TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Announces Deals to Lower Some Prescription Drug Prices, 11.06.25
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President Donald Trump: Well, this is very exciting because, again, we're bringing drug prices down to levels nobody ever thought was possible, tremendous cuts, 200 percent, 300 percent, 500 percent, 700 percent and even more than that. So, today, I'm thrilled to announce that the two world's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have agreed to offer their most popular GLP-1 weight loss drug. I go with de facto, remember -- at drastic discounts, they are really effective drugs and so far I've never heard anything bad about them; I only hear good about them. Is there anything bad about them, Bobby? I don't know. I haven't heard anything. Someday maybe it'll come out, which we'll notify you immediately, but so far I haven't heard that.
Including the drugs known as Zepbound and Wegovy, often called Ozempic, is a triumph for American patients that will save lives and improve the health of millions and millions of Americans. Amazing thing, they are amazing. I want to thank Eli Lilly's CEO, David Ricks, a friend of mine. We've worked long and hard. He and I got this whole thing started in a way. And Novo Nordisk CEO, Mike Doustdar, for joining us today, great talented people. They make a lot of money. I looked at their money, but they're entitled to the money because the companies are doing very well. Along with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary Howard Lutnick. Do you take any of this stuff, Howard?
Howard Lutnick: Not yet?
Trump: OK. So, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, he doesn't take it. Food and Drug Administrator -- Commissioner Marty Makary and Director of Medicare, Chris Klomp. And we have Steve -- where's Steve? Is he here? Head of Public Relations for the White House. He's taking it. The United States has just 4 percent of the world's population and consumes only 13 percent of all prescription drugs. Yet pharmaceutical companies make 75 percent of their profits from the American customer. I would say that's not so good, right? It's not exactly great. To address this chronic unfairness, I signed an executive order earlier this year instructing my administration to do everything in our power to implement most favored nations drug pricing, something that has been helped greatly by tariffs because when nations refuse to do it -- we should have put this in the case yesterday.
I just say, well, if you're not going to do it, we're going to charge you a like amount of tariffs. And they immediately say we'll do it, which means that Americans should pay no more than the lowest price offered anywhere in the world. So, that you've heard for years the disparity where you'll pay $150 for a pill in New York and you'll pay $10 for a pill in London. Now you're going to pay $20 both, because the world is a little bit bigger than the US, so it goes up that way. But you'll pay $20 and $20, a tremendous advantage to our country after years of being abused by the world system. Already Pfizer, AstraZeneca and EMD Serono have agreed to drastically lower their prices for American patients.
And today, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are joining the phenomenal list of the most exciting announcements. I mean, nobody's ever had announcements like -- and this has to do with other pharmaceutical products also. But we're covering this today because it's such a big seller. I guess it's the number one selling thing there is today. These are two companies that are behind the groundbreaking weight loss drugs that have helped millions of Americans struggling with obesity live better, longer lives, everything else. These are the two companies that really broke ground. Until now neither of these two popular drugs have been covered by Medicare for weight loss and they've only rarely been covered by Medicaid.
They've often cost consumers more than $1,000 per month and some are a lot more than that. Americans have been spending as much as 520 percent more for Zepbound and 1,400 percent more for Wegovy than patients in Europe. Think of that, 1,400 percent more than a patient here for the exact same box. And that ends starting today. The other countries are not happy with us. I don't think they like me too much, Bobby, but that's OK. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are committing to offer Zepbound and Wegovy at most favored nations rates for American patients. This will slash the cost of Wegovy from $1,350 a month to ultimately $250 a month, $1,350 to $250. Did I do a good job?
They don't write about it. You know, they like to not write these things. And do you think anybody -- you think Biden could have done this? I don't think so, and reduce the monthly cost of Zepbound from $1,080 to $346. In addition, they're both committing that future GLP-1 weight loss drugs taken orally, which are currently under development, will be sold at no more than $149 per month. It's a massive -- think of that, you go from $1,300 to $149 a month. We anticipate these new versions will be coming out in a very short period of time. All of these drugs will be available directly to the consumer at TrumpRx.gov. Trump -- they wanted to use my name -- Trump -- it'd better be good -- TrumpRx.gov, and I think it's turning out to be pretty amazing, right, Oz? Just as significantly, Medicare and Medicaid will finally cover the cost of these weight loss drugs for millions of patients suffering from obesity.
Co-pays for Medicare patients will be as low as $50. This is tremendous savings. I mean, now you're talking about from $1,350 to $50. This is tremendous news for the American seniors. And you all remember when I had one-eighth of 1 percent for the year, I cut it one-eighth, and I was so thrilled, but now we're cutting it 1,000 percent, 1,200 percent. Nobody's ever seen anything like this. Nobody else could have done it but I say that modestly. In addition, you think it was easy dealing with these people? It wasn't. Do you think it was easy saying your drug, Mr. Eli Lilly, that was selling for $1,300 is going to be sold for $250. You know the amazing thing?
The stocks all went up. I mean, these guys are -- they're fantastic because it's going to equalize the world. The world's a bigger place and it's going to equalize. I was a little surprised to see that, but I'm happy about it. In addition, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have agreed to provide all of their other medications to Medicaid at most favored nations prices. Most favored nations, meaning that you will pay the lowest price anywhere in the world. That's what you're going to pay. Whereas before they paid low prices that we've paid, you know, thousands of percentile ahead more. And to sell these drugs to all consumers at deeply discounted prices via TrumpRx.com. When is TrumpRx.com opening?
Mehmet Oz: The site is open, it will launch in terms of giving people prices before the end of the year.
Trump: Good. Got to make sure it's successful, it's got my name on it. I don't want to be like so many others. I don't want to be like the train they're building in California, [Laughter] which has about a 15,000 percent cost overrun, or the Obama, the beautiful Obama building that he's building in Chicago for the museum, which is now shuttered up and dead. They got it up and they couldn't finish, it's about would you say five years behind schedule and about 2,000 percent over budget. Then he tells us how to run Medicaid. Many of the most widely used drugs will be available for 60 percent off or even more than that. In addition, all new medications introduced by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to the American market will be sold at the heavily reduced most favored nations price.
Most favored nations price, that's the best, because they have been thousands of percent lower than what we were selling in many cases. Furthermore, Eli Lilly is investing $27 billion, that's all? And Novo Nordisk will invest $10 billion. That's all? That's peanuts, in the United States to reshore -- do a big domestic manufacturing job in the facilities. They're going to spend -- so Eli Lilly spent $27 billion, Novo is spending $10 billion in the United States. So they're building new plant and equipment. That's part of what will be $20 or $21 trillion this year. There's never been anything like it. I know nobody talks about it, but there's never been anything like it. I would say, you would say that there's never been anything like this, ever.
