TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Announces Efforts to Reduce Fertility Treatment Costs, 10.16.25
[Video]
President Trump: Thank you very much. This is very exciting what we're doing. I want to thank everybody for being here and I want to thank this group of people. They're incredible people. We just had a call, as you know, with President Putin. I thought it was a very good call, so we'll talk about it maybe later, but it went very well. We're here today to announce a historic victory for American women, mothers and families. With the actions I will outline this afternoon, we'll dramatically slash the cost of IVF and the treatment and many of the most common fertility drugs. For countless millions of Americans, prices are going way down -- way, way down.
I want to thank Libby Horne, who is the senior vice president of Fertility of EMD Serono. So, I want to thank you. Let's see here. That's what I thought. I thought it was you. Thank you, Libby, very much. And let me also thank the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose wife destroyed the people on The View yesterday. [Laughter] I have to say that, she's -- I'm not going to ever get into an argument with her. And you've decided -- you learned that a long time ago, right? She did a great job, actually. Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick. Thank you, Howard. Secretary of labor, Lori Chavez-Deremer. Thanks, Lori. Howard, thanks. CMS Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who's a fantastic guy and he's done really well.
FDA Commissioner, Marty Makary. Thank you, Marty. Senator Katie Britt, who got me started with this whole thing when she called up to say there was a bad ruling by a judge, right? We've got to do something, sir, and we did. We did it very quickly. Probably in 24 hours, it was done. Congressman Richard Hudson, a great guy, and his wife Renee. Richard? Hi, Richard. And advocate Samantha Bush, who's a very respected person. For years, American couples struggling with infertility have faced crushing costs in their quest to start a family and IVF is among the most expensive treatments of all. A single round of IVF in the United States can cost up to $25,000, can actually go a lot higher than that, and many couples require multiple rounds for a successful pregnancy.
A major reason for these high prices is the excessive cost of the drugs involved. The number one fertility drug used in IVF is currently 700 percent more expensive in the United States than in the rest of the world. And you know, we're ending all of that, it's called favored nations and we're ending it and we're ending it pretty fast. Nobody thought we'd be able to do it, and we've done it. Drugs are going to come down, drug prices are coming down 400 percent, 200 percent, 600 percent, numbers that nobody's ever seen before. Great for Medicare, Medicaid, even Social Security, great for everything I think, Dr. Oz. So, that's something -- to me it's very exciting.
I'm bugging him and Bobby all the time, how are we doing with that? And we're doing really good, Bobby, it's really going good. Other countries are agreeing to it because, if they don't, we put tariffs on them. And then they agree, so it's amazing. It's amazing how that worked out. But, as an example, in London, you'd buy a certain drug for $130, and even less than that. I guess $88, as of a count a month ago. And in New York, you pay $1,300 for the same thing. So, now we're going to be paying -- instead of $1,300, you'll be paying about $150, and they'll be paying $150 too -- we're going to pay the same thing. Favored nations, it's beautiful, it's a beautiful thing and we've been ripped off by the whole world for a long period of time.
One of the most popular fertility drug regimens costs over $5,000 per cycle as an example. Wow. Largely as a result of these unsustainable prices, 70 percent of the employers do not offer insurance that covers IVF. Therefore, most couples with fertility challenges are paying these costs entirely out of their own pockets, which is not really possible to do. Oh, look who we have. Look at that, the great Maria Bartiromo. I didn't know, did you get put into the regular pool pack? That's very good. That's good. Nice to see you. I'm doing an interview with her in a little while. In the Trump administration, we want to make it easier for all couples to have babies, raise children and start the families they've always dreamed about.
That's why today I'm pleased to announce that after extensive negotiations, EMD Serono, the largest fertility drug manufacturer in the world, has agreed to provide massive discounts to all fertility drugs they sell in the United States, including the most popular drug of all, the IVF drug Gonal-f. So, it's Gonal-f. Is that a proper pronunciation? Close enough, right? Gonal-f. As part of this agreement, EMD Serono will list their fertility drugs online at trumprx.gov at very, very heavily reduced prices, prices that you won't even believe. And ultimately that's because of the favored nations. In addition, the FDA will be working with the company to expedite review an approval of another common fertility IVF drug.
And currently it's selling in Europe, it's Pergoveris -- Pergoveris, and that's a sounding name, Pergoveris. Why can't you name them nice simple names, nice easy names. [Laughter] It doesn't matter. If it works that's all we care about, right? Upon approval. This drug would directly compete against a much more expensive option that currently has a monopoly in the American market. And this will bring down costs very significantly, and the other one is going to have to come down also. Finally, EMD Serono has agreed that all future drugs and everything that it develops and sells in the United States will be offset at most favored nation prices. I've been after this for a long time, and we started the process in the last administration.
And then we had a little thing called COVID that came up. We had to focus on that, did a good job on that too. And they'll bring a significant portion of their drug manufacturing back to the United States. So, they're going to bring it largely back into the United States and that's for a lot of reasons, but primarily because of the election result November 5th, and maybe most importantly because of the tariffs, because if they do it here, there are no tariffs. So, we have -- we're going to be very close. I think by the end of this year, we're going to be very close to $20 trillion, in investment. As an example, the Biden administration had less than $1 trillion, substantially less than $1 trillion for four years, Maria, can you imagine -- four years less than one.
