First Policy Institute. He previously served as press secretary for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Trump Vows US Drug Price Cuts Of Up To 80% In Industry Blow

Trump’s Bold Move To Lower Drug Prices Puts Americans First, Not Big Pharma

Trump's Bold Move To Lower Drug Prices Puts Americans First, Not Big Pharma

Trump Administration

White House

President Donald Trump’s new <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/12/trump-most-favored-nations-drug-price-order-what-to-know.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> on prescription drug prices — which he called “one of the most consequential executive orders in our country’s history” — may well live up to the hype, but not in the way Trump intends.
Trump&#8217;s announcement of a “most favored nation” <a href="https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/global-trends/us-news-trumps-most-favored-nation-drug-pricing-policy-and-how-will-it-reduce-costs-slash-prescription-drug-prices-by-30-to-80-percent/articleshow/121109365.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policy</a> means the United States government will only pay drug prices equal to the lowest paid by any developed nation. This is what Germany, France, Canada, and the United Kingdom currently do: pay less for drugs than they’re worth. In turn, the United States picks up the tab when it buys up drugs for Medicaid.
We overpay, and it’s easy to write it off as unfair freeloading by Europe, a recurring theme for the Trump administration. But this remedy will not come without its costs, and consumers will feel it down the line.
The Trump administration&#8217;s solution for drug pricing is identical to its approach to tariffs. Instead of finding leverage in a target-rich environment to coerce Europe into paying market rates, thus giving American consumers a break, they’ve decided to join the race to the bottom. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) must be quietly pleased to see his socialist dream of price controls go mainstream within the MAGA coalition, even though he has <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-warning-trump-drug-pricing-executive-order-2071155" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> that Trump’s drug pricing measure would be better served by legislation.
If it was not clear to Republicans before, it should be now that free market policymaking is on the outs in the second Trump administration.
Let’s be honest about what’s happening. The White House wants to trim federal <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AmCRxm6P4o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spending</a> without touching politically sensitive programs like Medicaid. To square that budgetary circle, they’ve decided to force pharmaceutical companies to sell their products to American patients at the same rate they’re sold to socialized healthcare systems abroad.
This move, unthinkable for a Republican administration two decades ago, assumes that America can have the world’s most innovative pharmaceutical sector and also ask “Big Pharma” to forgo the billions in profits they reinvest back into research and development. It’s a fantasy.
The United States is the engine of pharmaceutical innovation. Over half of all new drug patents originate here specifically because America allows firms to see a return on investment. Drug development isn’t like manufacturing sneakers or soda. It’s a high-risk, capital-intensive endeavor where failure is more common than success. A single treatment can take over a decade to develop, cost billions, and then <a href="https://med.uc.edu/depart/psychiatry/research/clinical-research/crm/trial-phases-1-2-3-defined#:~:text=Subjects%20in%20a%20Phase%20II,go%20on%20to%20Phase%20III." target="_blank" rel="noopener">never make it</a> to FDA phase III trials.
Cutting-edge treatments come to market and make the impossible suddenly possible, albeit at a premium price point. It’s true, on brand-name drugs, Americans <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/comparing-prescription-drugs#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20U.S.%20prices%20across,adjustments%20for%20estimated%20U.S.%20rebates." target="_blank" rel="noopener">pay a lot</a> more.
However, like clockwork, generics get developed and costs for the consumer crater. Generic medications account for 91% of prescriptions in the United States. For those, we <a href="https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1921730579675934991" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pay far less</a> for those drugs than nearly any other country, something Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro <a href="https://youtu.be/XYBuphYtp6I?si=U5SKZ4aI99bvS70w&amp;t=2662" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> this week.
If Medicaid won’t pay a fair price, pharmaceutical companies will raise prices on private insurers to compensate. That means higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs for millions of Americans who get coverage through work or on the open market.
And that’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/7/22522479/medicaid-health-insurance-doctors-billing-research" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assuming</a> companies continue to sell to Medicaid at all.
Why isn’t Trump hammering European nations that want access to American-made drugs and have them negotiate fair, value-based deals for our biotech? It’s a crown jewel of America that global elites travel near and far to access. We should be twisting wrists abroad, not kneecapping our pharmaceutical industry.
<div>If we want lower drug costs, allowing drug approval reciprocity — as <a href="https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-introduces-legislation-to-modernize-fda-prescription-drug-approvals-and-lower-drug-prices/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-introduces-legislation-to-modernize-fda-prescription-drug-approvals-and-lower-drug-prices/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1747494596378000&amp;usg=AOvVaw27BgpCiXpYt8qvN3lERP1n">suggested</a> by Sen. Rand Paul — to increase competition between drug approval regulators globally would be a great start. The FDA’s approval process could also be reformed to accelerate trials and drug approval.</div>
America leads the world in medical breakthroughs for a reason. We cannot afford to surrender that leadership by copying the failures of Europe’s socialized health systems. Europe as we know it today is a warning, not a model.
Stephen Kent is the Media Director of the Consumer Choice Center.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-HEALTH-TRUMP-KENNEDY

