President Trump discusses lowering prescription drug prices, relations with China and his trip to Saudi Arabia on 'Hannity.' #trump #hannity #china #usnews #politics #breakingnews #exclusive #us #world #china #drugs #medical #saudiarabia #foxnews
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00:01Mr. President?
00:02Hi, thank you very much.
00:03Okay, by the way, we're on a beautiful Air Force One.
00:06Not a bad plane.
00:08Not bad at all, not bad at all.
00:10It's a beautiful plane, and we're doing a lot of business.
00:13We had a lot of good things happening.
00:15Okay, so this is an amazing week so far.
00:18You get a deal with China.
00:20I'm just going to list it, then we can get into detail.
00:23India and Pakistan played a big role.
00:25Hopefully, the peace stands.
00:27You slash prescription drug prices.
00:30Most favored nation, the American people, will get first dibs in terms of prices.
00:36The last American hostage has been released.
00:39We're on this trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar.
00:42There's not much going on in your life, is there?
00:45Well, I've been busy, but I've enjoyed it because we're getting things accomplished.
00:49We're getting things done.
00:50You know, you can have times when you're working very hard and not getting things done.
00:54That happens, too.
00:56But we're getting a lot done.
00:57I don't think there's ever been a little period like this with the potential nuclear war.
01:02And two countries, they have very good leaders, people I know very well.
01:07And, you know, it was a very important process.
01:10We got involved with India and Pakistan.
01:13You got involved early.
01:14Can you give us a little insight what happened behind the scenes?
01:17How were you able?
01:18Well, I didn't like what was happening.
01:20And you hear, you know, they're two very strongly nuclear countries.
01:25Very, very powerful amount of nuclear, too.
01:29Serious stuff.
01:30And if that ever started, boy, that's the beginning of something that could be really bad.
01:35Even a minimal, minimal you could have millions of people killed.
01:39And with one shot, two shots.
01:42And I just thought it was something we could get involved in.
01:45I did a good job.
01:46Marco did a good job.
01:48And J.D. did a good job.
01:49We sort of were a team.
01:51And we, I think, convinced them to let's have peace and let's go and make trade deals.
01:57If we can make trade deals, we like that much better than nuclear weapons.
02:00And that was a great thing.
02:02And we did a good job with the Houthis.
02:04They stopped with the shooting of the ships.
02:07They like shooting ships.
02:09Is that a good deal?
02:10Because there's been conflicting reports that some of their leaders are saying, oh, that's not true.
02:14Well, it is with respect to America.
02:16Now, you know, you can't always count on somebody necessarily telling the truth.
02:21But their surrogates were very strong, very powerful, very good relationship with them.
02:27You know, they're tough fighters.
02:28They can take a lot of punishment.
02:31But they, with respect to America, they say it's true.
02:36We'll see.
02:37You'll know.
02:38You'll be the first to know, won't you?
02:39I follow the news closely.
02:40I read everything.
02:41I think the biggest surprise from this weekend, it was a week ago, Friday, where I saw that
02:49China announced, quote, if the president is serious, we will be willing to negotiate with him.
02:55And Scott Besant, your Treasury Secretary, met with their representatives in Geneva on Saturday.
03:04On Monday, you're announcing a trade.
03:07Well, actually, on Sunday, you announced a deal with China.
03:10Yeah.
03:11How did that happen that quickly?
03:13Well, they met on Saturday and Sunday, and they had a deal pretty much from the beginning.
03:16It was the concept of a deal.
03:18And, you know, one of the things that, as you know, it's sort of a 90-day deal as we negotiate other aspects.
03:26But one of the things I think that could be most exciting for us and also for China is that we're trying to open up China.
03:33Because, as you know, many years ago we opened up the USA.
03:36Now it's time for China to open up, and that's part of our deal.
03:40And we're going to open up China.
03:42To me, that's the most exciting part.
03:44But, yeah, we made a deal.
03:46The relationship is very good.
03:47I've always had a good relationship with President Xi.