We're going to break $20 trillion of investment and we're already over $17 trillion and that's in eight months. Can you believe that? And he was less than $1 trillion. And in addition to that, he had open borders allowing millions of people to pour in. What an administration that was. Worst president in history by far. As a result of these actions, the per cycle cost of drugs used in IVF will fall by an estimated 73 percent for American consumers and the numbers are going to actually be very substantially higher as time goes by when it really kicks in for most. I mean, think of those numbers. You know, I told the story last time because we were with Pfizer and Pfizer's doing something very similar.
But I told them that my first term, I was so proud of myself because I was the first president in 28 years where drug prices went down for the year. And you know what they went down, one-eighth of 1 percent. But I was so -- one-eighth of 1 percent. Now I'm getting them down, Maria, 500, 600, 800 percent, in some cases even more than that. It's hard to believe. But I was proud, I said, oh, wow, I'm the first one. One-eighth of 1 percent and I was proud of that. Now I realize -- and I called a news conference, some of you were at that news conference actually -- and I said ladies and gentlemen, congratulations. We've gone down by one-eighth of 1 percent and now we're going down 500, 600, 700, 800 percent, Richard.
So, it's really something. For most administrations and all of the people involved in this kind of thing, this action would be a crowning achievement of their agenda for fertility health. But for us, it's really just the beginning. It's just a start. It's one of many things we're doing. Today we're also taking historic steps to vastly expand access to insurance coverage for fertility care, including IVF, something that, as you know, was not covered. Effective immediately for the first time ever, we will make it legal for companies to offer supplemental insurance plans specifically for fertility that's never been done before. We're signing it in today with what we signed. Americans will be able to opt in to specialized coverage. Just as they get vision and dental insurance, they're going to get fertility insurance for the first time.
So I don't know. You know, I don't know how well these things are covered. You know, I see the Democrats like to take credit for all of these things we do. We do the things and they take the credit, but I figure if you do enough of these, eventually people are going to figure it out. The Democrats have done nothing. This will make all fertility care, including IVF, far more affordable and accessible. And by providing coverage at every step of the way, it will reduce the number of people who ultimately need to resort to IVF because couples will be able to identify and address problems early. The result will be healthier pregnancies, healthier babies and many more beautiful American children.
It's a big factor. It's a big deal. I'm asking all employers to make these new fertility benefit options available to their employees immediately. The initiatives I've just announced are the boldest and most significant actions ever taken by any president to bring the miracle of life into more American homes. And I will say, Katie was great -- As you know, she's a great Senator from Alabama. She's the first one that told me about this. I had not known too much about it and we worked very rapidly together. Didn't we, though?
Katie Britt: We did. Mr. President, you saved the day.
Trump: We had everything passed and Alabama then took care of it and passed it. Within a week, everything was done. Really, it was something. So I want to thank Katie Britt. There's no deeper happiness and joy of raising children and now millions of Americans struggling with infertility will have a new chance to share the greatest experience of them all. So, I'd like to thank all of the people that are here, and I think we'll start with Dr. Oz, and Ms. Horn. We'll go through the list and we'll listen. And yesterday, I did this and I stood for about an hour and a half as people spoke. And I said, this time, I'm sitting right there and I'm going to watch you.
I stood for an hour and a half like this. I said, you got to be kidding. Here we go. It was one after another and it was wonderful listening to them. But I said, if I have to do this every day, Bobby, should I stand or sit? Thank you, Bobby. Please, Dr. Oz.
Britt: OK. Mr. President, I'm going to jump in here real quick. I want to start by thanking President Trump. Sir, from the very first phone call we ever had, your support was strong. It was steadfast. It was unwavering. And because of you, millions of Americans are going to have a greater opportunity to bring the greatest gift, in my opinion, life into this world. Your support, your administration's support, it's a game-changer. All of us here today are aligned. This is a celebration of life. It's a celebration of parents. It's a celebration of families, and it's a celebration for those people who want to one day be parents themselves. I think every parent can attest and I certainly do myself that the greatest gift that God has ever given me is the ability to be a mom.
We want more people to have that opportunity. We want to make that easier and more affordable. IVF is what makes the difference for so many families that are facing infertility. So you've seen the numbers, it's either one in eight couples or some people say as much as one in six, are actually experiencing issues with fertility. It's nine percent of males and at least 11 percent of females that are facing these challenges as they work to build their family. The recommendations today that President Trump has set forth are going to expand IVF coverage to nearly a million more families and they're going to drive down cost significantly.
Mr. President, this is the most pro-IVF thing that any president in the history of the United States of America has done. And Mr. President, it's your leadership. You are the reason why the Republican Party is now the party of parents. We are the party of families. This is why when Senator Cruz and I worked last year, we got every single Republican Senator to sign on and say that they supported nationwide access to IVF. And just for the record, IVF is legal and accessible in all 50 states. And President Trump, taking this action today to lower cost, to bring these issues to the forefront and to enact solutions for people working to start their families, I want you to know it's significant and there's more to come. But this isn't the only thing that you've done to prove that we're the party of parents and we're the party of families.
If you look at the working family tax cut, guys, he made sure that hard working parents were front and center in that legislation. You know, whether it was child tax credits being expanded and made permanent, whether it was Trump accounts that are going to change the game for so many parents, or whether it was child care. So for decades, we have heard Democrats talk about child care. President Trump actually took action on the affordability and accessibility of child care. We know that one in four families say that they hesitate to have more children because of the cost and because of child care cost. For the first time, this man actually took steps to change the dynamics for hard-working parents.