Undermining American Pharmaceutical Companies Won’t Make Drugs Cheaper

Europe

Executive Orders

President Trump signs an executive order to stop Big Pharma from charging Americans more than their European counterparts. Stocks surge after tariffs are slashed, as the U.S. and China announce a temporary truce in the trade war. And, Air Force 1 needs an update. Will Trump accept the offer of a $400 million “flying palace” from Qatar?
It’s Tuesday, May 13, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
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<h2>Trump EO To Lower Drug Prices</h2>
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Topline: President Trump signed what he called “one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history” on Monday to dramatically lower the prices of prescription drugs.
Trump said his newest executive order would lower drug prices in the U.S. by up to 80% by implementing the “most favored nation” policy, cutting out industry “middlemen,” and compelling the European Union and other allies to pay for research and development of various drugs. He argued that since other nations set price controls for drugs, it’s been America that’s left taking on all these research and development costs.
“Starting today, the U.S. will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries,” Trump said. “We will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma. But again, it was really the countries that forced Big Pharma to do things that, frankly, I’m not sure they were comfortable doing.”
The order will allow Americans to buy drugs directly from manufacturers, cutting out pharma “middlemen.” These so-called “middlemen,” pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), work with insurance providers to negotiate prices with drug companies in exchange for including the drugs in their coverage. Critics say PBMs are not transparent and don’t have an incentive to lower drug prices for Americans. The order also sets a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-prescription-drugs-prices-most-favored-nation-4c620a32ccd193b793ba1558f3fe93e0">30-day deadline</a> for HHS to work with drugmakers to reduce the costs of these prescription drugs. If a deal is not reached, a new rule will kick in that will effectively lower the drug price to what other nations are paying for them.
“The fundamental problem in healthcare is we&#8217;ve had non-competitive markets,” Dr. Marty Makary, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1921938509826298179">said</a> on Monday. “We can do little things around the edges, or we can transform those markets to competitive markets and that&#8217;s what this executive order does today.&#8221;
Democrats, who as a general rule have opposed President Trump’s policies, have remained mostly silent on this executive order. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), an independent and democratic socialist who caucuses with the Democrats, said that he agrees with Trump about the high prices of prescription drugs, but he did not back this EO, arguing that it would be blocked by the courts. Trump implemented a similar regulation for certain cancer drugs during his first term. The Biden administration, however, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-says-he-will-sign-executive-order-aimed-at-lowering-drug-prices-2a5b9b28">abandoned</a> the regulation after a court struck it down on procedural grounds. Sanders also made it clear that he doesn&#8217;t agree that the European Union or Canada needs to pay their &#8220;fair share&#8221; – he thinks prices should be lowered for everyone.
<h2>Stock Market Soars As U.S./China Slash Tariffs</h2>
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Topline: Stocks soared Monday after the United States and China formally agreed to a temporary trade deal that will dramatically lower tariffs across the board.
After formal negotiations in Switzerland last weekend, China agreed to cut tariffs on American imports from 125% to just 10%, while the United States will cut rates from 145% to 10%. Beijing also agreed to eliminate or suspend non-tariff countermeasures against the United States, which means that their ban on rare earth mineral exports could come to an end.
&#8220;Yesterday, we achieved a total reset with China,” President Trump <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1921928176286020061">said</a> on Monday. “After productive talks in Geneva, both sides now agree to reduce the tariffs imposed after April 2nd to 10% for 90 days as negotiators continue on the largest structural issues.&#8221;
