Staff Reports
President Trump laid out, in blunt and unmistakable fashion, a conversation he says he had with French President Emmanuel Macron — even imitating Macron’s voice as he recounted the moment Macron purportedly begged him to keep the deal quiet. The president told lawmakers that he threatened a 25 percent tariff on French goods unless Paris agreed to raise drug prices, and he described Macron as conceding under that pressure. This was not idle boasting; Trump presented it as a hard-nosed negotiation to correct a historic imbalance that has punished American patients.
According to multiple reports, Trump claimed other European leaders reacted the same way, agreeing within minutes once the tariff leverage was on the table, and he said France agreed to hike prices dramatically while U.S. prices fell as a result. That kind of diplomatic muscle is exactly what Washington needs when other governments are gaming the system on prescription costs. Whether you love his style or hate his accent, the substance is what matters: using America’s economic clout to protect American lives and wallets.
This showdown isn’t coming from nowhere — Trump points to executive moves he’s already made, including a most-favored-nation approach to drug pricing announced in May that aims to stop the U.S. from overpaying while other countries freeload. He’s framed the strategy as closing a loophole where foreign governments keep prices artificially low and shift costs onto American consumers. That’s simple fairness and fiscal common sense, and it’s a welcome corrective to decades of Washington policymakers who pretended there was nothing to be done.
Make no mistake: conservatives should applaud the use of tariffs as leverage when they protect American interests. For too long our leaders have meekly accepted deals that advantage foreign bureaucracies and Big Pharma’s global pricing games while seniors and working families in the United States suffer. If the choice is barking politely at Paris or wielding real consequences that bring real results, give me consequence every time. This is the kind of boldness that delivers tangible relief, not empty press releases and finger-wagging lectures.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is finally starting to reckon with hard truths about drug pricing. European industry bosses and regulators have themselves signaled that prices in the EU are far lower than in the U.S., and some executives have pushed back against that model as unsustainable for innovation and supply. If tariffs prompt honest price adjustments and force richer countries to stop freeloading on American patients, then call it what it is: a patriotic victory for medicine and markets.
Of course the media and the usual diplomatic pieties will howl about style over substance, but hardworking Americans don’t have time for sanctimonious takes while their prescriptions cost a fortune. This is about results, and the result Trump promises is lower drug bills for American families by insisting on fair global pricing. Mockery of pompous elites who refuse to play fair is not cruelty — it’s accountability.
Patriots should demand more of this kind of leadership: use America’s leverage, protect our citizens, and stop treating globalism as an excuse to let everyday Americans pay the bill. If that means tough talk and tough measures, so be it — the alternative is continued surrender to a broken system that benefits the powerful and punishes the people. Support leaders who will fight, not apologize, for American families.