So of the three tax credits that he reformed and the working families tax cuts, two of them had not been touched in two decades and one of them had not been touched since 1986. So President Reagan was in office the last time anybody did anything about it, but you changed the game on that and I was proud to lead that effort in the Senate. And so on behalf of moms and dads, on behalf of grandparents and sisters and aunts and uncles and brothers and people who are looking to expand their family, we say thank you. Thank you for all you do to support families in this country and make a healthier environment and an easier one for us to grow the very most important thing. God bless.
Trump: Great. Thank you. So nice. Thank you.
Mehmet Oz: So let's set the stage, put it in perspective. Two weeks ago, as President Trump alluded, a leading US drug manufacturer came into this room and agreed to do something none of us thought was possible, a Most Favored Nation agreement with numbers again inconceivable. Last week, a leading country -- company from Europe, a global leader in pharmaceutical sector came to this office, made the same kind of commitment for Most Favored Nation pricing, again, because the president insisted on it and was persistent. And he alluded to the fact that he was calling Secretary Kennedy and me quite a bit. He definitely was, with great insights into the process and would not hold back. But I think what you're seeing today is something even larger. It's larger because we're now showing that MFN is a tool that can get other initiatives going as well.
We are revealing perhaps the most important MFN opportunity at all because it's about procreation. It's about babies. It turns out that MFN is a tool for a lot of things, and it goes without saying that you get the drug pricing down, but lots of other business necessities become possible when that occurs. So Secretary Kennedy and I, who's a wonderful leader, talk frequently about family. I think the reason he's a great leader and the president as well, is because they have large families and they take pride in the joy that it gives us. But many families, as Senator Britt alluded, do not have the ability to have children.
But it turns out that it's about one in three families, a much higher number that don't have the number of babies they desire. They're under babied. So this president committed to address that during the campaign and he is delivering on that today in a way I don't think anyone thought was possible. We are opening the door with MFN pricing and tariffs that supported, Secretary Lutnick, with a new approach to make reproductive medicine more affordable for Americans. Now I know what you're all thinking and you're probably right, there are going to be a lot of Trump babies. I think that's probably a good thing. But it turns out the fundamental creative force in society is about making babies. It's about creating and this country, the one that President Trump is leading so beautifully, has been a country of abundance, not scarcity.
To have abundance, you have to address the fact that we had 3.6 million babies last year, which is beautiful, 3.6 million miracles, that's half a million less babies than we would ideally have had even to replace our current population. Building on the success of the last two weeks, our team led by the head of Medicare Chris Klomp, who's standing over there and [Inaudible] Hernandez, have negotiated a spectacular MFN deal to reduce the cost of IVF drug prices by $2,200 a cycle, that's nearly half of the price that it had been. The most prescribed drug in this category in America, made by EMD Serono, is described over here.
And you'll notice -- President Trump, these are discounted from $242 to $10. I don't know what the math is on that. We can't even calculate it. It's a lot. It's too high to calculate without a more studied approach. But I give it up there because that number of $10, will apply for every American who earns less than $115,000 a year. That's 70 percent of the American people. The remaining folks who are able to make more will have to pay a tiny bit more, but it's still most favored nation pricing, no different from what the Europeans are willing to pay. Now to make this deal happen, Chris had to do something special. They had to actually not just get the drug price down but get the middlemen to let it go as well.
And Mr. President, we've met with the middlemen in the past. They're now joining the MFN movement. I want to thank Express Scripts Freedom Pharmacy and CVS Specialty Pharmacy because they were willing to stand up and do the right thing for the American people by answering the president's call and slashing their prices. Now this announcement also encompasses a remarkable move from Marty Makary. And Marty Makary is, of course, the leader of the FDA. But he has ongoing efforts to accelerate their approval of innovative medicines that will further reduce the price and make this whole process more seamless for the American people.
Now you're about to hear about a spectacular new program that's been alluded to. But one of the architects of that program, Heidi Overton, Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, is going to take us through the exciting details of what this is going to offer for the American people, especially those who are in the workforce. But first, we think you should hear from Libby Horne. Libby is EMD Serono's Head of Fertility. She brings both professional expertise and a personal connection to this work. She has three beautiful daughters, and she has personally benefited from reproductive medicine that has shaped her family and her company made today spectacular MFM pricing possible. Libby?
Libby Horne: Thank you, Dr. Oz. Thank you, Mr. President. Today, we gather on this national stage to celebrate a historic step forward in expanding access to fertility treatments for those who need it most. Mr. President, thanks to your leadership and the tireless efforts of your team, this is a momentous day for Americans who struggle but remain hopeful to build their families. Infertility is on the rise in our country, one in eight couples face infertility. This isn't just a number, it's real lives, dreams and aspirations of hardworking Americans. The teacher who goes to school each day surrounded by children but aching for children of her own. The firefighter who puts his life on the line but can't create the life he wants at home.
The consequences of these challenges can take significant tolls. Some of you watching today have given up or are frustrated because access to IVF treatments has been out of reach. That's why expanding access to IVF has been an issue of great importance to the president. He made this clear in his executive order declaring the administration's goal of supporting American families by enabling access and eliminating barriers to IVF. Today, EMD Serono is proud to help President Trump deliver on his promise to you. Thanks to the president's leadership, EMD Serono has worked alongside distributors and other partners to help more families have access to services and innovations that are consistent with other countries. Through our partnership with the administration, we are proud to announce that Americans will have access to our leading IVF therapies for an 84 percent discount off list prices.
Trump: That's amazing.
Horne: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you for making this possible.
