A Fox News anchor delivered a stark reality check on live television this week, dissecting a repeated and mathematically impossible claim made by former President Donald Trump about prescription drug prices.
The Impossible Math of a 600% Price Cut
The incident occurred on Thursday, December 18, 2025, during an appearance by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the Fox News program "America Reports." The discussion turned to Trump's primetime address the previous night, where he once again asserted that his administration had driven drug costs down by "400, 500 and even 600%."
Anchor John Roberts pointed out the fundamental flaw in this assertion. "Well, if you cut something by 100%, the cost goes down to zero. If you cut it by four, five, or 600%, the drug companies are actually paying you to take their products," Roberts explained, prompting a smile and chuckle from Lutnick.
Roberts then posed the central question: "So it raises the question: How much of last night's speech was hyperbole and how much was fact?" The anchor's point was inescapable: a reduction exceeding 100% is not a price cut but a subsidy, a scenario not claimed by the administration.
Lutnick's Attempt to Decode "Trumpspeak"
Secretary Lutnick attempted to reframe the former president's statement, putting on his "math hat" to offer an interpretation. He suggested Trump might be referring to a scenario where a drug's price dropped from $100 to $13.
"If you're looking at it from $13, it's down seven times!" Lutnick claimed, before Roberts interjected to clarify, "It's not 600%." Lutnick continued, arguing, "Well, it's 700% higher price before, it's down 700% now, right?... So $13 would have to go up 700% to get back to the old one."
He concluded that the framing depends on perspective, stating, "You could say it's down 87% or you could say it would have to go up 700% to be the same one." Ultimately, Lutnick fell back on the broader intent, asserting, "But basically what he's saying, and we all know what he's saying, is we are hammering the price of drugs down..."
A Pattern of Implausible Claims
This exchange highlights a recurring theme. Trump has promoted this specific implausible claim for months, baffling critics and fact-checkers. Back in July 2025, he similarly vowed to force pharmaceutical companies to drop drug prices by up to 1,500%, citing "numbers that are not even thought to be achievable."
The on-air lesson from Roberts, a fixture on a network typically supportive of Trump, underscores the glaring disconnect between the claim's political rhetoric and its arithmetic reality. For Canadian viewers and policymakers watching U.S. developments, the incident serves as a case study in the tension between political messaging on pharmaceutical prices and factual accountability, a relevant issue as cross-border drug costs remain a perennial concern.
The moment quickly spread on social media, with journalist Aaron Rupar posting the clip on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption noting Roberts was pushing Lutnick on the fact that Trump's claims are "literally mathematically impossible."