This deal is a stunning reversal of hostilities — ahead of last weekend’s meetings, for example, even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemed to think a deal was a long way off, saying his goal was “de-escalation… not a big trade deal.”
Clearly, the Chinese were more willing to negotiate than many expected — Beijing signed on to a joint statement that referenced a “spirit of mutual opening, continued communication, cooperation, and mutual respect.” That’s quite a different message than we heard last month, when the Chinese were calling the U.S. bullies who would be made to pay. As more proof of the improvement in relations, the two sides also agreed to establish a formal process for streamlined trade talks in the future, including using a third country as a mediator.
However: The Trump administration has made clear that while it is willing to open up the flow of certain Chinese goods, it wants to break U.S. reliance on essential imports like weapons, technology, and pharmaceuticals.
“The United States will continue a strategic rebalancing in many areas that were exposed as supply chain weaknesses during COVID,” Secretary Bessent <a href="https://x.com/CookedGooseinFL/status/1921880651646611609">said</a> on Monday. “Whether it’s medicines, whether it’s semi-conductors, steel … we will continue moving towards U.S. independence or reliable supplies from allies.”
Following news of the deal, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 1000 points, the S&amp;P 500 rose more than 3%, erasing all its losses from last month, and the NASDAQ shot up more than 4%, marking a 20% increase from its recent low in April.
<h2>&#8220;Flying Palace&#8221; To Replace Air Force One?</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-919345" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_33_26.Still003.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_33_26.Still003.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_33_26.Still003-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: Trump is off to the Middle East this week for what the White House promises to be a trip of dealmaking and diplomacy. But the president’s trip is off to a controversial start thanks to a story about a $400 million Qatari airplane.
On Sunday, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-poised-accept-palace-sky-gift-trump/story?id=121680511">ABC News</a> reported that the Qatari royal family planned to give Trump a $400 million super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet described as a “floating palace.” The plane would reportedly be available for Trump to use in lieu of Air Force One by the end of his term, and then – according to some initial reports – transferred to his presidential library. Trump says it’s merely the Qataris helping the United States replace Air Force One, which is 40 years old, and, according to Trump, in need of some serious upgrades. Speaking to reporters before departing for the Middle East yesterday, Trump said the Qataris knew Boeing had delayed production of the new jet he wanted, and stepped in to help.
“I think that was a very nice gesture,” the president <a href="https://x.com/factpostnews/status/1921942334930907441">said</a>. &#8220;Now, I could be a stupid person and say &#8216;Oh no, we don’t want a free plane&#8217; … I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer.”
However, not everyone sees this as just a goodwill gesture. Qatar is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, and uses its wealth to gain influence in the United States – and many, many other countries. It frequently invites politicians on luxurious, state-funded junkets to the Middle East. But that influence-buying sparks suspicion, because Qatar also uses its oil money to bankroll Hamas terrorists and Middle Eastern news powerhouse Al Jazeera. The country has also been accused of a lengthy list of human rights violations, so any collaboration with the Qataris is bound to raise some eyebrows.
Notable MAGA loyalists, including pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer, were quick to <a href="https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1921615017138618439">condemn</a> the decision, warning that accepting the plane was bad optics at best, and a security risk at worst. Trump, for his part, is staying on the offensive, calling accusations of conflict of interest “fake news.”
Qatar’s media attaché to the United States has been making the rounds since the ABC story broke, telling reporters that the aircraft transfer would only be used temporarily, and that nothing has been finalized yet.

