The Livelihoods of the Drug Companies: Donald Trump Points the Way to a New Social Contract

Did you notice that Donald Trump, speaking in Florida on the night of March 5— fresh from victories in two of the four states that went to the polls on Saturday— cited “pharmaceuticals” as villains to be brought to political justice?

In fact, in recent weeks the populist mogul has attacked the drug industry repeatedly, in terms that might seem unfamiliar for a Republican—any Republican, that is, other than the consciously iconoclastic Trump.

A revealing headline atop a March 2 story in Stat News blares: “Trump’s health care plan takes (another) page from the Democrats.” In the words of health-beat journalist David Nather, Trump “has embraced an idea to bring down drug costs that’s associated more with Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) than with the party he’s trying to lead.”

To be sure, most of Trump’s 2016 campaign healthcare plan is in keeping with orthodox Republicanism. Most obviously, he urges the “full repeal” of Obamacare.

Let’s look at each in turn.