3 ms·

White House launches direct-to-consumer drug site TrumpRx

23 points by geox 9mo ago

tmaly 9mo ago
Is this like Trump University?
- chneu 9mo ago
  Another scam? Yes
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
sxp 9mo ago
> "White House launches direct-to-consumer drug site..." > "The site is not selling drugs directly to American patients..." Just another layer of middlemen. They should go with the proper free market option and allow Americans to buy medication from other countries.
- johannes1234321 9mo ago
  How could the Trump family then directly benefit from it?
  - michaelteter 9mo ago
    Ego. Brand. But there is likely some financial angle buried in the plans somewhere.
  - unsnap_biceps 9mo ago
    https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/trumprx-delayed-as-senators-question-if-its-a-giant-scam-with-big-pharma/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/trumprx-delayed-as-se... There’s already reason to be suspicious of conflicts of interest with TrumpRx, the senators note. There’s a “potential relationship between TrumpRx and an online dispensing company, BlinkRx, on whose Board the President’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., has sat since February 2025,” the senators write.
josefresco 9mo ago
Hm, I wonder what Mark Cuban who runs costplusdrugs.com thinks of this. He hasn't commented that I can see yet https://bsky.app/profile/mcuban.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/mcuban.bsky.social
- Johnny555 9mo ago
  It's a much different service that Costplus Costplus manufactures and sells drugs at a small markup over manufacturing cost. TrumpRX appears to be more of a central clearinghouse where drug makers can offer discounts to consumers. And at least so far, they seem to be the same discounts that they already offer, when you look up a drug on the site, it redirects you to the manufacturer's website. Maybe it's useful for people without insurance that don't know how to search look for discount programs to help them buy drugs and maybe some manufacturers will offer discounts on the site that aren't available otherwise, but it's not a competitor to Cuban's site.
- bityard 9mo ago
  I haven't heard of this but he must be pretty proud of it, the page title is literally, "Homepage of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs", his name is in the logo, and the picture is on the front page.
  - josefresco 9mo ago
    The branding is... weird. I always thoughts it was just a campaigning tactic for Mark's upcoming presidential bid but given how things have played out, now I'm not so sure.
    - toomuchtodo 9mo ago
      It's using Mark's brand to juice marketing scale organically.
    - razingeden 9mo ago
      I’ve jumped on several threads where he’s discussing the product and it seems as though he enjoys the idea of putting PBMs out of the public’s misery and making it kind of personal. then also it’s an invitation for debate or discussion, which he seems open to and approachable about… as scoldy and confrontational as that may be from what I’ve gathered … the gist of that is “this sucks we want single payer” and what I’ve surmised so far is, that’s great but until we’re there I’m taking on PBMs im okay with either or both of those objectives , neither of which are advancing. Not really on topic for “trumprx,” forgive me. I’m trying to avoid contempt before investigation. Contempt after reading the fine print is fine.
arghandugh 9mo ago
[dead]
behole 9mo ago
[flagged]
- jsbisviewtiful 9mo ago
  > The new intellectual dark ages. There was a report this week that the current admin was destroying medical research, so yes there does seem to be a new intellectual dark age incoming. https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/trump-admin-is-destroying-medical-research-senate-report-finds/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/trump-admin-is-destro...
ceejayoz 9mo ago
Nice to see the admin can even flub basic math. https://imgur.com/a/XCQr5EP https://imgur.com/a/XCQr5EP $1,449 --> $252 is "93% off", apparently?
- EricRiese 9mo ago
  This is the guy that promised 1000% discounts on drugs.
- montroser 9mo ago
  You know they started with 83% in there and then orange man insisted they change the "8" to a "9".
  - urthor 9mo ago
    I mean, it's a typo? Give them a break
    - kccoder 9mo ago
      The correct default position with this admin is bad faith and/or malice. If you were developing this site wouldn’t you just develop a formula to calculate the discount? Hate to that’s a typo unless you didn’t do any testing. Luckily we are able to tos\ spot lazy bs here.
eykanal 9mo ago
So playing "skeptic in a vacuum" for a minute—i.e., pretending that I don't know anything about this administration, and not having done any research beyond reading the linked article—this seems like a pretty good thing. Insurance companies negotiate tremendous discounts for pharmaceuticals, which means that people without insurance are often majorly screwed when trying to buy medicine. Having the government act as a negotiator with the drug companies to obtain similar discounts for the uninsured seems to be a positive move. Happy to have someone explain to me why this is a bad take.
- stvltvs 9mo ago
  A step closer to Medicare for all?
  - montroser 9mo ago
    Can't tell if this is serious or a joke? This site he launched is literally like Groupon for drugs, for people who don't have health insurance. It's mostly nothing, but if anything it is a step toward normalizing not having health insurance.
- happytoexplain 9mo ago