Whether it's China or Europe or you could take all of Europe, there's never been anything like this. So we're already past $17 trillion. We're going to be -- I think by the time the year closes out, we'll have investments of over $21 trillion, based on the way we're going. And -- and by the way, tariffs are very important. Without tariffs, perhaps it could be a little bit different, to put it mildly. Tariffs are so important. The decision in the Supreme Court would be devastating to our country if we got a negative, devastating if we got a negative decision. But this is a great day for American health and healthcare and for all of American patients.
These are things that are miracles to have this happen and, you know, we're bringing all our medicines again because of terrorists -- we're bringing all our medicines. If you remember, we're -- during COVID, we made almost no medicine here. We had to go to China, we had to go to Ireland, we had to go to other places, UK, to get our medi -- we didn't make it here. Now we're making it. We'll soon be making it all here, again, because of tariffs and my election, but because of tariffs much more. For years, politicians have talked about making healthcare affordable, but my administration is actually doing it. Americans deserve the best healthcare in the world, and we're now getting the best healthcare at the lowest price.
So I'd like to ask somebody who's doing a fantastic job, Secretary Kennedy, to say a few words followed by Dr. Ross, Dr. Klomp and then Eli Lilly CEO, David Ricks; and Novo Nordisk CEO, Mike Doustdar. These are incredible stars in that business. Like, Doustdar is a big star, and I can tell you that David Ricks is one of the hottest people in the world in business. But the business that he's in is pharmaceutical and the job he's done with Eli Lilly is incredible. Both of these gentlemen, they're -- they really are stars in the truest sense. And it's an honor to have you in the White House and go to it. Bobby?
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to start by thanking you, Mr. President, for declaring war on chronic disease in this country.
Trump: This is something no American President has ever done. If we want to solve the chronic disease crisis, we have to tackle it, obesity. Obesity is the number one driver of chronic disease. 50 percent of our adult population are obese or overweight and it drives about 50 percent of healthcare costs in this country, diabetes, cardiac diseases. We are going to see a decline because of this historic agreement. We're going to see a decline in costs, but also more importantly, in the afflictions themselves. There are -- this is a -- President Trump is the friend of the forgotten American. Obesity is a disease of poverty, overwhelmingly. And this drug, these drugs have only been available for people who have wealth.
At one point, the majority of prescriptions, the highest concentration of prescriptions in this country was the Upper West Side of Manhattan. What about the people who live in rural areas, who live in food deserts? What about the people in urban areas who live in food deserts and are suffering from obesity and are locked into that system where they can only get ultra-processed foods which are aggravating the problem? This will be a life-saver to them. It's not a panacea. It's not a silver bullet. President Trump has also instructed us to address and end the root causes of chronic disease. And we're doing that. We're about to release dietary guidelines that are going to change the food culture in this country. They're going to change the kind of food the military gets.
They're going to change the kind of food that our children get. We're releasing those in December. The Presidential Council for Physical Fitness is going to get more Americans into -- particularly our children, into physical activity so that we can attack the root causes of this. In the meantime, there's nothing more important than we can do than lower this price. As I said, it is the number one cost of all drugs. This is the biggest drug in our country. That's why this is the most important of all the MFN announcements we've made. This is going to have the biggest impact on the American people. All Americans, even those who are not on Medicaid and Medicare are going to be able to get the same price for their drugs for their GLP drugs.
This happened because of the vision of David Ricks, of Mike Doustdar and the other people and the people on our team, who -- who figured out a way to align the interests of the -- The shareholders of their company with the health of the American public. And it is a momentous accomplishment. It took months and months of negotiations. And I had a wonderful conversation with Mike Doustdar about his experience. And he thanked me for the caliber of people who are on our side of the negotiating team. Chris Klomp, who walked away from $1 billion business in order to join this administration [Inaudible] Hernandez, David Brooks and of course Dr. Oz and Marty Makary who made this happen.
They saw that this could be a win-win situation, that this was not a zero-sum game. The Biden administration tried to solve this problem, unsuccessfully, I might add, by throwing $40 billion at it. They were able to achieve an agreement that will actually create savings for the American public. So we're making all of this available at a savings and that's because the price of diabetes prescriptions is also going to drop. And the savings that we get from that are now going to make it available to people who do not have diabetes. People who have a BMI of 27 and above who are pre-diabetic or have heart disease risk, they will be able to get it. But everybody will be able to get this drug and it is going to -- it's going to change.
We will lose -- the American public because of this agreement will lose 125 million pounds by this time next year. It is going to have dramatic effects on human health in this country and I want to thank President Trump for his leadership. He said that I've gotten a lot done as HHS secretary, but almost none of that is due to my ability. It's because I'm surrounded by people who are smarter than me, or more able than me and those people came into the administration because they were inspired by President Trump. People like Chris Klomp are here because they see this -- Do you think they are smarter than you [Inaudible]
Kennedy: Yeah, believe me, they're a lot smarter than I am.
Trump: [Inaudible] he doesn't really mean that. He's being modest.
Kennedy: It is true, unfortunately.
Trump: [Inaudible] Bobby. It's a beautiful thing.
Kennedy: But I want to thank you, Mr. President, because you've been able -- you've made me a success here by allowing me to attract these extraordinary people. And I want to again thank David Ricks, who we've been talking. We've been in this Oval Office again and again.
Trump: You keep saying is the smartest guy in industry, that he could talk a dog off a meat truck, but they came to the table. And Mike Doustdar told me, he said – [Inaudible] convince people for 20 years that it was OK for Europe to pay $10 and for America to pay $140. That's why they make $45 million, $50 million a year. They [ph] did. Finally, I said [Inaudible] right?
Mike Doustdar: You did.
Trump: I did. Anybody could do that, they're entitled, but now it's down to what it should be.
Kennedy: And Mike Doustdar told me what a pleasure it was to negotiate with people who were smart, who had commonsense, who were able to put themselves in his position and hammer out this deal that is good for everybody.
Trump: And it's great for the American public. I want to close again by just saying that this is a tool the tool kit.
Kennedy: It is not a silver bullet. It is an arrow in our quiver. It will allow a lot of people who are locked into high-risk obesity to finally lose weight, to reset and then start doing the kind of things that will address the root cause of obesity.
Trump: So, I want to thank these extraordinary CEOs for sticking with us on this, for allowing us to make this happen. Mike Doustdar said to me, he said we've known we've had to do this for many years; we just haven't been able to get over the edge. And that this -- President Trump's order, executive order, was the catalyst to do something that we always knew needed to be done. So, again, thank you for your vision, for your commitment, and thank you to all the CEOs and all of my team for making this historic agreement happen. Bobby, you haven't changed your view on Tylenol for women that are pregnant?
Kennedy: As I've said --
Trump: Because there were some false reports out about Tylenol that Bobby changed his view. I don't think he's changed his view.
