\n That isn\u2019t happening. But this is the \u201cPresident Trump is right\u201d administration<\/a>, in which Trump\u2019s aides and appointees often stretch to defend even his most laughably inaccurate claims. And so, even after lots of fact-checks and online jokes about Trump\u2019s fictional percentages \u2013 and even after Trump has implicitly made clear<\/a> he is aware these numbers are being challenged \u2013 his allies have tried to portray them as reasonable.\n <\/p>\n \n Here are three attempts they have made since the fall.\n <\/p>\n \n The most recent effort came from Kennedy on Wednesday and Thursday.\u202fKennedy used bad math to try to justify Trump\u2019s bad math.\n <\/p>\n \n At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren mentioned Trump\u2019s claims about \u201c600%\u201d reductions in drug prices. Kennedy responded<\/a>, \u201cPresident Trump has a different way of calculating. If \u2013 there\u2019s two ways of calculating percentage. If you have a $600 drug and you reduce it to $10, that\u2019s a 600% reduction.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That is just not true<\/a>. It\u2019s a 98.3% reduction, period. There is no mathematically valid way of calculating percentages that would make it a 600% reduction.\n <\/p>\n \n Kennedy\u2019s remark drew considerable mockery <\/a>on social media. But he made a similar comment at a White House event with Trump on Thursday \u2013 and deployed additional incorrect numbers while trying to support his case.\n <\/p>\n \n Kennedy, apparently alluding to his exchange with Warren, said<\/a> he had on Wednesday told a Democratic senator who challenged Trump\u2019s claims of a 600% reduction in drug prices: \u201cWell, if the drug was $100, and it raised the price to $600, that would be a 600% rise. Well, if it drops from $600 to $100, that\u2019s a 600% savings.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d Trump interjected as Kennedy was explaining. But it\u2019s not.\n <\/p>\n \n An increase from $100 to $600 is actually a 500% increase, not a 600% increase. And a drop from $600 to $100 is an 83.3% reduction, not a 600% reduction. Kennedy claimed that Trump was using a \u201cmathematical device,\u201d but there\u2019s no valid mathematical method that produces his numbers.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump added moments later that while he has taken \u201ca lot of heat\u201d for claiming 500%, 600% and 700% reductions, \u201cWe also say sometimes 50%, 60%; different kind of calculation \u2013 70, 80 and 90%.\u201d He conceded, \u201cAnd people understand that better.\u201d But he added, wrongly: \u201cBut there are two ways of calculating it.\u201d He then said, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any difference,\u201d since even declines of 60% and more would be unprecedented, but then continued, \u201cBut it\u2019s also 500, 600, 700 depending on the way you want to look at it. So, the way you word the calculation \u2013 it\u2019s either one.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s not.\n <\/p>\n \n Another top Trump health official, Dr. Mehmet Oz, tried a different tactic at an event with the president in October: dodging Trump\u2019s dodgy percentages by declaring, incorrectly, that the decline between $242 and $10 is so big that the percentage decline can\u2019t even be stated.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump had said<\/a> at the event: \u201cDrug prices are coming down 400%, 200%, 600%, numbers that nobody\u2019s ever seen before.\u201d He then added<\/a>, \u201cFive hundred, 600, 800%, in some cases even more than that. It\u2019s hard to believe.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, spoke after Trump. Oz made a claim about the price of one common fertility drug being reduced from $242 to $10, then said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what the math is on that. We can\u2019t even calculate it. It\u2019s a lot. It\u2019s too high to calculate without a more studied approach.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But\u2026 you just need a few seconds with a calculator, not extensive study. It\u2019s a 95.9% reduction.\n <\/p>\n \n Oz was pressed<\/a> about Trump\u2019s wildly inaccurate percentages in an interview with NBC\u2019s Kristen Welker days later. He offered his own inaccurate calculation in response.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe president does the calculation by saying, \u2018Okay, if a drug was $100 and you reduce it to $50, it\u2019s 100% cheaper, because you\u2019re taking $50 off and left with only $50. So the amount you took off the price is equal to the amount that\u2019s left. They\u2019re equal, so it\u2019s 100%.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n No. Whatever Trump and Oz may think, reducing the price of a drug from $100 to $50 is a 50% cut, not a 100% cut.\n <\/p>\n \n When Welker pressed Oz by noting that Trump had claimed a \u201c1,500%\u201d cut in one of the video clips she had played for Oz, not a mere 100% cut, Oz said, \u201cWell, if you take a drug that is $200 \u2013 or $240 like we did last week \u2013 and reduce it to $10, those are the numbers you\u2019re talking about.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Nope. You\u2019re only talking about a 1,500% cut if you\u2019re using phony math.\n <\/p>\n \n In September, CNN asked<\/a> the White House to explain Trump\u2019s claims that drug prices were going to decline between 1,000% to 1,500%.\n <\/p>\n![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2241042043-20260424154725465.jpg\")
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