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Year: 2025

President Trump takes on ‘Big Pharma’ by signing executive order to lower drug prices

President Trump takes on ‘Big Pharma’ by signing executive order to lower drug prices

President Donald Trump declared Monday that the U.S. “will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma” as he signed an executive order implementing what his administration is calling “most favored nations drug pricing.”  “The principle is simple – whatever the lowest price paid for a drug in other developed countries, that is the price that Americans will pay,” Trump said at the White House. “Some prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 50 to 80 to 90%.”  Trump said that “starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries, which is what we were doing. We’re subsidizing others’ healthcare, the countries where they paid a small fraction of what for the same drug that what we pay many, many times more for and will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma.”  “Even though the United States is home to only 4% of the world’s population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two thirds of their profits in America. So think of that with 4% of the population, the pharmaceutical companies make most of their money. Most of their profits from America. That’s not a good thing,” Trump continued.   TRUMP SAYS HE WILL SLASH DRUG PRICES WITH EXECUTIVE ORDER “I think, by the way, pharmaceutical – I have great respect for these companies and for the people that run them. I really do, and I think they did one of the greatest jobs in history for their company, convincing people for many years that this was a fair system. Nobody really understood why, but I figured it out. For years, pharmaceutical and drug companies have said that research and development costs were what they are, and for no reason whatsoever, they had to be borne by America alone,” Trump said. “Not anymore, they don’t.”  The White House said that the executive order “directs the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce to take action to ensure foreign countries are not engaged in practices that purposefully and unfairly undercut market prices and drive price hikes in the United States. “The Order instructs the Administration to communicate price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to establish that America, the largest purchaser and funder of prescription drugs in the world, gets the best deal,” the White House said. “The Secretary of Health and Human Services will establish a mechanism through which American patients can buy their drugs directly from manufacturers who sell to Americans at a ‘Most-Favored-Nation’ price, bypassing middlemen,” the White House added. “If drug manufacturers fail to offer most-favored-nation pricing, the Order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) propose rules that impose most-favored-nation pricing; and (2) take other aggressive measures to significantly reduce the cost of prescription drugs to the American consumer and end anticompetitive practices.” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said alongside Trump, “I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime.” “I have a couple of kids who are Democrats, are big Bernie Sanders fans. And when I told them that this was going to happen, they had tears in their eyes. Because they thought, this is never going to happen,” he said. “And we finally have a president who is willing to stand up for the American people.”  MAHA CAUCUS MEMBER PLEDGES HEARINGS INTO ‘CORRUPTION’ OF A PUBLIC HEALTH SECTOR ‘CAPTURED BY BIG PHARMA’ Trump said earlier this morning that drug prices would be “cut by 59%.”  The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America trade group opposes the order, saying, “This Foreign First Pricing scheme is a bad deal for American patients.”  “Importing foreign prices will cut billions of dollars from Medicare with no guarantee that it helps patients or improves their access to medicines,” the group’s president, Stephen Ubl, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “It will jeopardize the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America, making us more reliant on China for innovative medicines.”  “To lower costs for Americans, we need to address the real reasons U.S. patients are paying more for their medicines. We are the only country in the world that lets PBMs, insurers and hospitals take 50% of every dollar spent on medicines,” Ubl also said. “In fact, hospital markups in 340B and the rebates and fees paid to middlemen in the U.S. often exceed the total cost of medicines oversees. Giving more of this money to patients will lower their medicine costs and reduce the gap with European prices.”  Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.  

Southern border apprehensions plunge more than 90% from year ago in April, CBP says

Southern border apprehensions plunge more than 90% from year ago in April, CBP says

