Trump Torched China’s Tariffs, Crushed Big Pharma’s Profits, and Still Made the Market Boom — All Before Breakfast

In today’s first “Mission Impossible” story, we will recall that last week, President Trump offered Americans a stock tip, urging that it was time to buy. Keeping that promise, early this morning Al Jazeera ran a story headlined, “China and US agree to 90-day tariff suspension as trade war talks extended.” Global markets surged, with rising stock markets in Hong Kong, the U.S., and Europe.

 
The US and China issued a joint statement in the wee hours following two days of trade talks in Geneva, Switzerland. The talks, which came after President Trump created the need for emergency talks with a “spiral of increasingly heavy duties,” were called positive. Negotiators “agreed to suspend some of the heavy trade tariffs imposed against one another as they prepare to extend negotiations aimed at lowering trade war tensions.”

Tariffs, some reaching as high as 150%, will be dialed back to 10% across the board. China agreed to drop its tariffs and remove its “non-tariff countermeasures.” That last is code for unofficial punishments like regulatory harassment, slowed customs clearance, or just pretending the call went straight to voice mail.

When Trump first launched his tariff blitz, the media had an absolute meltdown. Pundits shrieked like naptime toddlers about a looming financial apocalypse, breathlessly predicting empty shelves, collapsing markets, hyperinflation, and the return of Dust Bowl-era bread lines. The Atlantic warned of a “global recession triggered by reckless trade brinksmanship.” CNN trotted out every retired Fed official they could find to caution that tariffs would crater consumer confidence and “devastate the middle class.”

Exempli gratia, behold this overwrought headline from Irresponsible Statecraft, one month ago:

 
The only thing missing was a tariff-fueled nuclear doomsday ticker in Times Square.

But once again, reality refused to cooperate with media’s dreams— and instead of a catastrophe, Trump got Chinese concessions and another stock market rally. Tariff Doomsday failed to show up for the breakfast buffet and hasn’t even checked in to the hotel.

What corporate media called “impossible,” Trump called “Sunday.”

Maybe it’s more accurate to say most of the market rallied. In the latest example of a news cycle driven by social media posts, late yesterday, the UK Guardian ran a story headlined, “Pharmaceutical stocks slide as Trump vows to cut US prescription drug prices ‘by 30-80%.’” It is so darn amusing how the President has forced the media to stick up for its real customer: Big Pharma.

 
Yesterday, President Trump tweeted a long post saying he will sign an order this morning that will reduce prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices “almost immediately” by “30% to 80%.” A few hours before he made the announcement, Trump posted: “My next TRUTH will be one of the most important and impactful I have ever issued. ENJOY!”

None of the stories, including the Guardian’s, included the President’s actual message, preferring to cherry-pick bits of it. So here it is:

 
Trump’s reference to the “Most Favored Nation” policy suggests that his order will require the U.S. government to pay the same prices for drugs as other countries. As we all well know, most other countries pay much lower prices for medications. For example, the list price for diabetes medicine Jardiance is $611 for a 30-day in the US, compared with $70 in Switzerland and only $35 in Japan.

I couldn’t find any headline celebrating falling drug prices — corporate media was obsessed with how the executive order (which nobody’s even seen yet) would hurt pharmaceutical stocks. I think the media has lost the plot. Trump essentially promised to cut costs for sick people, and the media’s hair is on fire over hedge fund portfolio losses.

Under any other president, the media would be rolling out statistics about how much the average person pays for their prescriptions and how much the potential savings could be, and how the economy might surge because all that money could be spent on more productive things. If Biden had made the same announcement, every major outlet would’ve run with glowing human-interest profiles: Meet the grandmother whose insulin just became affordable thanks to bold leadership.

Under Biden, a $35 insulin cap was hailed as a historic breakthrough; under Trump, an 80% slash across the board is treated like economic terrorism. Trump could cure cancer, and they’d run with headlines like, “Biotech layoffs surge after oncology disruption.”

So to recap: Trump promises lower drug prices, and the media is as outraged as if he’d just clubbed a baby seal on the trading floor. Their outrage wasn’t over what sick Americans pay— it’s over what Pfizer’s shareholders might lose. If you ever wondered who corporate media really works for, wonder no more. They’re not covering the cost of our meds; they’re covering for the people charging us six hundred bucks for a bottle of tainted sugar pills.

 
The media hysterically predicted economic catastrophe, yet here we are: gas prices are stabilizing, egg prices have eased, inflation has bottomed out, jobs are bursting, and prescription drug costs are poised to drop significantly. In fact, prices have plunged so fast the media is now running scare stories about the perils of falling costs. It’s almost as if the so-called “reckless” policies are delivering results.

Maybe the real impossible mission is getting the media to admit it.

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