TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Leslie Dach and Brad Woodhouse, Protect Our Care
DATE: September 1, 2026
SUBJECT: Trump Has Done Nothing But Sell Out Americans To Enrich Big Drug Companies

No President has done more to enrich big drug companies and gaslight Americans on prescription drug costs than Donald Trump. While Trump makes false claims and waves misleading headlines on drug prices in front of reporters, millions of families are rationing doses, skipping refills, and diving deeper into their savings to afford prescriptions. Aside from marketing schemes and empty promises, Trump and Republicans have done nothing to lower drug prices for patients. The facts speak for themselves: 

Trump Keeps the Handouts Coming for Corporations and Hikes Costs for Everyone Else

Trump has done nothing but put industry profits and his wealthy friends before lowering costs for the American people. Trump entertained drug company executives at his Mar-a-Lago resort before returning to office, solicited millions in donations, then spent the past year handsomely rewarding Big Pharma for their support. Trump helped big drug companies evade billions in taxes, escape tariffs, and exempt their top-selling products from drug price negotiations. He padded drugmakers’ profits by an additional $15 billion with a special tax break, expanded the tax break through the IRS, and gave Big Pharma an additional $9 billion gift at the expense of seniors and taxpayers. He carried out an executive order that read like an industry wishlist, launched a listening tour for company executives instead of working people, fast-tracked drug approvals for special interests, and pushed for more industry giveaways.

While he showered Big Pharma with gifts and distracted the public with sham announcements, Trump worked behind the scenes to raise costs for patients. In the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” he handed Big Pharma their biggest victory in years by signing an $8.8 billion bailout designed to carve out top-selling products, such as lifesaving cancer drugs Keytruda and Opdivo, from Medicare drug price negotiation. Per The Wall Street Journal: “Thousands of Medicare recipients will have to wait longer to get some price relief on the expensive cancer drugs they depend on for treatment, while others might not get any reprieve at all.” These seniors will pay thousands more each year for drugs that treat cancer, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis thanks to Trump. To add insult to injury, Trump terminated a program that would allow seniors to purchase generic drugs for $2, eliminated the FDA office tasked with speeding approvals of cheaper generic drugs, and hiked the cost of prescription drug coverage for millions of seniors. Under Trump, drug companies are lining their pockets with record-breaking revenues while everyday Americans pay the price.

Read Protect Our Care’s Report: Greed Watch: Big Drug Companies Make Record-Breaking Sales While Seniors With Cancer Get Sold Out Thanks to Donald Trump

TrumpRx Is An Utter Joke And His Backroom “Deals” Are Smoke and Mirrors

Trump is gaslighting the millions of Americans who are forced to skip prescriptions and ration doses every day with bogus claims that his sham deals and dressed-up coupon site are saving Americans “1000%,” “$700 million,”“$500 billion,” and bringing people “the lowest prices in the world” on drugs.  The painful truth couldn’t be clearer: most Americans aren’t saving a penny from Trump’s dog-and-pony drug pricing show. More Americans than ever before are struggling with the cost of prescription drugs. GoodRx, the vendor behind the TrumpRx website, admitted that the website’s “utilization appears to be incremental” and “has not had a material impact on our business to date.” His latest Medicaid drug pricing scheme will not benefit families since they already pay almost nothing for drugs and will soon be forced to pay hundreds more out-of-pocket for health care, if they do not lose their coverage altogether, thanks to Trump’s health care cuts. Drug companies celebrate Trump’s scam deals at shareholder calls, boasting about how they escaped tariffs and more legitimate efforts to lower prices. Analysts spoke of how the deals are “immaterial” to drug companies’ bottom lines and “likely a win for the pharmaceutical industry.” The industry’s worst-kept secret is that Trump’s “deals” are nothing but smoke and mirrors that benefit big drug companies more than working families.  

Read Protect Our Care’s Fact Sheet: 10 Reasons Why TrumpRx Is an Utter Joke

Trump and Republicans Profit From Prescription Drug Industry Corruption But Can’t Fool the American People

While Trump and Republicans in Congress pad industry profits with handout after handout, raking in corporate donations in return isn’t enough to satisfy them. They are doubling down on their greed by investing in the same pharmaceutical companies making windfalls from their policies. Trump bought up to $680,000 in Eli Lilly stock this year just as the company stands to rake in profits from Medicare coverage of their GLP-1 drugs. Trump’s GLP-1 Bridge program is expected to be a huge windfall to Eli Lilly, leave behind many of the seniors who need the drug the most, and offer only temporary assistance to those who qualify. Republican lawmakers in Congress also invested $1.8 million in drug companies in the first six months of the Trump administration, betting on the passage of their giant $9 billion handout exempting or delaying companies’ bestselling drugs from Medicare drug price negotiation.