FIRST ON FOX – Apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border have plummeted 93% under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to new data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection released Monday. The CBP says it averaged 279 apprehensions per day at the southern border in April, compared to 4,297 apprehensions in April 2024. The total apprehensions for April this year landed at 8,383, compared to last year’s 129,000. CBP officials also noted that just five illegal aliens were temporarily released into the U.S. during April, compared to 68,000 during the same month last year. “For the first time in years, more agents are back in the field – patrolling territories that CBP didn’t have the bandwidth or manpower to oversee just six months ago,” said Pete Flores, acting commissioner of CBP. “But thanks to this administration’s dramatic shift in security posture at our border, we are now seeing operational control becoming a reality – and it’s only just beginning.” TOM HOMAN: MIGRANTS DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR WERE ‘SIGNIFICANT PUBLIC SAFETY THREATS’ The CBP also noted that drug seizures rose 15% from March to April. Officials say they seized some 758 pounds of fentanyl crossing the border last month. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE The report shows the Trump administration’s continued progress on controlling the border since March. The CBP recorded the lowest southwest border crossings in history in March, with fewer apprehensions in the entire month than there were in the first two days of the month in 2024 under the Biden administration. Border Patrol apprehended a total of 7,181 illegal aliens attempting to cross the southern border between ports of entry in March. This constitutes a 14% decrease from February, when Border Patrol apprehended 8,346 aliens, and more dramatically, a 95% decrease from the 137,473 aliens apprehended under the Biden administration in the same period in 2024. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Aliens are receiving the Trump administration’s message: if you cross the border illegally, you will be deported,” CBP said in its latest report. Fox News’ Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.

Trump defends Qatar jumbo jet offer as troubled Boeing fails to deliver new Air Force One fleet

Trump defends Qatar jumbo jet offer as troubled Boeing fails to deliver new Air Force One fleet

President Donald Trump defended the U.S. preparing to accept a jumbo jet gift from Qatar’s royal family to serve as a temporary Air Force One as Boeing fails to roll out a new Air Force One fleet in a timely manner.  “We’re very disappointed that it’s taking Boeing so long to build a new Air Force One,” Trump said from a press conference on drug prices Monday morning. “You know, we have an Air Force One that’s 40 years old. And if you take a look at that, compared to the new plane of the equivalent, you know, stature at the time, it’s not even the same ballgame.”  “When I first came in, I signed an order to get (the new Air Force One fleet) built,” he continued. “I took it over from the Obama administration, they had originally agreed. I got the price down much lower. And then, when the election didn’t exactly work out the way that it should have, a lot of work was not done on the plane because a lot of people didn’t know they made change orders. That was so stupid, so ridiculous. And it ended up being a total mess, a real mess.”  Reports spread Sunday morning that the Trump administration was expected to accept a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from Qatar’s royal family. ABC News reported that Trump would use the jet until the end of his term, when it would be given to his presidential library.  QATAR OFFERS TRUMP JUMBO JET TO SERVE AS AIR FORCE ONE Trump confirmed Sunday evening on Truth Social that the Department of Defense would receive the 747 as a gift, while railing against Democrats as “world class losers” for criticizing the gift.   “So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” Trump wrote. “Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA.” He continued in the press conference Monday that when he returned to office in January his administration informed him construction on two new Air Force Ones was “way behind” on the schedule for completion.  TRUMP TEASES ‘VERY, VERY BIG ANNOUNCEMENT’ AHEAD OF MIDDLE EAST TRIP, CARNEY SAYS HE’S ‘ON EDGE OF MY SEAT’ “If we can get a 747 as a contribution to our Defense Department to use during a couple of years while they’re building the other ones. I think that was a very nice gesture. Now, I could be a stupid person to say, ‘Oh, no, we don’t want a free plane.’ We give free things, we’ll take one, two, and it helps us out. Because again, we’re talking about we have a 40-year-old aircraft. The money we spend, the maintenance we spend on those planes to keep them tippy-top is astronomical,” he added, calling the gift a “great gesture from Qatar.”  White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also brushed off concern over the Qatari royal family donating a Boeing jumbo jet to the U.S. Department of Defense, arguing Monday there will be no quid pro quo arrangement and that the donation is under legal review to ensure full compliance with the law.  “The Qatari Government has graciously offered to donate a plane to the Department of Defense,” Leavitt said on “Fox & Friends” Monday morning. “The legal details of that are still being worked out. But of course, any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law, and we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency, and we will continue to do that.” TRUMP STAFFERS LOAD BOXES OF ITEMS SEIZED BY FBI IN 2022 MAR-A-LAGO RAID ONTO AIR FORCE ONE When asked if the administration was worried that accepting the gift could lead to a quid pro quo situation where Qatar expects something in return, Leavitt shot down such a narrative.  “Absolutely not because they know President Trump, and they know he only works with the interests of the American public in mind,” Leavitt responded.  Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., wrote to the Government Accountability Office Sunday, calling for an ethics investigation into the gift, claiming it would be the single most expensive gift ever received by a U.S. president.  “I am writing to express alarm over reports that President Donald Trump is poised to accept a luxury aircraft — a Boeing 747-8 — from the government of Qatar,” Torres wrote. “The plane, so opulent it has been described as a ‘palace in the sky,’ is set to be made available to President Trump for official use as Air Force One and then for private use once he leaves office.”  “This ‘flying grift’ is merely the latest chapter in a tawdry tale of presidential profiteering unprecedented in American history,” Torres added. Presidents have for decades circumvented the Emoluments Clause — which prohibits federal elected officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments or monarchs — by classifying gifts they receive while in office as gifts to the office of the president. Those gifts are then cataloged and stored as part of their presidential libraries after leaving office.  While presidents maintain some level of access to the items in their libraries, they do not own them directly and must purchase them from the federal government in order to secure private ownership. Leavitt said in comment to Fox Digital Monday morning that all gifts received by a foreign government would be above board and in compliance with the law.  HOUSE DEMOCRAT CALLS FOR ‘IMMEDIATE’ ETHICS PROBE OF QATARI PLANE GIFT TO TRUMP “Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws,” Leavitt said. “President Trump’s Administration is committed to full transparency.”  Trump is headed to the Middle East and is expected to meet with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. A

