The Illusion of Quick Solutions - The Golden Standard of Trumpism
May 13, 2025, 17:05 - Opinion
Trump's executive order on drug prices in the U.S. is an ideal embodiment of his political style, which can be summarized as loudly proclaiming radical change while carefully avoiding the mechanisms that could achieve these changes.
Author: Gleb Kuznetsov - Political Scientist
The executive order on "lowering drug prices," which Trump presented yesterday as a matter of utmost importance and urgency, is the golden standard of Trumpism. On the surface, it represents the "ideal measure": bold promises, creating external enemies, ignoring reality, and having no chance of achieving any real change.
"Americans should not subsidize prescription drugs for other developed countries, nor should they face high drug prices in the U.S. Therefore, Americans should enjoy the most favorable drug prices. My administration will immediately take measures to end 'freeloading' behavior worldwide."
America is suffering - of course, the culprit is Europe. If foreign drugs are cheaper - that means "the world is plundering America." Europeans are dangerous "socialists" (by the way, this is the wording in the executive order), who refuse to pay "fair prices," making drugs hard to obtain in the U.S.
The reasons for the high cost of American drugs are both mundane and complex. All participants in the process from clinics to insurance companies have an interest in increasing the amount of funds within the system; there is no single "buyer" for drug procurement, the procurement system is extremely complex and opaque, and systemic corruption exists by nature. Every official at the FDA knows that their position in drug price negotiations determines their future salary at pharmaceutical companies. Patent practices - such as "evergreening" and "patent hopping," along with a series of methods to hinder the emergence of generic drugs. A well-developed "pharmaceutical benefits management" (PBM) system - a class of intermediaries who earn a profit margin in the gray area between manufacturers, insurers, and doctors (60 billion USD annually). The pharmaceutical industry is not only a major financial provider to political figures but also an election sponsor and a lobbying group larger than the oil and defense industries. There are many factors that can be listed. However, fighting against these factors is not easy. However, fighting against European "socialism" is both easy and safe.
Where does the true magic of this executive order lie? It appears to challenge unfair pricing but does not touch any party benefiting from this injustice. It neither involves pharmaceutical companies, intermediaries, lobbyists, nor shareholders of pharmaceutical companies. Instead, it blames "greedy foreigners." It sells an illusion of control without touching the interests of any truly relevant parties (even without mentioning them). It doesn't even mention feasible ideas that, despite being regularly obstructed by lobbyists during different government periods, are still possible, such as allowing imports of cheaper drugs from Europe and Canada, even when actual shortages occur.
So, what is the "golden standard" of any Trump-style "solution," exemplified by the "drug executive order"?
- Narrative over reality: create a simplified, emotionally appealing narrative ("foreigners are plundering America"); ignore multifaceted realities and tend toward the simplest explanations.
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- Nationalist rhetoric replacing actual solutions: use "America First" as a universal ideological cover for everything; blame external actors regardless of evidence.
- Bypassing institutional mechanisms: use slogans in executive orders instead of formulating, discussing, and implementing solutions with relevant parties and society; create an illusion of quickly solving complex problems through the will of the leader.
- Transactional approach: reduce any issue to a "bad deal" problem that needs to be "renegotiated" into a "good deal"; view any global system as a simple bilateral (definitely bilateral! - here "both sides" refer to the U.S. and Europe, completely ignoring the existence of lower-priced pharmaceutical industries in India and China).
- Firm belief that simply showing strength and determination can change everything.
In fact, Trump's executive orders produce minimal institutional impact under maximum media effect - this is its characteristic, not a defect.
In this sense, the executive order on drug prices is indeed an ideal embodiment of Trump's political style, summarized as "loudly proclaiming radical change while carefully avoiding the mechanisms that could achieve these changes."
Original Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7504243112525496868/
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