Secretary of Commerce gets schooled on basic maths after Donald Trump’s impossible claim about drug prices – We Got This Covered
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Donald Trump, Howard Lutnick
Photo by Doug Mills – Pool/Getty Images/Fox News

Secretary of Commerce gets schooled on basic maths after Donald Trump’s impossible claim about drug prices

Donald Trump and his cabinet really are that dumb.

Maths is hard, especially for Donald Trump and his supporters it would seem, perhaps there’s a correlation there. Recently, Trump proudly boasted that he had reduced the price of drugs by an incredible yet mathematically impossible 600%, when questioned on it by a Fox News host, the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, doubled down and insisted that the numbers were correct.

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Lutnick, who’s certainly not the brightest of the bunch, was questioned by host, John Roberts, regarding a recent clip of Trump announcing his grand achievement in reducing the cost of medication. The president claimed to have negotiated directly with drug companies, taking as much credit as possible for his “mathematically impossible” feat. 

Roberts is skeptical about the claim that the president was somehow able to reduce the price by some 600%. “If you cut something by 100%, the cost goes down to 0.” He rightly points out, adding, “If you cut it by 600%, the drug companies are actually paying you.” Despite this, Lutnick insisted that Trump was correct. He attempted to explain the numbers but they just don’t add up.

His claim that “if a drug was $100 and you bring the drug down to $13, if you’re looking at it from $13, it’s down 7 times,” is backwards logic. While $13 up to $100 may be a 700% increase, it doesn’t work going from $100 down to $13 as you can’t decrease something by more than 100% because 100% is, by definition, the whole amount. 

Donald Trump and his cronies don’t know basic maths

Once again the Trump administration has exposed its own stupidity and unwillingness to back down even when they are clearly wrong. The hypothetical decrease from $100 to $13 Lutnick is talking about would be an 87% decrease, even middle schoolers could probably work that out. 

Of course, it sounds more impressive to boast 600% because it’s a bigger number, which is no doubt why Trump chose to say it. However, for those with an IQ not in the negative, it’s immediately obvious that these numbers are false and simply don’t make sense. Trump is just making himself look like a fool.

“Can we please bring back the DEI hires,” one person on X quipped. “Shouldn’t there be some level of partisan stupidity that is illegal?” Asked another, while a third joked, “MATH IS A DEMOCRATIC HOAX.” 

While it might be a little bit funny, it’s also genuinely terrifying how utterly brainless the people in charge of running the country are. How can we trust Trump and his cabinet to do anything right when they can’t even do arithmetic the average 10-year-old could.


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Jordan Collins
Jordan is a freelance writer who has been featured in a number of publications. He has a Masters in Creative Writing and loves telling that to anyone who will listen. Aside from that he often spends time getting lost in films, books and games. He particularly enjoys fantasy from The Legend of Zelda to The Lord of the Rings.