MorningWire-0428-2

Morning Brief: Qatar Force One And Trump’s ‘Consequential’ Drug Price Plan

Communist China

Media

Morning Wire

Qatar

President Donald Trump on Monday morning signed an executive order to significantly reduce pharmaceutical drug prices for Americans.
The directive, Trump stressed, will bring fairness to Americans and cut out &#8220;the middlemen&#8221; to bring prices down so citizens will start to pay prices comparable to other developed nations.
&#8220;Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the drug prices of other countries,&#8221; the president said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve been subsidizing drug prices for the rest of the world, not just the European Union.&#8221;
By implementing a policy called &#8220;Most Favored Nation,” Trump said the U.S. is &#8220;gonna pay the lowest price there is in the world. We&#8217;re no longer paying ten times more than another country.&#8221;
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was with Trump at a press conference on Monday morning, said that other nations, particularly those in the European Union, must chip in for research and development. Kennedy said raising their prices by just 20% would dramatically reduce costs in the United States.
Trump teased the executive order Sunday night on Truth Social, saying it would reduce prices by up to 80%.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
JUST IN: PRESIDENT TRUMP&#8217;S &#8220;MOST IMPORTANT AND IMPACTFUL&#8221; TRUTH EVER ISSUED ⬇️
&#8220;I am pleased to announce that Tomorrow morning, in the White House, at 9:00 A.M., I will be signing one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history&#8230;.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/YfyKzked0S">pic.twitter.com/YfyKzked0S</a>
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1921695676032856313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
During Trump&#8217;s first term, he introduced a regulation for certain cancer drugs and others to be the same price as they were abroad. The Biden administration, however, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-says-he-will-sign-executive-order-aimed-at-lowering-drug-prices-2a5b9b28" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abandoned</a> the regulation after a court struck it down on procedural grounds.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt discussed the order on Monday, saying online that other presidents &#8220;merely talked about addressing this problem – but President Trump is taking bold action to finally solve it and deliver a good deal for American families and seniors.&#8221;
&#8220;President Trump is signing a historic Executive Order to significantly reduce drug prices for Americans,&#8221; she posted on X. &#8220;This EO will help bypass costly middlemen and bring the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs in line with those paid by other nations.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
President Trump is signing a historic Executive Order to significantly reduce drug prices for Americans.
This EO will help bypass costly middlemen and bring the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs in line with those paid by other nations.
Other Presidents merely talked… <a href="https://t.co/KTD37JonpH">pic.twitter.com/KTD37JonpH</a>
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1921907172528607564?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
White House Health Policy Adviser Calley Means, the brother of surgeon general nominee Casey Means, promoted the order online, posting on X, &#8220;The U.S. is less than 5% of the world’s population but produces 75% of worldwide pharma profits. That’s not the free market. It&#8217;s rank corporate capture.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The U.S. is less than 5% of the world’s population but produces 75% of worldwide pharma profits.
That’s not the free market. Its rank corporate capture.
— Calley Means (@calleymeans) <a href="https://twitter.com/calleymeans/status/1921923593090248806?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;&#8216;Price controls&#8217; would assume we have a free market in healthcare. It is not a free market when America, the largest purchaser of drugs in the world, pays 10 more for major drugs from American companies than Germany,&#8221; Means commented, responding to criticism of the order. &#8220;That’s corruption.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“Price controls” would assume we have a free market in healthcare.
It is not a free market when America, the largest purchaser of drugs in the world, pays 10 more for major drugs from American companies than Germany.
That’s corruption.
— Calley Means (@calleymeans) <a href="https://twitter.com/calleymeans/status/1921901461132243425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
The order follows another directive signed by Trump on May 5, which seeks to reduce the regulatory burden on the domestic production of critical medicines.
&#8220;One key area of concern is the length of time it takes to build pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in the United States today,&#8221; the order <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/regulatory-relief-to-promote-domestic-production-of-critical-medicines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reads</a>. &#8220;New construction must navigate myriad Federal, State, and local requirements ranging from building standards and zoning restrictions to environmental protocols that together diminish the certainty needed to generate investment for large manufacturing projects.&#8221;
The order notes that estimates suggest building new pharmaceutical manufacturing plants &#8220;may take as long as 5 to 10 years, which is unacceptable from a national security standpoint.&#8221;
Within 180 days, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will take action to &#8220;update regulations and guidance that apply to the inspection and approval of new and expanded manufacturing capacity of pharmaceutical products, active pharmaceutical ingredients, key starting materials, and associated raw materials in the United States to eliminate any duplicative or unnecessary requirements and maximize the timeliness and predictability of agency review,&#8221; the order notes.