Kennedy: I'm not going to change until the science changes and the science does not look like it's changing. It's getting stronger and stronger. Every day we recommend is that mothers, pregnant mothers talk to their physicians, that mothers of small kids talk to their physicians.
Trump: And we've advised the physicians to reduce the thresholds and to reduce the amount of Tylenol that they give to children as much as possible and only use it when it's absolutely critical. Thank you.
Oz: So, we're going to go through some of the deal points, but it does make itself clear that the real stake here is the forgotten man. President Trump, I believe you won the election because you remember the forgotten man, you speak to them, they hear you, they listen to you. And he connects well because he actually does things that materially change their lives.
Trump: Secretary Kennedy spoke passionately, as he always does, about the problems with obesity. And just to put some very fine point numbers on this -- obesity itself is responsible for half of all chronic disease and definitely generates more than a quarter of all the money we spend out of CMS, the $1.75 trillion that we spend annually. We need to address this tempest of dramatically increasing prices for health care and you're not going to do it just by throwing money at the problem. You have to actually literally deal with the causes of the increase in price. And pharmaceutical prices are part of that. They've been a part of it for a long time.
But this president insisted that we address it. In fact, the first time I heard this directly from you, sir, was in January at Mar-a-Lago where he took Secretary Kennedy, myself, Mr. Ricks, who you hear from in a second, to dinner and demanded explanations for most favored nation pricing and why, what's wrong with it. And there was not a good reason against it. Now MAHA is critical. America will have to get fit in order to right size the health care system and MAHA has the answers. It has obesity management through diet and exercise and sleep and dealing with issues related to that. And I want to say it as clear as I can -- obesity is not an absence of GLP-1 drugs. We're all clear on that.
But as Secretary Kennedy said, it is an arrow in our quiver that we must use and should use. The Maha movement means making it easier for the right things to happen, easier for you to be healthy. If you're sitting at home and watching, that's what MAHA means to me. Reducing costs of the number one most expensive medicine category in our country for Americans does just that. It is as MAHA as it gets. Today's the fourth MFM; President Trump highlighted the first three, leading US company leading European company. We've dropped infertility drugs to make lots of Trump babies I'm hoping by the midterms. But it's really about fairness. Fundamentally, it's fairness in pricing to Americans who have been getting ripped off paying three times more than their European counterparts for the exact same product made in the same factory, in the same bottle, in the same packaging.
We shouldn't be paying three times more and we are no longer doing that. Fairness to the forgotten man also means dealing with the reality that they can afford a life-saving life-changing drug that 10 percent or more of affluent Americans take, but folks without means can't manage it. President -- Secretary Kennedy mentioned New York City. Actually, the number one zip code is the Upper East Side, which is where you have property. And folks who know ritzy areas buy important real estate there because those real estate properties are worth a lot there. That should not be the number one zip code in America for purchasing GLP-1 drugs, it speaks to the fact that we have inherently innately unfair system that penalizes folks who could use these medications the most, folks in the Rust Belt.
And what are you supposed to do if you the right thing to do for your health is right there, but you can't afford to get it? Folks need to be able to utilize these life-saving medications. And being fair about its distribution is essential and we are democratizing -- democratizing access to these medications and dealing with a moral imperative to make sure that all Americans have access to avoiding all the obesity-related complications by making sure they can afford, if they do things right, not just MAHA appropriate interventions, but also medications like this. In fact, we think these deals -- and this part's very important, we believe these deals within two years -- within two years, by the time the ink dries on these contracts that were signed earlier today, within two years, based on our health improvements, we will be budget neutral. These drugs will not cost us money.
The American taxpayers will be getting their money back. That's how important it is for reducing -- for us to reduce the cost of health care in this country, especially when it's due to preventable problems like obesity. In addition, we have an update, Secretary Kennedy. We thought it was 125 million pounds. Mr. President, our estimate based on the company numbers as well is Americans will lose 135 billion [ph] pounds by the midterms, but I don't measure it in pounds. I measure it in save lives. People can sleep again because they can breathe when they go to bed. Folks whose knees don't hurt, people who don't have heart attacks, renal failure, dementia, all the things we know are associated with obesity and much more.
This wouldn't have happened if we didn't have the right tools and had the ability with a team that has been spoken of earlier. So, I want to call out Abe Sutton. He leads -- he's in the back right there. He leads the CMS Innovation Center. It made the deal possible, and they are announcing today a new model, a brand-new model aimed at getting to the vulnerable populations amongst us these medications. The forgotten man will be able to afford these drugs now. Governors will be thanking President Trump. They should be calling directly, sir, because they're going to be able to afford Medicaid next year in ways unimaginable, and they will stop crowding out education and other civil services. We cannot be a wealthy nation without being a healthy nation.
That's why today's MFN deal is a historic step forward for all of America. And this is something that I don't think is partisan. There is no way you can argue against what just happened. These numbers to my side here, next to Administrator Makary, who's been instrumental in this process as well, $1,350 baseline. Chris Klomp will go through the numbers, but just focus on that $245, which is what she's going to point you to. And Chris Klomp has been an unbelievable leader, an innovator. You've heard his name before, he's spoken here before, but he is continuing to change the face of CMS. And I love the fact that, with his leadership, we're bringing a lot of wonderful people in. Inma Hernandez, we mentioned John Brooks as well and many others including Beth Kelly, who runs the legal issues around these issues.
Because these guys are barracudas, Mr. President, they will take you down, slice you in little bits, and Howard's been there. It's no longer happening. You've got sharp folks. We're open for business. It's a generational opportunity to serve and people are showing up. God bless you. Let me introduce now Chris Klomp, who just makes my life easier every day. I'm so proud of him.
Chris Klomp: All great deals are rooted in principles. We've talked about this before and today we're announcing another truly great deal. I love this deal, and it's rooted in the principle of potential. This is about unlocking the full potential of every American, the grandmother, the grandfather, the father, the son by unlocking access to affordable life-saving medications that make a meaningful difference in their lives when they need them most. That's what today delivers. It's a deal built on principle for people, for the American people, and backed by policy that works. So, the most important step to getting healthy is believing that your life has value, that God meant for each of us to have purpose and joy and to live fully. And to do that, we must be good stewards of our body.
And the president has been fighting to provide another tool to do just this and enable this. And it's my pleasure to outline the contours of the deal today. So, first and foremost, customary with the three prior announcements, all of the customary most favored nation terms that you've grown familiar with apply to these two deals. So, this is actually deals four and five. Full Medicaid portfolios today at most favored nation prices. Shared savings from existing drug prices in Europe deployed back to the United States. All primary care drugs US net prices or most favored nation prices available on Trumprx before the end of the year.
