'Reality eroding before our eyes': Trump called out for 'absurd' claim about drug prices
President Donald Trump was jeered for a "preposterous" claim about lowering prescription drug prices.
The president sent letters last week to the heads of 17 major pharmaceutical companies demanding they cut drug prices to levels paid by other countries, but he repeated a claim Sunday night to reporters that he would reduce the cost for prescription medications by a whopping 1,500 percent – which many social media users pointed out was absurd.
"The thing about lying about cutting prescription drug prices is that while a lot of economic policy is too complicated for the average American to understand, Americans know whether they’re paying more/less for their prescriptions when they go to the pharmacy," posted health policy professor Miranda Yaver.
"'We are going to cut prices by 1500% and I fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because she is incompetent,'" said policy professor Don Moynihan.
"Today’s best confabulation by our esteemed president," added child psychologist and professor Ellen Braaten.
"This is how this works: The prescription costs $100. You go to the drug store to pick it up, and instead of paying the pharmacist, the pharmacist gives you the medicine AND $1,400! Why didn’t any previous president think of this!?" posted HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte.
"He lies as he breathes," said podcaster Wajahat Ali.
"There’s a real temptation here to make a joke, or to ask which drugs these are that pharma companies are now paying patients to take, because let’s all get in on it!" added physician Michelle Au. "But honestly, all I can feel is sad that someone this stupid could be our president. Again."
"This was in the same discussion in which the president reiterated that he didn’t trust the math of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics on the economy," pointed out CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere.
"I wouldn’t believe anything that comes from the Trump Regime," said Bluesky user Robert Fischoff. "It’s all lies, propaganda, misinformation and more lies. Always. And now it’s become Trump lies so absurd and preposterous that it’s actually ridiculous to have to point out the absolute idiocy of them."
"Tomorrow, it'll be eleventy thousand percent, and the media will report it without question, and we'll all shake our heads and move along, and it'll be just another day of reality eroding before our eyes," sighed author Jennifer Erin Valent.