Trump Signs Order To Reduce Drug Prices, Tells Rest Of World To Pay Up

Trump Signs Order To Dramatically Reduce Drug Prices, Tells Rest Of World To Pay Up

Business

Prices

President Donald Trump said Sunday he will sign an executive order that will reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals “almost immediately by 30% to 80%.”
Trump announced the move in a post on Truth Social. The order aims to bring “FAIRNESS TO AMERICA” by lowering drug costs in the United States while raising them throughout the rest of the world.
“Therefore, I am pleased to announce that Tomorrow morning, in the White House, at 9:00 A.M., I will be signing one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114491534347862682" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
“I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World,” he said. “Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before. Additionally, on top of everything else, the United States will save TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS.”
The plan to link the cost of drugs in the United States to the cost of drugs in foreign countries comes after the president announced last month that he plans to enact “major” tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
“We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals,” Trump <a href="https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/trump-major-tariffs-pharmaceuticals-coming-europe/744829/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the National Republican Congressional Committee. “And once we do that, they’re going to come rushing back into our country because we’re the big market.”
In the United States, drugs are significantly more costly than elsewhere in the world. On average, prices in the United States are ​​2.78 times higher than those seen in 33 other nations, according to a 2024 Rand Corporation <a href="https://www.rand.org/news/press/2024/02/01.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>.
For brand name drugs, the price difference is even starker: “The gap between prices in the United States and other countries is even larger for brand-named drugs, with U.S. prices averaging 4.22 times those in comparison nations.”
Some of the contributing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/health/us-drug-prices.html">factors</a> to high drug costs in the United States are the lack of transparency in drug prices and the prevalence in foreign countries of having centralized government negotiators haggling over the cost of pharmaceuticals.

Trump Teases ‘Most Consequential Executive Order In Our Country’s History’

U.S.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday aimed at slashing out-of-control health care costs by attempting to remove inefficient government practices and encourage more competitive drug pricing.
The executive orders take a wide swath of actions that are intended to improve the Medicare negotiating system, increasing the &#8220;competition for high-cost prescriptions drugs,&#8221; and lowering the cost of insulin for low-income individuals. In a press call attended by The Daily Wire, a White House official said that &#8220;every action&#8221; laid out in the executive order is &#8220;meant to improve the efficiency of drug pricing in the United States.&#8221;
&#8220;My first term included numerous significant actions, including some of the most aggressive in recent history, to deliver lower prescription drug prices to American patients,&#8221; Trump wrote in the executive order. &#8220;The message was clear:  no longer would the executive branch sit idly by as pharmaceutical manufacturers charged patients in our Nation more than those in other countries for the exact same prescription drugs, often made in the exact same places.&#8221;
While House officials said that the executive order was intended to leverage &#8220;current programs to deliver meaningful cost saving.&#8221;
One of the goals of the executive order is to ensure that Medicare is getting the same prices that various providers are paying.
&#8220;Hospitals often get heavily discounted drugs, sometimes it&#8217;s as low as 35% lower, below what Medicare is paying,&#8221; a White House Official said. &#8220;There will be instructions in the EO to do a survey and then contemplate rule-making on how to align Medicare payment with the costs of acquisition.&#8221;
Part of the order includes updating the Medicare drug price negotiation program, and White House officials say they expect to &#8220;eclipse&#8221; savings from the Biden administration during the same time frame. The administration&#8217;s goal is to have 22% savings in the program&#8217;s first year, according to a fact sheet from the White House.
The administration also hopes to standardize Medicare payments for prescription drugs, including cancer treatments, &#8220;regardless of where the treatment is administered,&#8221; the White House said.
The Food and Drug Administration is also directed in the order to &#8220;streamline&#8221; approval of generic drugs and facilitate more importation of drugs from other countries like Canada. The executive order also commissions a report on &#8220;anti-competitive&#8221; behavior from pharmaceutical companies.
Another one of the key provisions of the executive order is resurrecting a program from the first Trump administration that officials say will allow low-income individuals and people without health insurance to get insulin as low as three cents a vial and $15 for injectable epinephrine from qualified providers through the 340b program. This program allows certain health care providers to purchase drugs at significantly reduced rates.
&#8220;What the executive order does is resurrect something that we had pursued last term, which is to ensure that those 340b discounts are being passed through for insulin and epipens to low-income individuals,&#8221; a White House official said on Tuesday. &#8220;I think that many of you are familiar with the fact that in some cases the 340b program, the acquisition cost of things like insulin are literally pennies on the dollar.&#8221;
That 340b program for insulin and epinephrine was <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/16/2021-12545/proposed-rescission-of-executive-order-13937-executive-order-on-access-to-affordable-life-saving" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ended</a> by the Biden administration, which argued that it would raise prices for health care providers and &#8220;undue administrative costs.&#8221;
Health care costs have continued to skyrocket and have only worsened since former President Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress passed &#8220;Obamacare.&#8221;