And most importantly, all future drug launches across commercial, Medicaid, Medicare and the cash markets at most favored nation prices going forward. Now GLP-1s. So, first, under this agreement starting doses of oral GLP-1s will cost just $149 a month for everyone. That's roughly one-eighth the cost of the list price today. For Medicare, manufacturers are voluntarily reducing their prices for GLP-1s currently used for diabetes and other covered indications to $245 per month across all doses. The savings generated from this change in prices will be used to provide new coverage to obesity and those who struggle with obesity and also have high metabolic or cardiovascular risk, again, all for the same $245 a month.
That means Americans struggling with diabetes and obesity with heart disease or other chronic conditions can access these life-changing drugs more affordably. Medicare patients, importantly, will only pay $50 a month for a co-pay. This is a massive reduction from what happens today. For Medicaid, Novo and Lilly have agreed to extend the same new low government pricing to all 50 state Medicaid programs, should they opt in. And we encourage them to opt in and these will be available not just for diabetes and current covered indications but also for obesity, again.
And in case you're getting tired of me saying it at the same price of $245 a month, all covered doses. On TrumpRx, the average price of injectables and orals will start at $350 on average. That's compared to roughly $500 today. And that will trend down to, you guessed it, the same $245 a month over the next 24 months. That is one fifth of the list price. It is one half of the best price in the United States today. We're hoping, Mr. President, that your friend who has to travel to England to afford these drugs will no longer need to do so and can come and do it in the United States. I'll also just mention that the $149 is $1 less than what you asked us to achieve.
Just going to make sure that's clear. So I want to highlight two other really important points that make me love this deal so very much. First, this isn't about spending more, it's about spending smarter. The savings from the diabetes drug price reductions are being used in a cost-neutral way to fund the new indications for taxpayers. That's amazing, and that happens inside of that same 24-month period. It's cost neutral. We're spending the money more wisely. But second, this isn't just about lower drug prices for Americans, though it does do that. But together with physical activity, with healthy eating and diet and where appropriate, the use of breakthrough GLP-1s, the real return on investment is healthier Americans, lower chronic disease, lower costs, we estimate by tens of billions of dollars a year.
And most importantly, higher productivity. Today is about freeing Americans from the weight, literally and figuratively, that holds us back. It's about unlocking the potential of every citizen to live fully, to contribute fully and to find joy in their health. We cannot reach our full potential as a nation if we do not reach our full potential as individuals. And we cannot reach our full potential as individuals if we are not healthy. Thanks to Nova and Lilly for showing up so constructively over the last several months to make this possible. In particular, thanks to you, Mr. President, for again demonstrating that you fight for every American, this time for potential. It's now my sincere pleasure to first introduce Dave Ricks from Lilly and then Mike Doustdar from Novo.
David Ricks: Great. Thank you, Chris. It's truly an honor to be here today for this historic step forward, to expand access to a class of medications that can fundamentally change the arc of chronic disease in our country. Of course, these are the Incretin or GLP-1 agonists that we've been speaking about. For nearly 150 years, my company, Eli Lilly has been investing in America. We've been advancing science and creating high-value jobs, but today we -- oh, are you OK? Gordon, are you OK?
Klomp: Get a chair.
Aide: Press out.
Ricks: Yeah. OK. Let's take a break. Yeah.
Aide: Thank you press.
Note: [Gordon Findlay, a global brand director at Novo Nordisk, fainted at 12:35 pm. The White House said he recovered completely. The event resumed at 1:33 pm.]
Trump: Well, thank you very much. One of the Representatives of the companies -- one of the companies, got a little bit lightheaded. You saw he went down and he's fine, they just sent him out. He's got doctor's care, but he's fine. So, we had a little bit of an interruption, sorry for that. And I think we can just begin again with Eli Lilly. Thank you.
Ricks: Thank you, Mr. President. And again, I was saying it's an honor to be here because this action today will really begin to change the arc of chronic disease in our country. Lilly's a 150-year-old American company. And we're committed to advancing science, investing in research and building really high value jobs. But today, I want to start by thanking the many Lilly scientists who pioneered breakthroughs like the ones we're talking about today, breakthroughs like Tirzepatide or Zepbound. And also, our manufacturing people who work around the clock to make supply possible for this kind of landmark announcement. But medicine only is effective when people can access and afford it and that's what today's announcement delivers.
Thanks to the president's focus and the collaboration we had with so many people at HHS, we're able to solve a real problem for millions of American people. Nine years ago, when I started this job, I promised to read every letter a patient sent me, and back then there was hope for new treatments, but a lot of complaints about insulin pricing. So, while we did a number of things ourselves, it wasn't actually until I spoke to the president, this is in your first term. And you ordered the HHS team to work with us to really solve that problem. We prioritized it. We launched a copy of our own medicine at 90 percent off, and then we capped the price of insulin for Medicare patients at $35.
Trump: Biden tried to take credit for it.
Ricks: Yeah, that was in your first term.
Trump: Yeah, we did it and then it came through during the early part of his term, and he tried to take credit. So, we did the best we could to let him know that didn't happen. He got a little lucky, but I always said -- frankly, I said this is not good because statutorily, it had to wait a little while and it came out at $35 instead of some crazy amount, right, David? And they stood up and they said what a great job they did. No, that was done by Trump and Lilly.
Ricks: Yeah, so we solved a major problem together; it's now law. You know, today when I get mail, it's quite frequently from patients who are just having amazing success on our weight loss medications, but they too are finding it out of reach, particularly America's seniors in Medicare. So, this spring in this very office, I met with the president and Secretary Kennedy, Administrator Oz and others to figure out how to tackle this problem. And of course, unlocking obesity treatment is critical to chronic disease management, so is diet and exercise, but we wanted to open up that access for millions of Medicare beneficiaries and Medicaid as well. And again, the president saw this opportunity and he -- we left the room, and he asked us to solve it. So, seven months later we're here, Medicare coverage with a $50 cost to patients per month.
That's down from Medicare patients today, if they want access to our medicine, pay $500 a month out of pocket. Drug coverage is critical to health improvement. And we're not just treating the weight here, that's important, we're changing the course of chronic disease. Our medicine cut progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes by 94 percent after three years in major studies, and many studies have shown the benefits that Dr. Oz spoke about with cardiovascular risk reduction. This agreement also accelerates approval of a new treatment -- that are easier to take and highly effective like our once daily oral pill Orforglipron, and we have other treatments in development and those will be included along with other manufacturers' latest treatments when they become available. So, as drug coverage expands, so does choice, and data shows that medicines work differently for different people.
Some are better for some weight loss and weight maintenance, and we really believe that doctors and patients should choose the best option. So, it's important that this deal includes both of the leading innovators and manufacturers of this transformational new class of medicines. Medicare coverage is a milestone, but it's probably only the beginning. We call on states, on employers, on commercial insurers, even PBMs to join and expand coverage at affordable prices for all Americans. And Lilly stands ready to partner across the health care system to make that happen, just as we've achieved this partnership with Chris and Inma and John who helped us from CMS to make this day possible.