Trump: Thank you very much. It's great, fantastic.
Horne: For more than 40 years, EMD Serono has been a global leader in fertility. Our science was instrumental in the birth of the first IVF baby in the US, and we've helped to bring more than 6 million babies into the world since then. Our purpose is to help create, improve and prolong life, that means discovering more medicines and bringing them to patients faster. FDA Commissioner Makary has made it a priority to ensure that Americans have access to the world's most innovative treatments as quickly as possible. To that end, EMD Serono is filing a new IVF therapy called Pergoveris for review under the FDA Commissioner's National Priority Voucher Program. If approved, Pergoveris would combine two key reproductive hormones in synergy designed to mimic reproductive physiology.
This therapeutic option could mean fewer injections, fewer co-pays and lower self-pay costs, all of which make a real difference in the IVF patient experience. In closing, on behalf of EMD Serono, I want to send my heartfelt thanks to President Trump and the entire administration for their leadership and vision in this critical area of health care. Together we will make a difference in the lives of countless families across this nation and uphold our long-standing legacy of creating life. Thank you.
Trump: Thank you.
Heidi Overton: Mr. President, thank you for your bold leadership that's allowed our teams to go far beyond what anyone thought was possible. On behalf of the Domestic Policy Council and Vince Haley here, we would like to also thank all the agency partners and the stakeholders that we worked with to get to the solution today that will make a real impact for families. Specifically, today's historic actions, four in total that you see, are made possible by coordination of all of the White House team and seven agencies, many of whom are represented here, and their teams that have worked tirelessly. As you described, Mr. President, the current system isn't working. Seven in 10 Americans don't have coverage to IVF.
They face high costs and uncertain outcomes. And there's intense demand for fertility benefits. 65 percent of Americans say that they would leave their current job just because of fertility benefits. So, you asked us to lower costs and to fix the broken incentives in health care. In addition to lowering the cost of drugs by 73 percent or $2,200 per cycle, which if you missed it, most people require two or three cycles. So, that's significant savings for families. I'm also going to briefly outline the new solution for coverage. This is a new fertility benefit option that employers can immediately offer to their employees starting today. This afternoon the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Treasury will be releasing guidance that for the first time creates a legal pathway for employers to offer fertility benefit packages to people that need them similar to how dental, vision and life insurance are currently offered.
This will be followed up by a regulation. These benefits can address the continuum of fertility needs from the root causes of IVF, which Secretary Kennedy is working on very hard at HHS, to -- sorry from, yeah, it'll be a coordinated package that does not exist in traditional health insurance today. It'll make it easier for employers, including small and midsize employers, to compete for talented employees. Currently, many small businesses cannot afford to offer fertility benefits at all. This is making it possible for them to offer benefits the same way that large companies like Amazon and others offer benefits. This is a pro-family benefit expansion that will transform clinical outcomes by addressing fragmented coverage and care.
I'm a physician by training and it's very important that we have high quality care. Fertility benefit companies are poised to offer packages that have reported so far roughly 25 percent higher live birth rates for those that seek care compared to those that don't have such benefits. They also report fewer cycles to achieve pregnancy, improved natural pregnancy rates through better care before you need IVF and reduced chance of miscarriages. A 21 percent reduction in miscarriage rate. Leading physicians in the field have also relayed that these types of benefits significantly improve the patient and doctor experience, allowing both to focus on care rather than navigating the bureaucracy. These impacts are very personal. Here with us today are my good friends Congressman Richard Hudson of North Carolina and his wife Renee Hudson.
Both have worked in public service for years, including Renee for all four years of your past administration, Mr. President. And they struggled with infertility. Today, they have a beautiful son, who's their pride and joy. He's an amazing boy, but they also suffered multiple losses throughout their fertility journey, something that is very common. Unfortunately, too many people go through the hard, arduous process of IVF and still result in a miscarriage. So, today your option is not only saving money, it's going to improve the quality of care significantly. This new benefit option simultaneously represents the greatest opportunity to expand coverage of IVF that the federal government has ever taken, while also improving the care delivered.
Additionally, and very importantly, it gives employers maximum flexibility to design benefits that are consistent with their values. Put simply, this new fertility benefit option means lower costs and more healthy babies. So today, this announcement, we are realigning the industry towards the simple metric of more healthy babies at lower costs. I would now like to introduce Samantha Busch, the wife of NASCAR driver Kyle Busch, who has been a leading advocate for IVF access and affordability after your own infertility journey. Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you.
Samantha Busch: Hello, everyone. My husband, Kyle, and I battled infertility for over a decade before being blessed with our two beautiful children, Brexton, who's 10, and our daughter Lennox, who's now three. But our journey was long and painful. We faced six rounds of IVF, multiple miscarriages, multiple failed cycles and countless moments of heartbreak. We faced the roller coaster of hope and devastation that so many families know all too well. Through it all, we held on to faith each other and the belief that somehow, someday God would turn our pain into purpose. We also saw firsthand the staggering financial burden that comes with infertility treatments. Sitting in the waiting room of our fertility clinic, we overheard another couple quietly say that money was the only thing standing in their way of having their family. In that moment, Kyle and I looked at each other and we knew God was planting a seed in our hearts, a calling to take action. In 2015, that calling became the Bundle of Joy Fund, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to providing financial assistance to couples struggling with infertility.
