COLUMN: When Trump Sells Pills Bearing His Name, America Foot the Bill

Why 85% of Americans Won’t Benefit

Here’s the fundamental problem that no one wants to see: TrumpRx doesn’t benefit people with health insurance, who make up about 85% of the U.S. population. For these millions of people, using TrumpRx means paying out of pocket, and those payments don’t count toward their annual deductibles or out-of-pocket maximums. Let’s take the example of a family with standard health insurance. When using their insurance, they might pay a $35 copay per prescription. With TrumpRx, they would pay the “discounted” cash price—which is often much higher—and lose all the benefits of their coverage. Once a family reaches its annual out-of-pocket maximum through their insurance, the plan covers 100% of the costs for the rest of the year. With TrumpRx, that family would pay full price all year long, with no out-of-pocket maximum. This is mathematically disadvantageous for the vast majority of Americans. But who’s going to explain these nuances to people dazzled by promises of dramatic price cuts?

The numbers don’t lie, but politicians do. And here, it’s reached new heights. To sell a solution that makes the problem worse for 85% of the population—you’ve got to have some nerve. But Trump dares to do anything; that’s what he’s known for. What revolts me is the calculated indifference to the real consequences on real lives.

When a “discount” Becomes a Disguised Tax

Let’s talk about older adults—the very people who need medication the most. The average American over 65 fills or refills an average of 32 prescriptions per year, and 20% of them take more than 10 different medications each year. These seniors live on a median income of about $56,680 per year—often a fixed income—from Social Security and modest savings. Most are enrolled in Medicare Part D, the government’s prescription drug program. Let’s consider a diabetic patient with high cholesterol who needs Januvia and Repatha. With their insurance, they pay a $35 copay per medication per month, or $840 per year. On TrumpRx, those same medications would cost $100 and $239 per month, respectively—or $4,068 per year. The difference? An additional $3,228, representing nearly 6% of their total annual income. For seniors who are already choosing between medication and food, this isn’t a discount—it’s a tax on the most vulnerable.

Six percent of their income. Let that number sink in. For people who are already barely getting by, who count every dollar, who skip meals to pay for their pills. And they’re being sold this as a favor, as a gift from the president. It’s obscene. That’s the word. Obscene.

Big Pharma is quietly cheering

So who really benefits from TrumpRx? Pharmaceutical companies, of course. These companies have long offered direct patient assistance programs, allowing them to circumvent the restrictions imposed by insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. By steering patients toward a cash market, manufacturers preserve their ability to maintain high prices while appearing magnanimous through selective discounts. It’s a strategy that protects their profit margins while further fragmenting the collective bargaining power that insurance pools are supposed to provide. Pharmaceutical giants like Novo Nordisk, which manufactures Ozempic, can thus demonstrate their goodwill without really altering their business model. Trump offers them a free government platform for marketing, while presenting himself as the savior of the American people. It’s a win-win deal—except for patients, who continue to pay through the nose.

They always win. The drug companies, the insurers, the middlemen. Everyone is lining their pockets while the sick are slowly dying, crushed under the weight of bills they can’t pay. And now, they’re being given a government platform to continue their business as usual. That’s Trump’s America.

When Fragmentation Kills

Beyond the financial implications lies an even more troubling issue: patient safety. When Americans—especially seniors—fill their prescriptions at traditional pharmacies, pharmacists serve as a critical safety net. They review medication histories to detect dangerous interactions, flag duplicate treatments, and advise patients on proper use. This oversight has prevented countless medical errors and adverse events, some of which could have resulted in serious harm or even death. But when patients purchase medications directly from manufacturers through TrumpRx, they fragment their medication and health records across multiple sources. No pharmacist sees the full picture of what a patient is taking through TrumpRx. A person who buys blood pressure medication through TrumpRx, a cholesterol medication at a retail pharmacy, and a diabetes medication through another direct-to-consumer program creates a dangerous information gap. The risk of harmful drug interactions, duplicate treatments, or dangerous dosing errors increases exponentially.

We’re playing with people’s lives. Literally. Not metaphorically, not symbolically. Real lives, real bodies, people who will die because no one will have seen the full picture of their medications. But it doesn’t matter, as long as Trump’s name shines on a government website.