And we're anxious to get started with this. As early as April 1, this coverage can begin for our medicines and Novo's medicines. And I just want to say it's hard to overstate the impact of this day. It's really a turning point in the fight against chronic disease and a landmark achievement for President Trump and Secretary Kennedy as well as, of course, our company. But most importantly, it empowers people to take control of their own health, to eat well, to exercise, of course avoid harmful substances. And where appropriate, in consultation with your doctor, access affordable now obesity medications that are really a breakthrough. And we believe that when America is healthy, America is strong.
And at Lilly, our goal is the same here, to invest in science, invest in our country, deliver breakthrough medicines and reduce and then prevent chronic disease all to make our country strong for generations to come. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. President and I'll introduce Mike, my colleague.
Doustdar: Thank you so much.
Trump: Before we -- is Tom Emmer -- we have one of our great leaders here. Is he in the room?
Oz: Behind you.
Trump: Where is he? Tom? I was going to invite you up. How about Mrs. Emmer joining us, OK? The real boss, the real boss -- come on up, come on up. She's the real boss, she is. OK, please.
Doustdar: Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. President, Secretary Kennedy, Administrator Oz, FDA Commissioner Dr. Makary and the whole team. I'd like to especially thank Chris -- Chris Klomp and Inma Hernandez for your hard work. I'd also like to thank my own team, Dave Moore and Karsten Knudsen for their tenacity in getting us here today. It's an honor also to be with you, Dave. Dave and I compete on a daily basis, quite hard I would say. But because of you and because of this process and administration, we are standing here hand in hand as friends to have a common cause. And the cause is to really provide access to many millions of patients that yesterday did not have it. So I'm very happy to be here on this today, on today's pivotal moment.
At Novo Nordisk, we believe that access to life changing medicine should not be a privilege. It is a societal promise and that promise today is becoming one step closer to a hope to a reality, and we are very, very happy about it in our company. We are here because semaglutide is a unique molecule. Ozempic and Wegovy are unique medicines. I cannot remember any other time during, at least my lifetime, that another medicine has gotten as much attention and as much honor in the world's scientific circle and has become a household name. It is very, very important that we're making this deal today. We're able to stand here with your president, and your team to ensure broad affordable access for all American patients and that is truly exciting.
It means not only providing hope, but also providing unique medicines to help Americans live healthier lives and longer lives. Novo Nordisk is proud to be an American success story, as a leader in manufacturing research and creating a lot of jobs. Currently, we have already invested $24 billion over the last 10 years here and these investments have created more than 10,000 jobs. And they have generated $21 billion of GDP just in 2024 alone. And today, as I'm standing here talking, cranes are up, as you would like to say, in North Carolina because we just expanding our North Carolina manufacturing site once again with $4 billion additional. In some strange way, you could say even though we have a Danish heritage, we have been more American and been here for a long time, and proud American than many other companies that were born here and we are very proud of that.
In fact, we are proud to say that our approval of Wegovy pill will be the only GLP-1 that will be manufactured end-to-end here in America by Americans and for Americans. This agreement reflects a shared belief that the administration has provided a safe and effective innovative medicines accessible to many patients. And because we know different patients have different needs, we are very excited to have our semaglutide 7.2mg, the higher dose, now as we call it Wegovy plus available as part of the receiving priority voucher. We stand here to ensure that all Americans who need Ozempic or Wegovy can access the affordable medication so they don't need to go and get an unapproved compounded knockoffs version of it. Once again, I'd like to extend my deepest gratitude to you, Mr. President, and to the whole administration for making America great again and allowing affordable access to many millions of patients living with diabetes and obesity. Thank you so much.
Trump: Thank you very much.
Doustdar: Thank you.
Trump: Thank you. Anybody else? Just say a couple of words, Marty.
Marty Makary: All right. Thank you, Mr. President. This is an amazing day because people talk about different ways to finance the broken healthcare system. This is fixing the broken healthcare system by dealing with two root causes, the price of goods and services, something hardly anyone talks about, and the health of the population. So today, the FDA is announcing as part of its new National Priority Voucher program, that both Lilly and Novo Nordisk will be receiving a voucher for a priority review because they're doing something in this administration's national priority interest, lowering the price of drugs to make them affordable, in line with the president's mission, and domestic manufacturing and addressing a public health need.
This is -- these are two of six products that we are announcing today. Treatments for cancer that are unbelievable. They are incredibly promising, a rectal cancer treatment that has melted away tumors with no need for surgery or chemo or radiation. We're interested in therapies that reduce downstream healthcare utilization. They'll be getting a voucher for a review by the FDA in weeks instead of a year. So we're serious. We're doing everything we can to incentivize this. So I think this is not appreciated enough, because the fastest area of healthcare spending growth is drug price spending growth. And so we're seeing lowering healthcare drug prices as a vehicle to make insurance more affordable, private insurance, Medicaid more affordable, Medicare more affordable and healthcare in general, more affordable. Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you, Marty, very much. Any questions, please?
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. You said you were able to get this deal done and so many others because of tariffs. Yesterday at the Supreme Court, the case being heard, the justices expressed some skepticism. What is your plan if they end up making a decision that's not in your favor?
Trump: Well, I'd rather discuss that later. I hope we're going to win that case. I think it's one of the most important cases in the history of our country. So much revolves around tariffs as a defensive mechanism for our country, as national security for our country. So I don't want to really discuss a [Inaudible] This is so important. If you look at China -- and I covered this yesterday, but if you look at China, by putting a large 100 percent tariff over and above the tariffs they already paid, they came to the table. They talked. We made a wonderful deal for everybody. Our farmers, as you know, with the soybeans at levels that nobody's ever seen before. We -- we -- we're able to make phenomenal deals. If we didn't have the tariffs, we wouldn't have been able to do that. So we thought we did very well yesterday. We hope that we did. I think it would be devastating for our country, but I also think that we'll have to develop a game two plan. We'll see what happens. Most people tell me we did very well, legally.
Question: Mr. President, related to that, are you moving forward with any new tariff announcements before a decision from the Supreme Court?
Trump: No. This is the best one and we can do other things, but they're slow by comparison. You know, like as an example, with the 100 percent, I was able to do it instantaneously when we were threatened by the rare earths, as you know, the magnets. And I did it instantaneously. It was a matter of seconds and it was a matter of seconds that I got a phone call, let's work this out. We would have had not nearly the defense that we had. It would be a shame. It would be a -- it would be somewhat catastrophic for our country, I have to be honest with you. I don't want to get too much involved. But what we've done, you know, we're taking in hundreds of trillions of dollars. If you take a look at the numbers we have, we have $17 trillion right now.