  Assuming there's nothing wrong with it technically (scam, misleading, mishandling, whatever), then yeah, nothing wrong your take. It's just the obvious meta-problems: His name being on it creates trust issues and reluctance (and inversely: blind trust on the other side). Even just regarding image and principles: Most people justifiably hate the idea of a prideful asshole putting his name front and center on a government service - they want the comport of a president to be the opposite of a cartoonish car salesman. They might tolerate it if the guy in question doesn't cultivate that image (e.g. Obamacare), but even then, they don't want the guy to officially name it that (e.g. ACA) because that would again contribute to the image of petty self-advertisement. Of course this "normal" human psychology gets short-circuited with enough hate ("I don't like that behavior. Oh wait, my enemies also don't like? Now I like it.").
  - 9mo ago
ortusdux 9mo ago
Reports are that this is just a rebranded GoodRx.
- jauntywundrkind 9mo ago
  The prices are exactly the same! But there are no generics available!! Ahhh, yesss. /cackle Link: https://bsky.app/profile/tom.medsky.social/post/3me5npjbcms2y https://bsky.app/profile/tom.medsky.social/post/3me5npjbcms2...
  - ortusdux 9mo ago
    They both use the same Bin and PCN numbers. Reportedly the group and member ID's can be anything
- cosmicgadget 9mo ago
  Why build when you can brand.
pupppet 9mo ago
When Democrats regain power, what are Republicans going to complain about after 8 years of giving their guy the green light to do anything.
- hagbard_c 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - hagbard_c 9mo ago
    [flagged]
- ceejayoz 9mo ago
  If history is any guide: tan suits (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_tan_suit_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_tan_suit_controve...), eating arugula and dijon mustard (https://theweek.com/speedreads/704818/big-controversy-point-obamas-presidency-over-dijon-mustard https://theweek.com/speedreads/704818/big-controversy-point-...), terrorist fist jabs (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/terrorist_fist_jab https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/terrorist_fist_jab), and putting feet on the Oval Office desk (https://wtop.com/news/2013/09/obama-and-the-foot-on-desk-controversy/ https://wtop.com/news/2013/09/obama-and-the-foot-on-desk-con...). They aren't operating in good faith.
- stranded22 9mo ago
  Cute. ‘If’, not ‘when’.
- kccoder 9mo ago
  That won’t matter. Hypocrisy is a given.
- mindslight 9mo ago
  All the damage that Trump caused, as it becomes unavoidably apparent and the propagandists pin it on the next administration. Remember the cries about price inflation during Biden's term, after Trump had turned the money printing press to 11 during Covid? Dumped interest rates, PPP handouts, and even mailing helicopter checks directly to everyone. Then when monetary velocity finally picked back up, the bill came due. Republicans have been running this sabotage-then-criticize scam for decades now. Trump has just embraced it whole hog during his second term and it's an open question whether Democrats will even be able to stem the hemorrhaging after this one, especially as they're generally not effective at building things and so much has been wholesale destroyed.
ranger_danger 9mo ago
He is desperate to come up with a grift with his name on it because he's jealous of Obamacare, which was even named by Republicans, even though they also somehow think the ACA isn't the exact same thing.
charles_f 9mo ago
The name of that website is interesting. I had heard of landmarks being named after politicians, laws being nicknamed after them (e.g. obamacare) or after judicial decisions, but it seems that it's usually, at least seemingly, by others. This one is directly named after the president launching it. I can't think of a precedent, was there one?
- michaelteter 9mo ago
  Incidentally, it was GOP who branded the Affordable Care Act as Obamacare in an effort to make it seem bad. Obama never asked for or wanted that name, although he later accepted it. Trump, as we know, has an insatiable need for recognition and attempts to put his name on everything he can.
  - throw0101c 9mo ago
    > Trump, as we know, has an insatiable need for recognition and attempts to put his name on everything he can. "Trump says he’ll free infrastructure funds for New York if Penn Station is renamed after him": * https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/06/trump-penn-station-dulles-airport-renaming https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/06/trump-penn-s... "Trump wants Penn Station, Dulles Airport named after him in funding deal with Schumer, sources say": * https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-penn-station-dulles-airport-named-after-funding/story?id=129910999 https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-penn-station-dulles-airport-...
moogly 9mo ago
Yet another scam[1], just like "no tax on overtime". [1]: https://newrepublic.com/post/206265/trump-prescription-drug-website-trumprx-scam https://newrepublic.com/post/206265/trump-prescription-drug-...
toomuchtodo 9mo ago
Trump’s Prescription Drug Website Exposed as a Big Fat Scam - https://newrepublic.com/post/206265/trump-prescription-drug-website-trumprx-scam https://newrepublic.com/post/206265/trump-prescription-drug-... - February 6th, 2026 https://x.com/cturnbull1968/status/2019602529278136786 https://x.com/cturnbull1968/status/2019602529278136786 | https://archive.today/IG7Au https://archive.today/IG7Au https://x.com/okcreports/status/2019655323137589399 https://x.com/okcreports/status/2019655323137589399 | https://archive.today/mbMdd https://archive.today/mbMdd