What began as a small act of faith has now grown into something far greater than we could have ever imagined. To date, we've granted over $2 million directly to individuals helping them pay for their IVF treatments and we've celebrated the birth of 108 beautiful babies through our fund. Thank you. Each baby is a living, breathing testament to hope, community and God's grace. For every tear we cried, for every shot we gave, every doctor's appointment that ended in disappointment, Kyle and I knew there had to be a greater reason. This was God's plan for us, to use our journey to advocate, empower and be the voice to those battling in silence. Over the past 12 years, we've worked hard to raise awareness, erase stigma and bring hope to the one in six couples that will face infertility.
Infertility can be incredibly isolating. It can leave you questioning your faith, your body and your future, but it can also reveal a strength that you never knew you had inside of you. It can deepen love. It can bring couples closer together and it unites people through a shared struggle. Our goal has always been to show others that they are not alone, that there is a powerful community of infertility warriors behind them. Today, seeing President Trump acknowledge the infertility -- acknowledge infertility on a national stage is profoundly moving. It's no longer a whispered conversation behind closed doors. It is a recognized, validated struggle that so many families have to endure. His leadership reminds us that those in positions of power can make real and lasting changes for generations to come.
Their willingness to bring this issue forward shows that they not only hear our community, but they truly care about us. Thank you, Mr. President, and to your family for shining a light on infertility and for standing by couples like Kyle and I, for standing by couples who only want to hear the words mommy and daddy, who want to watch our children, open their Christmas presents on Christmas morning, who want to see the world anew through the joy in their kids' eyes. Your acknowledgment honors the power of family, faith and love, the very values that make America the greatest country in the world. It's proof that when promises are made and promises are kept, lives are changed forever. Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: [Inaudible] great job. Anybody else? Howard, would you like to say a couple of words?
Howard Lutnick: No, I'm OK.
Trump: I was hoping you would say that. Thank you very much. Bobby, come on up for a second. What a job you're doing. Yeah. Say a few words, Bobby.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for your vision, your commitment to our country. When my uncle was president, the fertility rate in this country was 3.5 percent. Today, it is 1.6 percent. The replacement rate, in other words, the amount fertility that you need in order to keep your population even is 2.1 percent. We are below replacement right now. That is a national security threat to our country and we know why this is happening. And President Trump is addressing the root causes through his MAHA agenda of reducing endocrine disruptors, the exposures to chemicals that decrease fertility. Today, the average teenager in this country has 50 percent of the sperm count, 50 percent of the testosterone as a 65-year-old man.
Our girls are hitting puberty six years earlier, and that's bad. But also, our parents aren't having children. Parents who want to have children do not have access. I have seven children. I feel that God has blessed me with that and I can't imagine how different my life would be if I did not have that blessing. I want to point out also, that this morning, Harvard University released a study that showed that the obesity rates have now climbed over 70 percent. And this, again, is for the same reason we're flooding our kids. We're poisoning a mass generation -- mass poisoning a generation of kids with chemicals. President Trump has instructed us to stop these problems at the root cause.
But he's also recognized that there are people who are injured, people who are not living the life to the fullest and he's addressing that. Last week, we made GLP drugs available at Most Favored Nation. And this week, it's IVF. I want to thank you so much for that, Mr. President. I saw on an airplane the other day, you said that you didn't believe that you were going to get to heaven, but you're doing God's work here. You've made peace in the Middle East, which is beyond anybody's imagination. And now you're giving millions of Americans a chance to have babies. And you're doing this while the government is locked down by the Democrats.
Trump: That's right.
Kennedy Jr.: But this administration has not stopped working for the American people. And that's because of your energy, your commitment, your vision. And I want to thank you for allowing me to be part of it.
Trump: Thank you. You did a great job. And he's doing a great job. And by the way, Kyle is fantastic. So sad -- what a -- he's lot of courage. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't care. Howard, you and I would not be good at that. We'd go about 30 miles an hour, but we'd be safe. Anyway. So thank you very much. Any questions, please?
Question: Mr. President? Mr. President, you posted earlier --
Trump: Yeah, please.
Question: Mr. President, this is a major campaign promise that you made. It was a big, hot topic towards -- in the election. You're delivering on that again. I actually had a question for Secretary Kennedy or Dr. Heidi. Dr. Heidi, you said something that I thought was really important. You talked about how this coverage options, benefit option gives companies the maximum flexibility to design benefits consistent to their values. I was wondering if either you or the president could expand on that and talk about why that's an important thing to understand about this program.
Overton: Yes, thank you. It's a great question. We think that employers are best situated to know what them and their employees want to contribute to in relation to their benefits. So employers are going to be able to decide how to cover the root causes of infertility, things like obesity, metabolic health and other things that are impacting infertility. And also if they want to encourage their employer -- their employees to see certain types of doctors and they can work with providers that are identifying the highest quality fertility providers. And so it gives it -- puts them in the driver's seat. And our view is that we want employers to be the ones that can make those decisions, not the government. Thank you.
Trump: All right. That's a good answer. That was a very good answer. Yeah, please, go ahead.
Question: Mr. President, previously you did not seem to be bothered regarding Hamas cracking down on what you called crack gangs, actually --
Trump: A what?
Question: A couple of gangs. And today you issued a threat against Hamas on Truth social. What has changed?
Trump: And what was said? Go ahead.
Question: You said if they continue killing -- keep killing innocents in Gaza, that if that continues, the United States will go after them.
Trump: Yeah. I know. I issued a strong statement. That's right.
Question: They used to be gangs and now you're saying innocents. What made you think they're innocents now?