03:50It was interrupted because of COVID, obviously.
03:53But outside of that, I've always had a great relationship, a lot of respect for him.
03:57And we'll see how that all works out.
04:01But we have the confines of a very, very strong deal with China.
04:05But the most exciting part of the deal, it was mentioned, but we don't talk about it yet.
04:12That's the opening up of China to U.S. business.
04:16And that would be like opening up a whole new world.
04:19And I think it would be even better for China.
04:21So I think we'll be able to make that deal, I hope.
04:23At any point, do you foresee yourself dealing directly with President Xi on the final details of this deal?
04:31Yeah, I could see that.
04:32I mean, I'm not sure that it will be necessary, but that happened with the U.K.
04:37We were close to a deal, but we needed one point or two points on pork and ethanol.
04:45Okay, two very different subjects.
04:47And I called up the prime minister.
04:50He was an excellent man here, excellent man.
04:53And within about three minutes, it was over.
04:56We made the deal.
04:57It was a good deal for everybody.
04:59And we have a lot of deals now.
05:00We have a lot of trade deals.
05:02I'd say virtually everybody wants to make a deal.
05:06When I first saw you, and thank you for letting us cover this and report on this from Air Force One.
05:15When I first saw you, I think you were more excited.
05:18You were excited about the China deal, but prescription drugs, which has been very, very painful for a lot of Americans.
05:27Eighty percent of medications are created in America.
05:32And then we end up paying more for those medications.
05:35Foreign countries do not pay as much as we do.
05:38You said that is over.
05:39Can you explain why this is such a big deal?
05:42Well, for many years, we were taken advantage of by other countries and the drug companies.
05:46But I blame the other countries in a way more, the European Union, et cetera.
05:50They were very nasty and very tough to the drug companies.
05:53And they would give them a very low price for drug costs in the European nations.
05:59And when that price was given, that was it.
06:03They wouldn't negotiate.
06:04They said, let America pay for the difference.
06:07And this happened all over the world with other countries.
06:10And we had stupid people leading us, especially over the last four years.
06:15And they wouldn't do anything about it.
06:17And it turned out that we were paying.
06:20And sometimes you saw 10 times more for the same drug.
06:23Same drug, same company, same plant where they make it, laboratory.
06:27And it got to a point where I said, we're not going to do this anymore.
06:32The pharmaceutical industry is very powerful and probably the most powerful,
06:37considered the most powerful lobby.
06:39And the Democrats were making it impossible to lower drug prices.
06:43They knew what they were doing.
06:44And I instituted a most favored nation's provision or concept,
06:50where we're going to pay whatever the lowest country pays in the world.
06:55So if it's the UK, which pays very low, in any country, it could be any country,
07:01whatever the lowest price is.
07:03And the drug companies have accepted it.
07:06Everybody accepts it.
07:07But the Democrats never wanted to play ball.
07:10They never wanted to do anything.
07:12It's the Democrats' fault that people were being ripped off for years and years.
07:16And now I hear Democrats saying, oh, well, we're going to now go for the bill.
07:20It's going to be very hard for them not to approve the big, beautiful bill that we're doing.
07:24We're doing the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country.
07:28Because people are going to be getting a 50 to a 90 percent reduction in drug prices.
07:33Not a half a percent.
07:35I remember when I would fight so hard to get a half a point.
07:39And I actually had it down a half a point for one year.
07:42And I was so proud of myself because that never happened before.
07:45It was always going up.
07:47Drugs only went in one direction.
07:48It's up.
07:49And now, after studying the industry, it's a very complex industry, but I figured it out.
07:54And I said, it's not going to happen.
07:57But the Democrats fought very hard to keep the prices of drugs very, very high.
08:02They really are to blame for this, because they should have done something about it.
08:06And when the Republicans went with requests, they said, we're not going to approve it.
08:11And now we have a unified Republican Party.
08:14But I think the Democrats are going to approve this bill, too.
08:16Because how are they going to reject a 60, 70, 80 percent drug cut?