23 points by geox 9mo ago

tmaly 9mo ago

Is this like Trump University?

chneu 9mo ago
Another scam? Yes
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]

sxp 9mo ago

> "White House launches direct-to-consumer drug site..." > "The site is not selling drugs directly to American patients..." Just another layer of middlemen. They should go with the proper free market option and allow Americans to buy medication from other countries.

johannes1234321 9mo ago
How could the Trump family then directly benefit from it?
- michaelteter 9mo ago
  Ego. Brand. But there is likely some financial angle buried in the plans somewhere.
- unsnap_biceps 9mo ago
  https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/trumprx-delayed-as-senators-question-if-its-a-giant-scam-with-big-pharma/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/trumprx-delayed-as-se... There’s already reason to be suspicious of conflicts of interest with TrumpRx, the senators note. There’s a “potential relationship between TrumpRx and an online dispensing company, BlinkRx, on whose Board the President’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., has sat since February 2025,” the senators write.

josefresco 9mo ago

Hm, I wonder what Mark Cuban who runs costplusdrugs.com thinks of this. He hasn't commented that I can see yet https://bsky.app/profile/mcuban.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/mcuban.bsky.social

Johnny555 9mo ago
It's a much different service that Costplus Costplus manufactures and sells drugs at a small markup over manufacturing cost. TrumpRX appears to be more of a central clearinghouse where drug makers can offer discounts to consumers. And at least so far, they seem to be the same discounts that they already offer, when you look up a drug on the site, it redirects you to the manufacturer's website. Maybe it's useful for people without insurance that don't know how to search look for discount programs to help them buy drugs and maybe some manufacturers will offer discounts on the site that aren't available otherwise, but it's not a competitor to Cuban's site.
bityard 9mo ago
I haven't heard of this but he must be pretty proud of it, the page title is literally, "Homepage of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs", his name is in the logo, and the picture is on the front page.
- josefresco 9mo ago
  The branding is... weird. I always thoughts it was just a campaigning tactic for Mark's upcoming presidential bid but given how things have played out, now I'm not so sure.
  - toomuchtodo 9mo ago
    It's using Mark's brand to juice marketing scale organically.
  - razingeden 9mo ago
    I’ve jumped on several threads where he’s discussing the product and it seems as though he enjoys the idea of putting PBMs out of the public’s misery and making it kind of personal. then also it’s an invitation for debate or discussion, which he seems open to and approachable about… as scoldy and confrontational as that may be from what I’ve gathered … the gist of that is “this sucks we want single payer” and what I’ve surmised so far is, that’s great but until we’re there I’m taking on PBMs im okay with either or both of those objectives , neither of which are advancing. Not really on topic for “trumprx,” forgive me. I’m trying to avoid contempt before investigation. Contempt after reading the fine print is fine.

arghandugh 9mo ago

[dead]

behole 9mo ago

[flagged]

jsbisviewtiful 9mo ago