Trump says China agrees to ‘fully’ open country’s markets to US businesses

Trump says China agrees to ‘fully’ open country’s markets to US businesses

China has agreed to “open itself up to American business” following trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing Saturday, according to President Donald Trump. The arrangement arguably was the most significant development stemming from the trade negotiations, Trump told reporters Monday at the White House.  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent launched trade negotiations with China in Geneva Saturday, resulting in a deal that would temporarily ease up on tariffs for 90 days.   This is a breaking news story and will be updated. 

‘Enough is enough’: GOP senator unleashes bill with severe consequences for harming police

‘Enough is enough’: GOP senator unleashes bill with severe consequences for harming police

FIRST ON FOX: Ohio freshman GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno has introduced legislation that would increase the criminal penalties for harming a police officer after a sheriff’s deputy was killed in the line of duty in Cincinnati, Ohio, earlier this month. Moreno’s Larry Henderson Act, being introduced this week, would update existing law stating that anyone who forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes with any law enforcement officer engaged in official duties be required to face one to eight years in prison, depending on the severity. Moreno’s bill would up that mandatory minimum to 20 years.  The bill also “establishes federal jurisdiction over these crimes as exclusive and preemptive, superseding state or local prosecution for federal officers.” COP KILLER DIES AFTER ‘BOTCHED’ FIRING SQUAD EXECUTION; WITNESS IN THE ROOM REVEALS HOW IT HAPPENED “Enough is enough,” Moreno told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Anyone who assaults one of our men or women in blue needs to face severe consequences, period. Deputy Larry Henderson should be alive today, and that’s why I’m introducing legislation – in his honor – to protect our law enforcement officers.” POLICE GROUP SLAMS GOFUNDME FOR OHIO FATHER ACCUSED OF KILLING DEPUTY LARRY HENDERSON The bill is named after Hamilton County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Henderson, who was killed when he was struck by a car while directing traffic near the University of Cincinnati during a graduation ceremony. Authorities have charged Rodney Hinton with attempted murder and say he intentionally struck Henderson shortly after Hinton’s 18-year-old son was shot and killed by officers after allegedly fleeing in a stolen car while armed, according to prosecutors. Ohio Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) President Jay McDonald said in a statement that Ryan’s father, Rodney Hinton Jr., “intentionally murdered a retired deputy who was working special duty at a graduation just because he was a police officer.” Henderson was a 33-year officer with the HCSO and had served in multiple specialized units since 1991, including the dive team, HCPA SWAT, FBI Task Force Officer and the HCSO Bomb Unit. “In Deputy Henderson’s early tenure as a Sheriff’s Deputy, I recognized his talent for teaching and presentation,” Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey said in a statement after Henderson’s death. “Larry began his journey as a Sheriff’s Office trainer early in his career. He developed an expertise and became an excellent trainer. Subsequently, he trained divisions of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office that included hundreds of deputy sheriffs. His ability to relate to and touch officers’ lives was extraordinary. We will continue to honor Larry’s life of service.” Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin contributed to this report