President Donald Trump publicly boasted about the steepest decline in prescription drug prices in the United States in six decades, portraying it as an achievement of his administration while waving a copy of The Washington Post.
However, the story he chose to display before the cameras presents a different reality: a key part of the decline is attributed to initiatives undertaken during former President Joe Biden’s term.
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The White House amplified the moment by sharing an image of Trump holding up the newspaper page with the article’s headline and opening paragraph visible. During a meeting, the president raised the page and urged reporters to pay attention to the headline. “Here, this is today’s main headline. Did you see it?” he asked, before reciting the opening passage and adding: “Okay, did you get that? Did everyone understand? I told you this was coming.” He then encouraged journalists to spread the news widely.
But contrary to the impression Trump sought to create, The Washington Post article emphasized that the decline in drug prices was linked primarily to a reform passed during the Biden era. It referred to the Inflation Reduction Act, approved in 2022, which gave Medicare the authority to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers over the prices of some of the most expensive and widely used treatments. The first price reductions agreed upon under this framework took effect at the beginning of 2026.
According to the Consumer Price Index, prescription drug prices fell by 3.1% in July, marking the sharpest annual decline recorded in more than 60 years. The figures were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose head Trump had fired a year earlier following the publication of weaker-than-expected labor market data. At the time, the president had labeled those statistics “fake.”
Health policy experts have expressed serious doubts that the drop in prices is primarily the result of actions taken by the Trump administration. Richard Frank, a professor of health economics at Harvard, told The Washington Post that if he had to single out the most significant factor, he would point to measures stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act rather than initiatives by the current administration. Similarly, Stacy Dusetzina, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University, described the Biden-era law as the most convincing explanation for the downward trend. Although only 10 drugs have entered the negotiation process so far, Dusetzina noted that they are used extensively, meaning reductions in their prices could significantly affect the overall prescription drug index.
Despite the article’s factual content, White House officials continued to portray the decline as a personal achievement by Trump. The administration’s communications director wrote on X: “All thanks to President Trump!”