08:21I don't think they can.
08:23I think it's going to be huge.
08:25The fact that these drugs, the creation of these drugs.
08:29I mean, these companies have to go through a very arduous process to get approval by the government.
08:35They spend billions of dollars.
08:37And put aside whether or not, quote, people demonize big pharma.
08:43That's separate and apart.
08:44However, we usually end up creating them.
08:46And then we end up paying ten times more, which is crazy.
08:50Well, they used to use that, if I could interrupt.
08:52They used to use that as a reason why we were paying five and ten times more than other countries.
08:58They say because of research and development.
09:00And I'd always say, well, what about you doing research and development for the rest of the world, too?
09:05Why are we paying for 100 percent?
09:07So we paid 100 percent for research and development, which, along with other things, believe it or not,
09:14raised the price to a point where you were five to ten times higher than the rest of the world.
09:20And I told the story today.
09:21It was well-received.
09:22A friend of mine, who's slightly overweight, to put it mildly, went to a drug store in London, and he was able to get one of the fat shots.
09:31I call it the fat shots, the jabs, that you lose weight.
09:34A lot of people laugh at that.
09:36Some people get offended by it.
09:37I don't get offended by anything.
09:38I'm just glad I didn't use his name.
09:40He's actually a very rich guy.
09:41He's a very successful guy.
09:42I mean, he's glad you didn't use his name.
09:44No, no.
09:45He's very happy.
09:46He knows exactly who I was talking about.
09:47He called.
09:48He said that was interesting.
09:49He said he was very concerned that I might use his name.
09:52It might slip.
09:53No.
09:54He doesn't have to worry.
09:55But he went to London, and he bought this...
09:59Ozempic, Lagovi, one of those?
10:01I guess.
10:02Yeah.
10:03I'm not sure which one.
10:04But he bought one of them.
10:05Maybe Ozempic.
10:06And he bought it, and he called me.
10:09He said, hey, a strange thing happened.
10:12I just bought a drug.
10:14Same company, same plant, same everything.
10:16Everything was the same.
10:17In one case, I paid, in New York, $1,300.
10:21And in London, I'm paying $88.
10:23He said, what's going on?
10:25Now, he knew nothing.
10:26He's a very smart guy.
10:27He's a very rich guy.
10:29His big problem is he's seriously overweight.
10:31But I don't think the drug worked, okay, to be honest with you.
10:34But it makes him feel good anyway.
10:36But so what happens is he just...
10:38He said to me, I paid $88 in New York.
10:42I get it for $1,300 or something.
10:44A massive difference.
10:46And I said, that's right.
10:47The drug laws are very screwed up, and I'm doing something about it.
10:50He said, you better, because this is crazy.
10:52He didn't understand it, but he didn't understand why.
10:55And now he understands why, because he watched our news conference this morning, holding his breath, right?
11:01But he watched his news conference.
11:03But think of it.
11:04So he goes to London.
11:05And a lot of people go shopping in nearby or even faraway countries.
11:10And they'll go away once a month or once a week or something, if it's a nearby country.
11:14They'll go right across the border, and they'll buy the same drug for one-tenth the price as we pay in the United States.
11:19And part of it is the power of the drug companies, which is a very big power.
11:25But I think a bigger part is the ruthlessness of other nations to screw the United States of America.
11:32And the European Union would be the top, because they represent a lot of countries.
11:37And they're brutal, according to the drug companies who told me this.
11:40They're brutal in negotiations.
11:42They say, this is what we're going to pay.
11:44We're not going to pay any more.
11:46And if you need more, you get it from America.
11:48And so they get a low price, and we get a high price.
11:51And I ended it.
11:52And this has been going on for many years.
11:54But nobody realized that you could do it.
11:58I think I figured out the system.
12:00Very complex chain of events take place.
12:02And I ended it.
12:04And I have to say, the drug companies were great.
12:07They were great.
12:08They said, look, it's time.
12:10They actually looked.
12:11They said, it's time.
12:12Hey, Sean Hannity here.
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