Trump Presents Washington Post Article as His Achievement, Even Though It Highlights Biden’s Role

Donald Trump touted the biggest decline in prescription drug prices in the United States in more than 60 years as an achievement of his administration, appearing with a Washington Post article in his hands.

However, the very article the U.S. president chose to display publicly painted a different picture: a significant portion of the price decline was linked to measures approved when Joe Biden was president.

During an event, Trump showed the article to reporters and urged them to pay attention to the headline.

“This is today’s main headline. Did you see it?” he said. He then read the opening lines and continued: “All right, got it? Did everybody get it? I told you this was going to happen.”

The president also asked reporters to spread the news further.

The White House also gave the moment considerable attention, publishing a photograph of Trump holding the newspaper page showing the headline and the opening section of the article.

Although Trump used the headline as evidence of the impact of his policies, The Washington Post noted that the decline in drug prices could largely be attributed to a policy enacted by the Biden administration.

That policy is the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022. Through this law, the Medicare program gained the right to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies over the prices of some of the most expensive and widely used prescription drugs.

The first reduced prices resulting from these negotiations took effect at the beginning of 2026.

Consumer Price Index data showed that prescription drug prices fell by 3.1% in July. This was the largest annual decline recorded in more than six decades.

The figures were published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Trump had fired the head of the agency a year earlier, after the release of labor market data that came in weaker than expected. At the time, the president called the figures “fake.”

Health policy experts have expressed doubts that the price decline was primarily the result of measures taken by the Trump administration.

Richard Frank, a professor of health economics at Harvard University, told The Washington Post that if he had to single out the most significant factor, he would choose the measures associated with the Inflation Reduction Act rather than the initiatives of the current administration.

Stacy Dusetzina, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University, offered a similar assessment. According to her, the most likely explanation for the price decline is the law passed during Biden’s presidency.

So far, the price negotiations have covered only 10 drugs. Dusetzina emphasized, however, that they are widely used and that reductions in their prices could significantly affect the overall prescription drug index.

Despite what the article said, White House officials continued to describe the price decline as a result of Trump’s policies.

The White House communications director wrote on the social media platform X: “All thanks to President Trump!”