When a Government Domain Becomes a Private Brand

No one is shocked anymore that a website registered under a government domain (.gov) bears the name of a private individual—the president, in this case. This personification of power has reached unprecedented levels in the United States. TrumpRx is not an isolated case—it symbolizes a deeper trend in which public institutions are becoming extensions of the Trump brand. The president has already had his name affixed to Washington’s most famous theater. He has launched cryptocurrencies bearing his likeness. He turns every government initiative into an opportunity for personal branding. And now, public health. What should be a neutral, universal service is becoming a Trump-branded product. The administration itself no longer seems to see a problem with this blurring of the lines between the public interest and self-promotion. It has become normal. Trivial. Accepted. And perhaps that is what is most terrifying—our ability to adapt to the unacceptable.

I try to imagine a world where this would have been shocking. Where people would have stood up, outraged, to say, “No, enough is enough—we won’t let public health be turned into a tool for personal marketing.” But that world no longer exists. We’ve crossed so many red lines that we don’t even know where they were drawn anymore.

Midterm Elections in the Crosshairs

The announcement of TrumpRx comes at a strategic moment: the Republican Party is taking stock of public discontent over the cost of living and is concerned about the potential political fallout in the November 2026 midterm elections. Polls show growing frustration over inflation, gas prices, and, above all, skyrocketing healthcare costs. Trump needs a visible victory, a bold move that allows him to say, “Look, I’m doing something.” It doesn’t matter if that “something” is ineffective for most people, or if it potentially makes the problems worse. What matters is the image, the newspaper headline, the 30-second clip where Trump proudly announces that he’s saving America. Political spectacle at its peak, where the appearance of action replaces the action itself. And it works, because people want to believe that someone is looking out for them, even when reality proves otherwise.

We’ve become spectators of our own decline. We applaud the magic tricks while our pockets are being emptied. And the magician smiles, confident, knowing that we’ll ask for more again and again, even when we’ve lost everything.

What We’re Really Reluctant to Do

Americans don’t need another government website. They need a government willing to fix the system itself. That would involve fair and transparent price negotiations that recognize the value of a drug to society, meaningful patent reform, and insurance coverage designed more effectively to ensure that every American can afford the medications they need. Other wealthy countries solved this problem long ago. Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany—all have systems that allow their citizens to access medications without breaking the bank. But in the United States, healthcare is a business like any other, and the pharmaceutical lobbies are too powerful for anyone to truly touch the system. So we create Band-Aid solutions—cosmetic fixes that give the illusion of change without fundamentally altering anything. TrumpRx is exactly that: a flashy Band-Aid on a gaping wound that continues to bleed.

We know how to do it. We have the examples right before our eyes. Dozens of countries have found the solution. But we refuse to look, we refuse to learn, we refuse to change. Because changing would mean taking on the pharmaceutical giants, and no one has the courage to do that. So we continue to die a slow death, telling ourselves that at least we have the freedom to choose our poison.

When the Cure Is Worse Than the Disease

TrumpRx is not a serious solution to the systemic problems plaguing access to affordable medications for all Americans. It is a public relations stunt disguised as public health policy. For the 15% of Americans who are uninsured or underinsured, any price reduction from the full retail price will be significant. But for the remaining 85%, TrumpRx is, at best, a distraction; at worst, a financial and medical trap. The program fragments care, jeopardizes patient safety, and allows pharmaceutical companies to maintain their high prices while portraying themselves as benefactors. Meanwhile, the real problem—a fundamentally dysfunctional healthcare system that enriches middlemen while the sick grow poorer—remains intact. Trump has pulled it off: putting his name on a government initiative, generating positive headlines, and giving the impression that he’s taking action. But for the millions of Americans who will continue to choose between their medication and their rent, nothing will have changed. The illusion has been sold, but they’re still the ones footing the bill.

I end this column with a bitter taste in my mouth. No surprises, no sudden revelations. Just confirmation of what we already knew: in this country, the sick are a commodity, health is a privilege, and politicians sell dreams while people are dying. TrumpRx will go down as a perfect symbol of our times—a brilliant lie, wrapped in presidential marketing, sold to desperate people who have no choice but to believe it. Because the alternative is to admit that no one is coming to save them. And that’s too hard to accept.

Signed, Jacques Provost