We're going to be at $21 trillion, about $21 trillion by the time I finished my first year. Biden, as an example, the Biden administration was at less than a trillion for four years. We're going to be at $21 trillion for one year. In the history of the world, there's never been a country that's done that, not China, not the US, not anybody, and a lot of that is because of the tariffs and the fact that the president is a competent president that knows how to use them, and I use them for national defense. I ended -- of the eight wars I ended. I would say five or six were ended because of tariffs. I'll give you an example. If you take a look at India and Pakistan, they started to fight. They're two nuclear nations. They were shooting each other. Eight planes were shot down. There were seven. Now it was eight because the one that was sort of shot down is now abandoned.
And eight planes were shot down and I said, listen, if you guys are going to fight, I'm going to put tariffs on you. And they both went -- you know, they were not happy about that. And within 24 hours they settled the war. If I didn't have tariffs, I wouldn't have been able to settle that war. So it's great national defense and you have to be quick moving. You can't wait around for months and months while you're doing studies and you're doing all of this, or go back to Congress. Look at Congress. We can't even get a continuation from Congress. Think of that. How would you like to have to go back to Congress to -- you have to do this spur of the moment because just see, you understand, we're here to spur of the moment.
You know, other countries, if they used tariffs, absolutely, they would have destroyed us. If I didn't come along, our country would be destroyed right now. The tariffs -- the tariffs have made us rich, in terms of national security that made us secure. And you know, if you have economic strength, that's also -- if you have a lack of economic strength that's national security also. But we have great national security because of those tariffs. So, I think it would be devastating if we lost that ruling.
Question: But Mr. President? --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Issues a ruling, it could be several weeks. Are you going to lay out any new additional tariffs before then?
Trump: That's what we're talking about. I'm going to hope that we win. I can't imagine that anybody would do that kind of devastation to our country. You know, we'd have to pay back trillions of dollars. We've taken in trillions. We haven't taken in billions; we've taken in trillions of dollars. We've made trade deals based on that that give us, as an example, European Union $950 billion, Japan $650 billion, South Korea, $350 billion. Without this, we're not talking about that kind of money and they're OK, they're satisfied. They love us, they just left, they all love us. So, it's not like we're such bad people, but they were doing it to us until I came along. Now they don't do it to us; we do it to them a little bit. But if they took this away, we would be defenseless against tariffs from other countries.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: On employer plans and individual plans who also don't have access to GLP-1s, what can you do to make those insurers and PBMs get these same prices so they can put access for those folks?
Trump: Well, I would ask Oz or Bobby that question -- would be very -- it's a good question.
Ricks: Absolutely, many Americans receive their insurance through the commercial markets. The companies have committed to ensure that at worst prices are at MFN on GLP-1s, and are committed to continue to negotiate those prices down based on volume just as they do in any other instance. Another really interesting thing we're seeing though is that commercial plans and PBMs increasingly are enabling access for their beneficiaries, their patients to make purchases in the cash market and then still receive coverage under their accumulators and their deductibles. And so, we're building that capacity in, absolutely Trumprx is being built to enable just that behavior and drive transparency in the process.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Mr. President, there are so many Americans that report tremendously positive results from these drugs. What real-world impact do you think this will be? Is there an estimate on how many Americans may now take these drugs? And also about the informed consent on side effects? There are lawsuits against these companies that some people experienced damage to their gut health, vision loss and other potentially serious side effects there. So, how will we ensure Americans are able to make the best choice of the risks versus the rewards?
Trump: Well, I'll let them speak about the side effects, but I've heard about very little side effects with respect to these drugs. I mean it's all positive and that's usually not the case. I mean, usually you hear bad things. You see these crazy commercials on television where they tell you 15 different things that can go wrong and then you're supposed to buy it. Very few. But I'll let you handle that.
Oz: At a high level, one in three people who can hear my voice are eligible for these medications. That's the magnitude of impact. And we believe, just to reemphasize, we will actually save the American taxpayer money if people use these drugs appropriately for the duration for which they're indicated. There are always going to be side effects of anything -- anything strong enough to help you strong enough to hurt you. The question is, is the trade off worth it? We know the ravaging risks of obesity and all downstream issues ranging from diabetes and hypertension to renal failure or dementia, heart disease, my specialty. But I'll ask Dave Ricks from Lilly to maybe start off because he can give an honest appraisal of potential risks people should be aware of. There's no free cheese.
Ricks: Yeah, thank you. I mean today, as you may know, there's about 8 million people benefiting from the two companies' medications. This new announcement will make that tens of millions that could benefit from it. So, it's a huge improvement. But as to the previous question, we need commercial plans and other insurers to step into this arrangement. I think probably both companies will work hard to make sure that happens. Yeah, as Dr. Oz said, no drug that can help you has no side effects. Most of them are well known. We've been using this class of medications for nearly 20 years, and that's why it's important that patients go to their doctor and decide together whether this is right for them. And their doctor knows their medical history and has the information about these medications. But we're confident in the safety, but there's always some precautions we should have in people's own medical histories matter in that decision.
Question: And are there any estimates for --
Trump: Would you like to say something about that?
Doustdar: What I would like to say is also that, of course, in my speech I made a comment that what happened today allows us and Lilly to provide medications to millions and millions more than they are getting it today. Today, a lot of those patients are trying to go out there and take the knockoff versions of these medications, mainly because they were cheaper than our medication. With the reduction of the price, hopefully many of these patients don't need to choose their safety over their wallet, and now are able to find the real thing at a very decent price.
Trump: Is that a big problem for you, knockoffs? Sounds like it might be.
Doustdar: It has been -- yes, it has been. But on the other hand, of course, patients have to be able to afford it. So, it has been also our job to make sure that that affordability --
Trump: Are the knockoffs dangerous?
Doustdar: The knockoffs are not FDA -- the API, the raw ingredient that goes into them are not FDA approved. So, nothing is as good as the original.
Trump: I know that.
Question: Mr. President, yesterday in the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts said that tariffs are taxes and that they're paid by Americans. He said this pretty clearly, and yet you're saying that this money is rolling in from other countries. How do you square those two?
Trump: It is -- it's coming in because they've charged us -- you know, those same countries that you talk about are charging us massive amounts of money. If you look at the tariffs over the years that were put on our heads, there's a reason we're $38 trillion owed. Now that money is going to start coming down. But we have presidents that didn't know how to use tariffs. We had presidents that had no understanding of business. But if you take a look at what's happened to us, every country charges tariffs. China, the European Union was brutal. They charge us tariffs, not only tariffs, they charge us tariffs so we couldn't sell cars here. We couldn't sell our product. They didn't want our agriculture; they didn't want our cars. Now they're taking our cars and now they're taking our agriculture, you know far more than money. It really is a defensive mechanism. If we didn't have tariffs, we would be unable to defend ourselves.
Question: So, do you agree then that Americans are paying those tariffs?