Trump: Well, I'm looking at what's happening and that wasn't the deal that was made and we'll see what happens. It's calmed down. It's a tough neighborhood. We know that. We have a commitment from them, and I assume they're going to honor that commitment. I hope they do. And I know -- I understand they brought back some additional bodies today. It's a rough deal when you think of it, right, very rough. We have our hostages back completely. We were very lucky with that. But it's a tough situation. They brought back bodies today, as you probably know, but they also said they're going to behave. We're going to find out if they behave, if they behave good, if they don't behave, we'll take care of it. Yeah, please.
Question: Following up on that, when you said --
Trump: I didn't say you. You're CNN, fake news. Go ahead.
Question: Your post that -- if they kept killing people in Gaza, we would have no choice but to go in and kill them. So, do you mean US forces would go in and take out Hamas?
Trump: No. I didn't say who would go in, but somebody will go in. It's not going to be us. We won't have to -- there are people very close, very nearby that will go in. They'll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.
Question: Can I follow up? You also posted about your call with President Putin today, and you spoke about meeting in Hungary with him. Do you have a timeline or a date set for when?
Trump: I would say within two weeks or so, pretty quick. Marco Rubio is going to be meeting with his counterpart, as you know, Lavrov and they'll be meeting pretty soon. They're going to set up a time and a place very shortly. Maybe it's already set up. They've already spoken and I thought it was a very good phone call, I thought very productive. But I'll be meeting with President Putin, and we'll make a determination tomorrow. I'm meeting with President Zelenskyy, and I'll be telling him about the call. I mean, we have a problem; they don't get along too well those two. And it's sometimes tough to have meetings. So, we may do something where we're separate but -- separate but equal.
We'll meet and talk parties, but this is a -- this is a terrible relationship the two of them have and it's one of those things. I've seen things that nobody would believe, but this is one of them. So, I'll be meeting --we're going to be meeting in Hungary, Viktor Orban is going to be hosting. And it's really something that's time. Last week, over 7,000 people were killed. That's ridiculous. And you know, it doesn't affect our country. We're not losing people. We're not losing -- Bobby, we're not losing Americans, but they're losing Russians, Ukrainians, mostly soldiers, for the most part soldiers. And we think we're going to get -- we hope we're going to get it stopped.
I thought this would be -- because of my relationship with President Putin, I thought this would be very quick and it's turned out to be -- who would think I did Middle East before I did this. We did a total of eight now, seven and now eight. And we're going to make this number nine. Yeah, please.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: Sir, you said you posted that there was great progress. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Was it a shift in Putin's tone? Was it something new he told you? Did he give you any message to give President Zelenskyy tomorrow?
Trump: You're talking about the old -- it just seems to me that, you know, look, it's only a field. That's all I've done in my whole life, I made deals, I know about deals, I do it well. I don't think any president has ever ended a war, frankly, one war. I did eight of them, Maria, right? But I don't know, did Bush ever end, do you think Biden ended a war? Biden started wars because he was stupid. But do you think Biden ended any wars? No, I don't think -- I don't know of anybody that ended wars. I ended eight of them and it's going to be nine. I think we're going to have this one done hopefully soon, but I'll be meeting him probably over the next two weeks.
Trump: First, Marco is going to be meeting and the vice president, as you know, is very much involved. The whole team is involved. Steve Witkoff will be involved. Yeah, please.
Question: What did you tell them about the Tomahawks? Did you discuss the Tomahawk missiles? Did you discuss --
Trump: Well, we talked about it a little bit, didn't say much, but I do say to you, you know, we need Tomahawks for the United States of America too. We have a lot of them, but we need them. I mean, we can't deplete for our country. So, you know, they're very vital, they're very powerful. They're very accurate, they're very good, but we need them too. So, I don't know what we can do about that.
Question: Why do you think a second meeting with Putin -- why do you think a second meeting with Putin now will yield different results?
Trump: Well, I think Alaska actually set a stage. And that wasn't very long ago, but it set a stage. You have to understand; I came into this situation. I didn't start this war. This is a Biden deal, and I came into it and it was a mess. It could have led to World War III. In my opinion, this could have led to World War III. That won't happen, but it could have. So, I came in this war was raging. When I left this wasn't even a thought; for four years nobody talked about it. I spoke to President Putin about Ukraine; it was the apple of his eye, but there was no -- never going to be doing anything like this. And this all went because of some really bad decisions that were made.
And look what you have there, millions of people dead, you have just a horrible, horrible situation. I'm doing it to save souls. That's all I'm doing it for -- I'm not doing it for us. We have an ocean between us. I'm doing it also to help Europe. They want to have it ended, but they're unable to do it. I'm able to do it. So, I think we'll be successful. We'll save a lot of lives. It should have been done -- should have never started. This would have never happened if the election weren't rigged, this would have never happened. But it did happen and I'll get it stopped, OK? Yeah, go ahead.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Question: You mentioned a $1,300 drug at the top of this. Were you referring to the weight loss drugs?
Trump: Yeah, I was referring to Ozempic or the fat loss drug.
Question: Those are going to be $150 out of pocket from here.
Trump: They'll be much lower; they'll be much lower. Yeah, go ahead, please.
Oz: We have not negotiated those yet. We're going to be rolling these out over time. The GOP category of drugs, which includes Ozempic, have not been negotiated yet.
Question: What's the timeline for that?
Trump: But it will -- it will come down like everyone else.
Question: OK. Any timeline on those negotiations?
Trump: No. But I think those are going to come down pretty fast and we do have, I guess, some alternatives.