> The new intellectual dark ages. There was a report this week that the current admin was destroying medical research, so yes there does seem to be a new intellectual dark age incoming. https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/trump-admin-is-destroying-medical-research-senate-report-finds/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/trump-admin-is-destro...

ceejayoz 9mo ago

Nice to see the admin can even flub basic math. https://imgur.com/a/XCQr5EP https://imgur.com/a/XCQr5EP $1,449 --> $252 is "93% off", apparently?

EricRiese 9mo ago
This is the guy that promised 1000% discounts on drugs.
montroser 9mo ago
You know they started with 83% in there and then orange man insisted they change the "8" to a "9".
- urthor 9mo ago
  I mean, it's a typo? Give them a break
  - kccoder 9mo ago
    The correct default position with this admin is bad faith and/or malice. If you were developing this site wouldn’t you just develop a formula to calculate the discount? Hate to that’s a typo unless you didn’t do any testing. Luckily we are able to tos\ spot lazy bs here.

eykanal 9mo ago

So playing "skeptic in a vacuum" for a minute—i.e., pretending that I don't know anything about this administration, and not having done any research beyond reading the linked article—this seems like a pretty good thing. Insurance companies negotiate tremendous discounts for pharmaceuticals, which means that people without insurance are often majorly screwed when trying to buy medicine. Having the government act as a negotiator with the drug companies to obtain similar discounts for the uninsured seems to be a positive move. Happy to have someone explain to me why this is a bad take.

stvltvs 9mo ago
A step closer to Medicare for all?
- montroser 9mo ago
  Can't tell if this is serious or a joke? This site he launched is literally like Groupon for drugs, for people who don't have health insurance. It's mostly nothing, but if anything it is a step toward normalizing not having health insurance.
happytoexplain 9mo ago
Assuming there's nothing wrong with it technically (scam, misleading, mishandling, whatever), then yeah, nothing wrong your take. It's just the obvious meta-problems: His name being on it creates trust issues and reluctance (and inversely: blind trust on the other side). Even just regarding image and principles: Most people justifiably hate the idea of a prideful asshole putting his name front and center on a government service - they want the comport of a president to be the opposite of a cartoonish car salesman. They might tolerate it if the guy in question doesn't cultivate that image (e.g. Obamacare), but even then, they don't want the guy to officially name it that (e.g. ACA) because that would again contribute to the image of petty self-advertisement. Of course this "normal" human psychology gets short-circuited with enough hate ("I don't like that behavior. Oh wait, my enemies also don't like? Now I like it.").
- 9mo ago

ortusdux 9mo ago

Reports are that this is just a rebranded GoodRx.

jauntywundrkind 9mo ago
The prices are exactly the same! But there are no generics available!! Ahhh, yesss. /cackle Link: https://bsky.app/profile/tom.medsky.social/post/3me5npjbcms2y https://bsky.app/profile/tom.medsky.social/post/3me5npjbcms2...
- ortusdux 9mo ago
  They both use the same Bin and PCN numbers. Reportedly the group and member ID's can be anything
cosmicgadget 9mo ago
Why build when you can brand.

