{"id":12207,"date":"2026-04-24T05:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/24\/two-ways-of-calculating-trump-defends-his-mathematically-impossible-calculations-on-drug-prices-ap-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T05:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:17:12","slug":"two-ways-of-calculating-trump-defends-his-mathematically-impossible-calculations-on-drug-prices-ap-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/24\/two-ways-of-calculating-trump-defends-his-mathematically-impossible-calculations-on-drug-prices-ap-news\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Two ways of calculating&#8217;: Trump defends his mathematically impossible calculations on drug prices &#8211; AP News"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/will-weissert\">                 <picture data-crop=\"60x60\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\" ><source width=\"60\" height=\"60\" ><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Staff headshot of Will Weissert at the Associated Press bureau in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. (AP Photo\/Andrew Harnik)\"  width=\"60\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/418cdac\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1500x1500+0+0\/resize\/60x60!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fe3%2F8e%2Fa073735b45a198ec3f917b8aeb41%2Fwill-headshot-web-size-will-weissert.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"> <\/picture>  <\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>                 <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1776994464000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                     <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                     <span data-date>\u00a0<\/span>                 <\/bsp-timestamp>             <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                       <bsp-page-actions>                                 <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                                    <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/span>, who helped push the term \u201c <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/not-real-news\">fake news<\/a><\/span> \u201d into the mainstream, now seems to have a new favorite subject: fake math.<\/p>\n<p>During a Thursday event <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-white-house-regeneron-drug-pricing-mfn-bdacc3b7e47f4ba23e85bb14705073de\">announcing a deal with drugmaker Regeneron to lower the cost of its pharmaceutical products<\/a><\/span>, Trump defended his past claims that prices on prescription medications had been cut by well over 100% \u2014 something that is mathematically impossible without manufacturers dropping prices to zero and then presumably paying consumers to use their product. <\/p>\n<p>Trump acknowledged having boasted that his efforts to lower drug prices had reduced what consumers pay by \u201c500%, 600%.\u201d But he added, \u201cWe also sometimes say 50%, 60%\u201d and called it a \u201cdifferent kind of calculation\u201d that could go up to \u201c70, 80 and 90%.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople understand that better,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut they\u2019re two ways of calculating\u201d and \u201ceither way, it doesn\u2019t make any difference.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>There could indeed be two ways of calculating such things \u2014 but the difference is very important. One is correct. The other is nonmathematical.<\/p>\n<p>It was one of several times Trump used his own \u2014 but incorrect \u2014 math during the drug pricing event. He claimed the 7 1\/2-week-and-still-going Iran war actually fell within the four- to six-week timeline he predicted early on. The president also brought up the crowd size for his 2017 inauguration \u2014 a subject that led onetime top Trump adviser <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/kellyanne-conway\">Kellyanne Conway<\/a><\/span> to unwittingly make the phrase \u201c <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/df148be22a484e8b8c04406320bd961a\">alternative facts<\/a><\/span> \u201d famous. <\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s incorrect take on percentages \u2014 something he has long repeated \u2014 came just after his health chief, <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/robert-f-kennedy-jr\">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,<\/a><\/span> brought up the issue on his own during the same Oval Office event Thursday. <\/p>\n<p>Kennedy noted that he was reminded of his exchange the previous day with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at a congressional hearing when she said that claiming price cuts exceeding 100% might suggest \u201ccompanies should be paying you to take their drugs.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Kennedy said during the hearing that Trump \u201chas a different way of calculating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Kennedy argued that drug manufacturers had raised prices on popular medications by more than 100% and that Trump was then cutting the price down substantially \u2014 meaning he was wiping out percentages of costs worth more than 100%. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the drug was $100, and it raised the price to $600, that would be a 600% rise,\u201d Kennedy said \u2014 even though that\u2019s incorrect. Six hundred is indeed 600% of the original 100 value, but the increase from one to the other is actually only 500%. <\/p>\n<p>Kennedy then continued, \u201cAnd the president used that mathematical device.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But no such device exists for the way Trump characterizes it \u2014 at least not when math is done correctly. <\/p>\n<p>Something can increase in price by more than 100%. A product that increases from $1 to $2.10 has increased by 110%. But prices cannot be reduced by more than 100% without being pushed to a value of $0 \u2014 or reduced 100% of the full price \u2014 and then into negative territory, where consumers presumably would need to be paid for using a product. <\/p>\n<p>In a subsequent question-and-answer session with reporters during the price announcement event, meanwhile, Trump offered another dash of fake math for how long the <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/iran\">war in Iran<\/a><\/span>, which began Feb. 28, had been going on. <\/p>\n<p>Asked about the war having exceeding the four to six weeks he originally suggested it would last, Trump argued that he\u2019d actually met his own timeline because Iran\u2019s military was \u201cdecimated\u201d by then. <\/p>\n<p>The U.S. and Iran agreed to a <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/iran-us-israel-war-what-to-know-beb5625f8537ceaf22c061cf073210aa\">ceasefire<\/a><\/span> this month, and Trump announced this week that he <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/us-iran-war-pakistan-april-21-2026-177a2d0701ef172c3e51686bc1f18f30\">was extending it<\/a><\/span>. But neither side says the <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/us-iran-war-hormuz-israel-pakistan-ceasefire-april-23-2026-368b922ae2f4c874df8a133491eeffe8\">war is over<\/a><\/span>, and a conclusion that hasn\u2019t been achieved certainly didn\u2019t occur in the four to six weeks that have already elapsed.<\/p>\n<p>Trump also brought up his 2017 inaugural crowd size issue on Thursday, when talking about renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He noted that Martin Luther King Jr. had drawn hundreds of thousands of people to the National Mall for his \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech in 1963 and claimed: \u201cI had the same exact crowd. Maybe a little bit more,\u201d arguing that pictures of both events backed him up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI actually had more people,\u201d Trump added. \u201cBut that\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] \u00a0 WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump, who helped push the term \u201c fake news \u201d into the mainstream, now seems to have a new favorite subject: fake math. During a Thursday event announcing a deal with drugmaker Regeneron to lower the cost of its pharmaceutical products, Trump [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}