President Trump Meets With Visiting Israeli PM Netanyahu At The White House

Trump Moves To Increase Competition In Pharma, Lower Cost Of Prescription Drugs

Imagine that an executive of a major corporation sits down for dinner at a restaurant. Unbeknownst to him, it&#8217;s a sting operation. Everything he says is being recorded. Very quickly, in order to impress someone he thinks is interested in him, the executive confesses that his company is lying to the American public. In secret, the executive says, they&#8217;re thinking about conducting extremely dangerous medical experiments within the borders of the United States — and these experiments are similar to the ones in Wuhan that led to the COVID pandemic. Then the executive admits that government regulators aren&#8217;t scrutinizing these experiments as much as they should, for the simple reason that they don&#8217;t want to jeopardize their potential future job opportunities at the corporation. And then imagine that, once the executive realizes he&#8217;s on camera and that he&#8217;s just confessed to a fraud on the American public, he begins screaming and crawling on the floor of the restaurant. In his hysteria, he pushes people away, tries to hide his face, and ultimately runs away. He demonstrates a clear consciousness of guilt, in other words.
What do you think the end result of this kind of episode might be? In a rational world, you might expect, at a minimum, that this executive would be fired, and that his company would immediately be investigated — both by the government, and by every media organization in the country. After all, it&#8217;s not every day that a corporate executive admits that his company is working on research that could cause another pandemic. He also just divulged trade secrets on camera, which you&#8217;d think would upset his bosses.
But in reality, none of those things happened. 
The situation I just described took place in early 2023, when Project Veritas secretly filmed a senior official in Pfizer&#8217;s research and development division. You might remember that whole episode. Pfizer came out and denied, essentially, that the executive had meant what he said. As far as we know, the company took no action against him. In the end, Pfizer, needless to say, did not suffer any significant consequences. They remain one of the largest and most profitable corporations on the planet. But incredibly, the people who exposed the Pfizer executive didn&#8217;t fare so well. It was like Pfizer pulled a Reverse Uno card. 
For one thing, Project Veritas did not survive. It collapsed soon afterwards. So did the one show on cable news that covered Project Veritas&#8217; reporting, Fox News&#8217; &#8220;Tucker Carlson Tonight.&#8221; They were taken off the air shortly after covering the Pfizer sting operation, for reasons that remain officially undisclosed. To restate: Less than five months after a Pfizer executive was exposed and humiliated on camera, everyone who talked about the scandal was deplatformed. Meanwhile the executive went back to work.
If you wanted to illustrate the extraordinary power that the pharmaceutical industry has in this country, you&#8217;d be hard pressed to find a better example. One way or another, people who criticize them tend to lose their platforms. That&#8217;s a level of protection that very few other corporations have, regardless of their financial situation. Tesla, for example, is about ten times the size of Pfizer by market cap. And as we all know, they&#8217;re subjected to constant media attacks. So what is it about the pharmaceutical industry, specifically, that makes them so hard to criticize?
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1563-member-exclusive">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
The leading theory, which we&#8217;ve talked about before, is that companies like Pfizer essentially buy off the media. You can&#8217;t watch Fox or CNN or MSNBC without seeing an ad from the pharmaceutical industry. In total, the pharmaceutical industry <a href="https://substack.com/home/post/p-159740117?utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spends</a> something like $5 billion on advertising every year — which in some years, is <a href="https://marylandmatters.org/2024/01/19/report-finds-some-drug-manufacturers-spend-more-on-advertising-executives-salaries-than-new-research/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more</a> than they spend on research and development. And a lot of this spending is concentrated on news stations. As the journalist Kyle Becker reported on his Substack, &#8220;Nearly 31% of ad minutes on major nightly news broadcasts in 2024 came from pharmaceutical brands.