Oz: The president will be happy with the result and, until he is, we're not going to close those negotiations.
Trump: Except it'll happen.
Question: Got it. Mr. President, what's your message to pro-life conservatives? Some pro-life conservatives have religious objections to IVF and are already critical of this policy. What's your message to them?
Trump: I don't know about the views of that. I'm just looking to do something because, you know, pro-life, I think this is very pro-life. This is -- you can't get more pro-life than this. Please.
Question: Mr. President, you've been talking about how this new benefit plan will also include root cause treatments for infertility. How will you make sure that those root cause treatments are equally accessible to IVF?
Trump: Well, I think we're going to be doing that. Would you like to -- would anybody like to talk about that subject, please?
Lori Chavez-Deremer I'll comment on the rulemaking process. I think it's the determination -- again, Secretary of Labor -- the determination -- the Department of Labor is issuing their intent today to open up the rulemaking process again for more flexibility. Any time that you have a president who's leading when you can offer more access to health care at a lower rate is a benefit to the American people and to the end user. And that's exactly what he's doing. And so, you heard before that through the Q&A guidance that was issued today with the other agencies, that will give guidance to our employers and the employees about what the flexibility of that is. And then again, opening that rulemaking process for further determination of the access that can be had -- offered in those benefits for all different types of health care access is the goal of the Department of Labor.
Trump: Good answer.
Chavez-Deremer: Thank you.
Trump: I like this better. I just say they can do better than me. Yeah, please. Good job. Lori. You know, you're doing a fantastic job. I shouldn't tell. I won't say it, I will not say that she was recommended by the Teamsters, can you believe it? And she's turned out to be a gem. An absolute gem. You're doing a great job. Thank you very much.
Question: Mr. President -- John Bolton was just indicted -- Do you think we could see your dealmaking skills applied to the government shutdown anytime soon?
Trump: Well, look, I mean all we want to do is just extend, we don't want anything. We just want to extend, live with the deal that they had. They want to spend $1.5 trillion on illegal immigrants and they want to destroy health care for everyone else. And it's crazy, it's crazy -- people that are here illegally, they want to spend $1.5 trillion. So, we're just not going to do it. No, we have to take care of our health care. No, we're doing that today and we're doing it with favored nations, the most favored nations. Your costs are going to be dropping greatly. And I'm really good at -- I'm really happy that it's at the beginning of my administration because I did insulin and got it down to like $25, but it doesn't kick in. It didn't kick in for two years by statute.
So, it couldn't kick in. And I said, boy, I hope I win this election because if I don't, somebody else is going to take credit for it, Bobby. And sure, as can be Biden said -- he didn't even know what the hell was happening and he -- and it was a hard thing for me to do, I got insulin way down. What was it before that? It was just massive. It was impossible to afford. And sure as can be, because there was a statute, it couldn't have been earlier. I said, boy, this falls into the next administration, I better win. And all of a sudden, I watch this Biden taking credit for something that I did and on other things too. We had a lot of things kick in. So, the nice part about this -- this is at the beginning of our administration.
So, I think we're going to see the fruits of our labor, and I hope on our other situation that we've talked so much about, autism, I hope we're going to see some very good results based on the recommendations that we made. And you know, we have time to watch those results now.
Question: [Inaudible] was just indicted by a grand jury in Maryland. Do you have a reaction to that?
Trump: I didn't know that. You're telling me for the first time, but I think he's, you know, a bad person. I think he's a bad guy. Yeah, he's a bad guy. It's too bad, but it's the way it goes.
Question: Have you reviewed the case against him?
Trump: That's the way it goes, right? That's the way it goes. Will I what?
Question: Have you reviewed the case against him?
Trump: No, I haven't. I haven't, but I just think he's a bad person. OK. Anybody else? Yeah.
Question: What's the timeline for the IVF drug through the National Commission Priority Review Voucher, Dr. Makary?
Trump: What do you think, Doctor?
Marty Makary: Yeah. So first of all, the National Priority Voucher Program says we're going to proactively at the FDA look for amazing treatments like this IVF treatment. We're going to reach out to the companies. And if it's in line with the president's national priorities, we're going to put those drugs at the front of the line and get a decision out in weeks instead of a year. And so today we announced nine drugs that are going to be recipients. These are products where the manufacturing is going to be in the United States, or it's meeting a large unmet public health need, like a diabetes drug we announced today, or it is a product where you're going to see an affordability phenomenon because the prices are getting equalized in line with the president's Most Favored Nation status goal.
Trump: Wow, that's great. Why didn't I have him speak? He was so -- he could have saved a lot of time, right? Thanks, Marty. I'm not surprised. Yeah, please.
Question: Thank you. So Senate Majority Leader John Thune today said he'd like to proceed with the bill, which would put sanctions on Russia. What's your thought on that?
Trump: Well, we're going to see. He doesn't know about the call yet. I'm going to speak to him later and it was subject to what I wanted to do. And so we'll see what happens. We may have -- this may be such a productive call that we're going to end up -- we want to get peace. We want to stop the killing, 7,000 people a week. Can you believe it? We want to stop the killing. So I'm going to speak to him and the speaker, Mike Johnson. I'll speak to them a little bit later and I'll tell them about this and we'll make the right determination. I'm not against anything. I'm just saying, it may not be perfect timing. It could happen in a week or two, but it's at my option, as you know.