Trump: I think -- no, I don't agree. I think that they might be paying something, but when you take the overall impact, the Americans are gaining tremendously. They're gaining through national security. Look, I'm ending war because of these tariffs, Americans would have to fight in some of these wars. They're gaining in national security. They're gaining in economics. They're gaining in so many different ways and they're gaining in self-respect for our own country. Other countries used to laugh at us. They would charge us -- Japan was charging us massive tariffs and yet they wouldn't allow our cars to be sold in Japan. But they were selling 9 million cars here, but they wouldn't allow one car.
Not one car was sold in Japan. They don't laugh at us anymore. This is really a matter of -- this is national security. And by the way, going bankrupt is national security. You know, our country was really in trouble. Going bankrupt and the difference between going bankrupt and thriving, that's also national security. When you go bankrupt, when you don't have any money, you have no national security and we are thriving. I mean all this money coming into our country that I told you about, the $17 trillion as of now, but it's going up rapidly. I was in Japan and we have -- Toyota is coming in with $10 billion to build plants operated by Americans, but building plants all over the United States.
Well, they left -- they took our plants. They sold cars in here without tariffs. They sold cars; we didn't charge them anything. They destroyed our auto industry. We lost 50 percent, 54 percent of our auto industry to other. We used to -- if you go back into the '30s and '40s, we had 100 percent of the automobile business, then it started getting chopped away. But Mexico, Canada, many countries -- I mean, Canada fought us very hard. The ones that don't want us to win are foreign countries that we are able now to do very well with. Those are the ones that fight it, those and maybe people that hate our country. I think it's the most important case maybe in the history of our country.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: This has been a major achievement for your administration, targeting the segment of our population that needs it the most, that has the highest obesity rates. You're making it affordable. You are truly saving lives. That's coming from the viewers that we've had in that one hour that we took a little bit of a break. My question to you is Walmart just pushed out a report that says this year's traditional Thanksgiving meal will cost 25 percent less than it did under the Biden administration, plus gas prices being down in the $2 region makes it more affordable to travel to grandma's house this Thanksgiving.
Trump: Thank you very much. And I read -- it's not so much a question, it's a statement. I would have made the statement, but we have a lot of things happening. So, I wouldn't necessarily have made it right now. So, Walmart, to me, you know, that's triple A, came out that nobody's going to influence them. I don't know them, but they just came out with a very powerful statement. They've done it for many years. Under the Biden administration, Thanksgiving meal -- a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings cost 25 percent more. In other words, our Thanksgiving this year coming up will cost 25 percent less than Sleepy Joe Biden's. Now, to me, that's better than anything there is. That's better than a poll.
That's -- they've got everything included from the trimmings and from the turkey and from everything, a lot of different items. It's 25 percent less this year than it was last year when he was so-called in charge. He wasn't in charge. The people around the desk were in charge. The autopen was in charge. That is a big -- that is a big factor. And I was angry last night with the Republicans. I said, you don't talk about this stuff. Nobody talks about it. You know, I rely on a question from a reporter to get that out. We should be talking about it because they talk about affordability. They don't have affordability. We had the highest inflation in the history of our country under Biden.
We had high gasoline prices at $4.5, $5 a gallon. They're going to be hitting $2 a gallon with me. They're getting close to $2 a gallon. And when gasoline goes down and energy goes down, everything else follows. What the Democrats do is they lie. We are the ones that have done great on affordability. They've done horribly on affordability. The only thing is they go out and they take commercials out. Under the Democrats, you have affordability. It's just the opposite. We have much lower prices than they do and we only have one thing, beef, because the cattle ranches are doing well. We're going to bring the beef prices down, and they understand that, even if we have to help them out.
But the beef also is not a big difference. But every price is down. The biggest price is energy. We're at almost $2 for gasoline and you take a look at where -- they were at $4.5, $5 for gasoline. And when gasoline and energy comes down, everything else follows. And I was so happy, last night, I saw that. I made a speech and then I get off the stage. I said, I feel like going up and saying it, because I have a lot of respect for Walmart, and nobody's influencing Walmart. They came out and they said, Trump's Thanksgiving dinner, same things, is 25 percent less than Biden's. And we are the affordability, when we are the ones that have done a great job in affordability, not the Democrats.
And yet we just lost a couple of elections, very Democrat areas, maybe weren't before. They weren't very Democrat when I ran a year ago because I did well in those areas. But we just lost an election, they said based on affordability. It's a con job by the Democrats. The Democrats are only good at con and cheating on elections. Thank you for the question.
Question: [Inaudible] about India?
Trump: Say it.
Question: How are the talks with Prime Minister Modi going on a trade deal and when do you --
Trump: Great. Great. He stopped -- largely, he stopped buying oil from Russia.
Question: When do you plan --
Trump: And he's a friend of mine and we speak and he wants me to go there and I'll -- we'll figure that out. I'll go. I had a great trip there with Prime Minister Modi. He's great man and I'll be going.
Question: Novo Nordisk is [Inaudible]
Trump: [Inaudible]
Question: [Inaudible] planning to go to India next year, sir?
Trump: I could be. Yeah.
Question: Novo Nordisk is in the middle of a $10 billion -- potential $ 10 billion acquisition for a smaller obesity biotech. They might need your and the FTC's help to see that through. Do you have any issues with that, or Eli Lilly buying a smaller obesity biotech from an anti-competitive standpoint?
Trump: Well, I don't know. Do you want to talk about that? I'd like to hear it. Maybe you should give us a piece of the company like I've been asking for, give the United States a nice big chunk of the company.
Doustdar: So Novo Nordisk and Pfizer right now are in the middle of an acquisition dialog and discussion.
Trump: It's you and Pfizer?
Doustdar: It's us and Pfizer.
Trump: Oh, competing for the company?
Doustdar: Competing for the company.
Trump: Who's winning?
Doustdar: And as of today, our bid is higher and our message to Pfizer is that if they would like to buy the company, then put your hand in the pocket and bid higher. It's a free market. And at the end of it, it has to do with basically the price that the seller is selling for their shareholders and the buyers willing to pay for it. This has nothing to do with FTC. It has nothing to do with anything else.
Question: Do you think it's anti-competitive --
Trump: -- similar product to what we're talking about today?
Doustdar: It's actually -- it's a product -- it's a series of products that will come to the market in around turn of the decade, where the market is very crowded with many, many other players as well. So it's a next generation of products and it will become five [ph] -- yeah.
Trump: [Inaudible]
Question: Mr. President, are you saying that -- Zohran Mamdani, you said that -- you called him a communist. You said that if he won, you would take drastic action against New York City. What kind of actions are you looking at? And will the ICE deportations continue?