&#8221; If you watch any amount of cable news, you know that figure is probably accurate. Turn the television on, and you&#8217;ll probably see one of these ads within five minutes. These are among the most lucrative ad purchases — pushing drugs like Ozempic, Skyrizi, &#8220;Vyvgart Hytrulo,&#8221; and so on. Naturally, that kind of spending leads to favorable coverage. Big Pharma doesn&#8217;t even need to establish any kind of quid pro quo, or request anything from the news networks. It&#8217;s just generally understood that, if you&#8217;re working for one of these networks, you should go easy on the pharma giants.
This dynamic is one of the reasons why a lot of people took notice recently, on hearing the news that RFK Jr. and the HHS had supposedly implemented a total ban on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising. Those reports turned out to be inaccurate, at least for the time being. But RFK Jr. has pledged to implement a similar ban in the past. And he&#8217;s been very clear about his reasoning. While he was campaigning for Trump last year, and while he was leading his own presidential bid, for example, RFK Jr. made the point that pharmaceutical advertising has compromised the news industry. He&#8217;s also said that, in part because of these advertisements, Americans spend far more on prescription drugs than pretty much every other major country. By some estimates we spend more than twice as much.
And it&#8217;s logical to conclude that advertising plays some role in those numbers. When people see an advertisement for a new prescription drug, they&#8217;re more likely to tell their doctor they want it, as opposed to a cheaper generic brand. Keep in mind, only two countries on the planet allow direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising: the United States and New Zealand. The vast majority of the civilized world has rejected this kind of marketing. And one of the obvious consequences of this carve-out for big pharma is that they sell a lot more drugs to people who otherwise wouldn&#8217;t pay for them. They wouldn&#8217;t spend $5 billion a year on advertisements if that weren&#8217;t true. (And this isn&#8217;t even getting into Big Pharma advertisements and solicitations that target physicians and other professionals).
Just to give one example, in 2022, the manufacturer of the drug Skyrizie, AbbVie, spent around $229 million advertising the drug that year. The next year, AbbVie decided to increase its advertising budget for the drug by more than double. And the results were clear: drug sales went up to $7.8 billion, an increase of roughly 50% year-over-year. There was no major FDA approval that occurred in this period. The drug&#8217;s formula didn&#8217;t change in some way. Instead, more people heard about it, so more people asked their doctors for it. And by the way, the vast majority of the $7.8 billion came from customers in the United States, because they&#8217;re pretty much the only people seeing the advertisements.
This advertising exemption, of course, is just one of several carve-outs that Big Pharma enjoys in this country. It&#8217;s also nearly impossible to sue them when one of their vaccines ends up hurting or killing you, thanks to a federal law passed three decades ago. But the advertising carve-out is one of the most important ones, because it has a lot of downstream effects that aren&#8217;t immediately obvious. One of those effects is that the ads increase the price of the drugs. When billions of dollars are spent on advertising, inevitably that cost will be passed on to the consumers. This is basic economics and common sense, and doctors see it everyday. As far back as a decade ago — when direct-to-consumer advertising was much less common than it is today — the American Medical Association noticed the problem. They voted to ban all direct-to-consumer advertising.
The chair of the AMA, a woman named Patrice Harris, announced that, “Today’s vote in support of an advertising ban reflects concerns among physicians about the negative impact of commercially-driven promotions, and the role that marketing costs play in fueling escalating drug prices. Direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate.”