Question: Right, but did President Putin try to dissuade you from selling Tomahawk missiles --
Trump: Well, of course. What do you think he's going to say, please sell Tomahawks? Is he going to say, please sell those Tomahawks? I really appreciate it. I did actually say, would you mind if I gave a couple of thousand Tomahawks to your opposition? I did say that to him. I said it just that way. He didn't like the idea. He really didn't like the idea. No, I said it that way. You have to be a little bit light-hearted sometimes, but no, he doesn't want Tom -- Tomahawk is a vicious weapon. It's a vicious offensive of incredibly destructive weapon. Nobody wants Tomahawks shot at him.
Question: Did he specifically ask you not to provide Tomahawks?
Trump: So -- wouldn't anybody? -- I mean, it's been in the news. Who wouldn't do that? CNN, who wouldn't do that? You know, you think he's going to say, I'd love to have Tomahawks sent my way. I don't think so. Maria, we have one of the great stars of television here and she's an incredible person and she's just an amazing woman, who -- she got it all right. She got the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax right. She got everything. Would you have a question?
Question: Yes, Mr. President. I would ask you why this was so important to you, IVF, and why was autism so important to you? What are you trying to achieve?
Trump: Well, autism is like a whole different thing. When you look at -- it was 1 in 20,000, now it's 1 in 12. If you look, Bobby, we have different numbers, but 1 in 12, 1 in 28, 1 in 32. There's a couple of different numbers out there, but it's one in a very different number than it used to be. It used to be 1 in 20,000, and that was -- that was not that long ago, 20 years ago or so. And now they had something for boys, for babies, baby boys, it's 1 in 12. I heard 1 in 10, Bobby. I heard another one, you know, different lists. But when you think of that, it's not even sustainable, but there's something artificial. When that happens, that's not a natural -- and then you have certain groups of people that literally don't have autism and they're not taking some of the things that we're taking.
So we're working very hard. And on IVF, it's just that I have friends, including Katie, that called me and they told me the importance of it. I wasn't that familiar with it. And now I think I've sort of become the father ever since I heard. There was a bad decision in Alabama where a judge wanted all clinics to be immediately closed. Right? And Katie called up and you said you were pretty strongly attacked by your friends that you didn't even know were involved with IVF, right?
Britt: Yes. We had people that had grandkids, people who had gone through IVF themselves, telling their story saying, there are people with hope out there --
Trump: Tell her. Tell her what you did when you heard from your friends. You said, this was not -- they almost became violent.
Britt: Yeah. I told him. I said, Mr. President, we need you. We need your voice in this conversation. We need the directive. We need the strong support because there are millions of people out there, moms and dads wanting to bring life into the world. And you had people -- the chilling effect that occurred across Alabama. There were people that were in the middle of that process that had been praying to have a child and that was halted. And so the reality of that was very stark in our state. And so I was able to tell the president some of the stories of people, you know, friends and grandparents and relatives that told me what they had experienced.
And also, you know, what they were fearful of in the future. And the president very quickly acted spoke with a strong voice and really led the way. Obviously, we saw Democrats continue to fearmonger for the remainder of the year, trying to use it as an election issue, when actually, IVF is legal and accessible in all 50 states. And President Trump very clearly said where he was on this. And he said, I'm going to make sure that this is more accessible and that it is more affordable for families coast to coast. That's exactly what he did. But it's that real life, those real-life stories, sir, that he responded to. And that's what people don't know about him, he cares.
And when you tell him what American people are dealing with, he wants to do something about it. You have leaders and politicians that come before him that want to talk about things. President Trump wants to actually make things happen. It's exactly what he did here. And I am so, so grateful, Mr. President. Thank you, Katie, very much. I appreciate it. So we will go back to what we're doing. I'm working again with Marco and with JD and a few of the people on the war and we're doing a lot of other things. Also, the economy is unbelievable. It really is. It's been incredible. And I think one of the great numbers that I've ever heard.
Think of it, over $17 trillion being invested in our country. And when you think of -- compare that to the last administration, but really compare it to any administration, compare it to any country, that has never been a country with anything like that. That's in a period of eight months and we're going to -- we've already broken every record possible. There's never anything even close. So we'll go back to all of that. Prices are down. Oil is down. We're down $58 a barrel. That's going to -- we're going to be hitting $2 for gasoline. I think we're going to be at $2. And the previous administration, they were at $4 and $5. They were going up much higher.
Trump: And then they swung back into my things, but they didn't swing back properly. They were very, very late. They really blew it. We had it really going in the right direction. They came in and took everything out. And, you know, it's incredible. I'll never forget, they lost control of the price of gasoline, of oil. They totally lost control, Howard, and then they went back immediately, let's go back to Trump. But by that time it was too late. And they didn't go back because the leases and everything else. They didn't -- they didn't do what they had to do. They wouldn't know -- they really didn't know how to, but we could be hitting close to $2 a gallon.
I'd love to break it, if we could, but we could be -- and you know, when that comes down, everything else. And everything else has been coming down. Groceries are down. The price of things are down. And honestly the -- the simplicity is, if you can get oil down, it's such a big category, everything follows. So just about everything follows and we are working on beef and I think we have a deal on beef that's going to bring the price of beef -- that would be the one product that we would say is a little bit higher than we want it, maybe higher than we want it and that's going to be coming down pretty soon too. We did something. We worked our magic. But groceries are down and energy is down. Electricity is way down. We have the prices coming down for people. They were abused for four years by the Biden administration. Thank you very much, everybody. We'll see you soon. Thank you. Thank you.