Trump: Well, I think you have to look, if he is a communist, you know, there's not going to be a lot of activity. So you wouldn't need bridges and tunnels and all the different things that were being planned for New York, I think. And look, I hope -- I hope New York does well. That's all I can say. I love New York. I grew up in New York. I did well in New York, always did well and I hope New York does well. That's all.
Question: [Inaudible] they continue?
Trump: ICE raids, well, you want to get criminals out. If they're criminals, we want to get them out. Ideally, we wouldn't have to do it, because he'll send the criminals out himself, but that seems to be unlikely. No, we have to get criminals out. You know, millions of people were let into our country from prisons and from mental institutions and drug dealers, a lot of drug dealers and murderers, 11,888 murderers. 50 percent of them committed more than one murder and we want to get them out. So whether they're in New York or anywhere else, we want to get them out. We've created a great place in Washington. All of you know, you see the difference between what it was now and what it was a year ago under Biden. It was a -- it was a death trap and now it's a -- people walk down the street.
They have dinner. The restaurants are booming. Washington D.C. is great. I will tell you, Memphis is doing really well too. You're hearing those reports. It's -- companies were going to move out. They're not going to move out anymore. We've done a great job and we've only been there for four weeks. So we've done a great job with that. But if they have killers in New York, we want to get them out. If they have murderers, if they have people from jails that they allowed out of their jails in order to save a lot of money, we want them out of here. We want to put them back in their jails, not our jails.
Question: Question in regards to TSA, would you ever consider privatizing TSA? That question comes to us from our viewers all the time and I told them I would ask you.
Trump: I think privatizing a lot of things, but generally speaking, you know, you have government and a lot of people don't like privatizing, but some things that -- they really do, they work out better privatized. But it is government and sometimes government can be better. It's something a lot of people talk about.
Question: I've heard the government, as far as air traffic controllers, is two thumbs up on that. I've heard from dozens of pilots who have flown the last 90 days, particularly under all the stress of the government shutdown. They tell me, Brian, that is the one thing the government does right is air traffic controls.
Trump: Well, we're going to do it a lot better too because we're going to buy a new system. It's under bid right now, bid about four different companies, all top of the line, like these two great companies, except, you know, in a different -- slightly different field. And the air traffic control equipment is 45 years old. Buttigieg spent billions of dollars trying to fix it and didn't even use the right wire. You're hooking up glass into copper and you can't do that. You know, most, if they went to a reasonably good school then find out you can't hook glass into copper. And they spend billions of dollars and it was -- actually made the system much worse.
We're going to get rid of the entire system, put a brand-new system in. It'll be expensive, but we'll have the best air control system, meaning the control towers. They'll be stripped down -- down to the -- down to the bone and brand-new equipment is being installed. And we'll give out that -- it's a big contract. We'll give out that contract over the next six weeks.
Question: [Inaudible] sir, that the FAA is going to have to cut about 10 percent of flights at the top 40 airports because of the government shutdown. Are you at all concerned that it might not be safe to fly right now? And what do you tell people who are gearing up for Thanksgiving?
Trump: No [Inaudible] yeah. Fair question. As Sean Duffy announced, they're cutting in certain areas, 10 percent. And they want to make sure it's 100 percent safe. That's why they're doing it.
Question: Mr. President, given these modifications that are being made to air travel, the other disruptions with the government shutdown, do you think it's time for Republicans in Congress to change their negotiating position at all?
Trump: In what way?
Question: To start making concessions to Democrats.
Trump: Well, I think it's time for them to end the filibuster and just put everybody back to work, vote in voter I.D., vote in no mail in voting, except for military, far away military and people that are very sick. No -- I'd like to see one day voting. I'd like to see not 65 days of voting from all over the place. No, I'd like to clean up the elections. The border, we've done a great job. We have a great strong border now, but I'd like to see new rules on immigration that could be fair and good. You know, but rules that you'll never, the rules that they're never going to get. There's so many things we could put in, including tax cuts that we could get and we could do it all ourselves.
But to do that, you have to end the filibuster. The filibuster is -- and they'll do it too. They'll immediately -- you know, they're going -- what they're going to do is -- what the Democrats will do is they're going to make Puerto Rico a state. They're going to make DC a state. They're going to pack the court. They're going to end up with more electoral votes. They're going to end up with four Senators because of the two states. And they're going to do this 100 percent. They would have done it except Manchin and Sinema got in their way, they would have done it. So, if they're going to do it, I would do it, I would do it before them.
Question: And you think the longer --
Trump: Like Israel, it's a little like Israel. Israel attacked first; that attack was very, very powerful. I was very much in charge of that. When Israel attacked Iran first -- that was a great day for Israel because that attack did more damage than the rest of them put together. What I'd like to see is I'd like to see voter ID. I'd like to -- who wouldn't approve voter ID? The Democrats. Why wouldn't they approve it? Because they cheat. There's only one reason not -- we don't have voter identification and we should have. If we got rid of the filibuster in one day you'd have voter identification. The only reason they don't want it is because they cheat.
Question: Mr. President --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Tax credit, there are some people, Republicans, who would also like to see the ACA tax credits extended for middle-class folks who are buying insurance on their own. Where do you weigh in on that?
Trump: I don't weigh in, but we're looking at all of that right now. We're looking at all of it. There are a lot of great ideas out there, including for health care, because Obamacare is a disaster, the Obamacare premium is going to go up 17 or 18 percent. And that's not my fault. I didn't want Obamacare; that's the fault of the people that put it in, the Democrats, and now they want it subsidized further. But you know, when you take it from them, you take it from a lot of other people. We could have much better health care, much better health care at a much lower price.
Question: Mr. President --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: -- grocery pricing announcements with another company or is this the last we're going to see for a little while?
Trump: About what?
Question: About drug pricing, you know, deals --
Trump: Oh, no, everybody's involved and we're going to get low pricing from -- this is every -- all companies are being involved. We are now going to have with all drugs the lowest price anywhere in the world, that's the price we're going to have. That's called favored nations. We were stupid nations before. We paid 10 times more, sometimes 15 times more than they were paying in Europe and other places. So, that was really stupid.
Question: Mr. President --
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: -- in two years this will go down, the injectable prices will go down to $250 I believe, but your -- American patients might still look at European prices and say these aren't quite low enough to match that. What would you say in response to people?
Note: [Crosstalk]
Trump: Because as far as I'm concerned, we're at favored nations. If Europe is paying less then -- now, there could be other reasons, there could be a distribution, etc., etc., it's harder to get to. But outside of pretty minor things, this is favored nations. We are going to be paying the lowest price in the world outside of some nations that are stone cold bankrupt, have no money and people make contributions of medicines to those nations, including us. We're going to have the lowest prices anywhere in the world and your drug prices will go down 600, 700, 800 percent, and I'll be given no credit for it because I never get credit for anything. But nobody else could have done this.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Trump: Thank you very much everybody. Thank you.
Aide: Thank you press. Thank you.