pupppet 9mo ago

When Democrats regain power, what are Republicans going to complain about after 8 years of giving their guy the green light to do anything.

hagbard_c 9mo ago
[flagged]
- hagbard_c 9mo ago
  [flagged]
ceejayoz 9mo ago
If history is any guide: tan suits (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_tan_suit_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_tan_suit_controve...), eating arugula and dijon mustard (https://theweek.com/speedreads/704818/big-controversy-point-obamas-presidency-over-dijon-mustard https://theweek.com/speedreads/704818/big-controversy-point-...), terrorist fist jabs (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/terrorist_fist_jab https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/terrorist_fist_jab), and putting feet on the Oval Office desk (https://wtop.com/news/2013/09/obama-and-the-foot-on-desk-controversy/ https://wtop.com/news/2013/09/obama-and-the-foot-on-desk-con...). They aren't operating in good faith.
stranded22 9mo ago
Cute. ‘If’, not ‘when’.
kccoder 9mo ago
That won’t matter. Hypocrisy is a given.
mindslight 9mo ago
All the damage that Trump caused, as it becomes unavoidably apparent and the propagandists pin it on the next administration. Remember the cries about price inflation during Biden's term, after Trump had turned the money printing press to 11 during Covid? Dumped interest rates, PPP handouts, and even mailing helicopter checks directly to everyone. Then when monetary velocity finally picked back up, the bill came due. Republicans have been running this sabotage-then-criticize scam for decades now. Trump has just embraced it whole hog during his second term and it's an open question whether Democrats will even be able to stem the hemorrhaging after this one, especially as they're generally not effective at building things and so much has been wholesale destroyed.

ranger_danger 9mo ago

He is desperate to come up with a grift with his name on it because he's jealous of Obamacare, which was even named by Republicans, even though they also somehow think the ACA isn't the exact same thing.

charles_f 9mo ago

The name of that website is interesting. I had heard of landmarks being named after politicians, laws being nicknamed after them (e.g. obamacare) or after judicial decisions, but it seems that it's usually, at least seemingly, by others. This one is directly named after the president launching it. I can't think of a precedent, was there one?

michaelteter 9mo ago
Incidentally, it was GOP who branded the Affordable Care Act as Obamacare in an effort to make it seem bad. Obama never asked for or wanted that name, although he later accepted it. Trump, as we know, has an insatiable need for recognition and attempts to put his name on everything he can.
- throw0101c 9mo ago
  > Trump, as we know, has an insatiable need for recognition and attempts to put his name on everything he can. "Trump says he’ll free infrastructure funds for New York if Penn Station is renamed after him": * https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/06/trump-penn-station-dulles-airport-renaming https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/06/trump-penn-s... "Trump wants Penn Station, Dulles Airport named after him in funding deal with Schumer, sources say": * https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-penn-station-dulles-airport-named-after-funding/story?id=129910999 https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-penn-station-dulles-airport-...

moogly 9mo ago

Yet another scam[1], just like "no tax on overtime". [1]: https://newrepublic.com/post/206265/trump-prescription-drug-website-trumprx-scam https://newrepublic.com/post/206265/trump-prescription-drug-...

toomuchtodo 9mo ago

Trump’s Prescription Drug Website Exposed as a Big Fat Scam - https://newrepublic.com/post/206265/trump-prescription-drug-website-trumprx-scam https://newrepublic.com/post/206265/trump-prescription-drug-... - February 6th, 2026 https://x.com/cturnbull1968/status/2019602529278136786 https://x.com/cturnbull1968/status/2019602529278136786 | https://archive.today/IG7Au https://archive.today/IG7Au https://x.com/okcreports/status/2019655323137589399 https://x.com/okcreports/status/2019655323137589399 | https://archive.today/mbMdd https://archive.today/mbMdd