It&#8217;s true that, by law, these advertisements have to list all of the potential side effects. Invariably, they rattle them off at the end of the commercial, and they do it so quickly that you can&#8217;t really tell what&#8217;s happening in some cases. Pretty much everyone ignores these disclaimers at this point, because they all end up sounding like a bizarre list of horrible afflictions, always ending in death or paralysis or something catastrophic. You can watch an ad for Claritin and they&#8217;ll tell you that the side effects could include getting hit by a train or something. It&#8217;s almost as if the drugmakers have trained us to become numb to all of these potential side effects, and to think they&#8217;re all extremely rare and unlikely to occur.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a></h3>
That&#8217;s because, even with the often comically long disclaimer at the end of these drug commercials, the ads still don&#8217;t do enough to emphasize the potential side effects and dangers of the drugs. They don&#8217;t discuss the relative risk of every side effect, or how common they are, for example. And that makes sense because ads — regardless of who&#8217;s making them — are meant to manipulate and create an emotional response in a very short period of time. That&#8217;s fine when you&#8217;re selling cars or clothing or whatever. But it just shouldn&#8217;t be the way medical treatments are presented to the public. People should consult with professionals when they&#8217;re seeking these treatments, instead of watching paid actors sing a song about it.
But pharmaceutical ads, by design, short-circuit this process. They allow Big Pharma companies to sell the disease, not just the cure. They convince people that they have such-and-such a disorder and enlist them to go to their doctor and request the drug to treat it. This is totally backwards. You&#8217;re supposed to go to the doctor with your symptoms, not with a wishlist of drugs you want to receive. Pharma ads have helped to turn doctors into glorified drug dealers. About a dozen studies bear this out. Patients who go to the doctor and say &#8220;I saw an ad for Paxlovid&#8221; or &#8220;I saw an ad for Prozac&#8221; are a lot more likely to get that drug, than a patient who simply presents with depression-related symptoms. And on top of that, these advertisements have also contributed to the perception that, whatever problem you might have — whether it&#8217;s depression, or &#8220;feeling like you&#8217;re in the wrong body,&#8221; or whatever — that a drug from Big Pharma can be the solution. As we&#8217;ve discussed, this is a sentiment that has ruined the lives of thousands of people, including children.
Part of the reason this perception has been allowed to fester, as Liz Wheeler pointed out the other day, is that there&#8217;s no critical reporting on Big Pharma in the mainstream press. The pharmaceutical industry is allowed to buy billions of dollars&#8217; worth of advertising, which presents them as the solution to everyone&#8217;s problems. And then the press — along with many scientific institutions that also receive money from Big Pharma— don&#8217;t have any incentive to contradict the narrative. If and when HHS does ban these advertisements, then suddenly, that incentive will reappear. Very quickly, corporate media will fail, because they&#8217;ll be deprived of most of their advertising revenue. And in their place will be a slew of investigations by actual journalists into the various grotesque abuses of power by the medical establishment in recent years — on everything from gender ideology to the COVID shot.
As of right now, again, it appears that the reports were wrong about an imminent ban on these direct-to-consumer advertisements. But there are reasons to think that RFK Jr. and HHS are still planning to implement one. If that comes to pass — and there are indicators it will — then it would inevitably set up a major legal battle between Big Pharma and the federal government on First Amendment grounds. They will claim that they have the constitutional right to flood the airwaves with sales pitches for extremely potent medications that could ruin your life. But they don&#8217;t have that right, any more than the local drug dealer does. If RFK Jr. can win this fight, then in one fell swoop, he will destroy the corporate press, save billions of dollars for Americans, and usher in a new era of skepticism for an industry that badly needs it. He would be the single most consequential HHS secretary in the history of this country. All he needs to do is what pretty much every country in the world is already doing, which is to tell Big Pharma to get off our televisions.

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