Who Do You Believe?

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You can slap a coat of paint on a dilapidated old house and create the illusion you’ve done something; but the rotting boards are still there and the foundation is still crumbling.  You’ve only delayed the inevitable. If you want to build something sustainable, you have to do it right; not easy.

 

Donald Trump was elected to a second term as President to make sustainable, structural changes to a federal government that hasn’t worked for the people in a long time. The items on his agenda are so daunting lesser leaders wouldn’t touch them. He’s rebalancing trade with the rest of the world to give American workers a level playing field; reshoring manufacturing to the United States, particularly products essential to our national security; securing most favored nation drug prices for the American people which will guarantee  the lowest prices in the world and force other developed nations to share the costs of research; streamlining permitting and regulation to free American businesses from unnecessary, crippling bureaucracy; leveraging peace through strength to bring peace to warring nations around the world; putting an end to tolerance of violent crime in our major cities; unleashing energy independence; and reducing the size of government itself, which now numbers over 2 million federal employees and grew by 100,000 full time employees during Biden’s term.

 

Trump is up against monumental obstacles and he deserves the unwavering support of those who elected him while he pushes through the changes he promised. Meaningful change is noisy and difficult and too often people respond with childlike expectations. They want immediate gratification and have short attention spans. They are intellectually lazy and easily led. They allow know nothings on social and other media louder voices than truth tellers.  There is too much at stake for us to be so shallow. Trump is doing all of the heavy lifting as he keeps his end of the bargain.  The least he should expect is the breathing room it will take to produce the dramatic changes he is undertaking.

 

The media prey on a fickle public every day to sour them on Trump’s agenda.  They remain as committed as ever to Trump’s failure and relentlessly push a narrative of a failing economy, a disenchanted public, and an impending blue wave during the 2026 midterms.

 

It is extremely important that we understand the stark differences between what Trump is doing on behalf of the American people and what’s been done by Administrations who have come before.  Recent developments make these differences clear.

 

On October 10, Trump invited Pascal Soriot, the CEO of AstraZeneca, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, to the Oval Office for one of a growing number of major announcements on drug pricing deals his Administration has negotiated.  The deal is for most favored nation pricing for all AstraZeneca products sold to Medicare and Medicaid.  The leverage Trump used to push AstraZeneca to this deal was a 3-year exemption from the tariffs he has implemented on all of its overseas products.  That same day, AstraZeneca also announced plans to invest $50 billion in US manufacturing and research and development by 2030 and broke ground on a $4.5 billion manufacturing plant in Virginia, a deal that was negotiated in just 33 days.

 

Information revealed during this Oval Office announcement is fundamental to understanding why the American people will get so much more of what we want from the Trump Administration than from any other Administration. There is a reason most of the media won’t cover Trump’s announcements.  They don’t want us to know.

 

Soriot made a point of crediting this deal with the fact that the team of individuals Trump has assembled moves “at the speed of business”.  The speed of business and the speed of government are light years apart. And it is not only the speed with which the Trump team expects to do business, but also the grandeur of what they expect to accomplish.  Why the difference?

 

Trump recruits highly competent people with astounding track records of producing big results in the private sector.  In the case of the drug negotiations currently underway, he charged his team with 3 objectives and turned them loose:

• Get most favored nation prices.

• Don’t bankrupt the pharmaceutical companies.  We need them to innovate.

• Keep the promise to reshore these industries.

 

Over the years, the Founders’ idea of citizen legislators has been replaced by career politicians.  Today, too few are bringing their know-how from the real world to Washington to make a contribution and return to the private sector. Rather, they spend lifetimes in government jobs or elected office and are limited in their vision and skill by how the government does things. Career politicians live in a different kind of bubble.

 

Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Bobby Kennedy, lauded the “historical monumental achievement” of the AstraZeneca deal by contrasting it with the Biden Administration’s attempt to bring drug prices down. He said the Democrats were “obsessed” during his confirmation hearing with him negotiating the “next 15 drug prices” as a priority when he became Secretary.  This referred to drug price negotiations that were part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). 

 

Kennedy explained that in the first year of the IRA, the Biden Administration negotiated prices for Medicare on 10 commonly prescribed drugs.  We all remember Joe Biden and Kamala Harris touting the price of insulin had been capped.  During year 2 of the IRA another 15 drugs were to be negotiated. The insignificance can be easily understood - 3.500 prescription drug products are purchased by Medicare annually at a cost of $216 billion.  This “accomplishment” was like spitting in the ocean with respect to any potential impact it would have.

 

Kennedy added that the HHS analysis of the 22% price reduction that was reported to have been negotiated for the first 10 drugs exposed that the discount was off of the full “list price” and for 8 of the 10 drugs the government was actually paying more than it had before the negotiation. 

 

Big, bold goals. Competent people. A sense of urgency. The skill and willingness to wield power for good purpose.  Difference makers.

 

Inflation rose to over 21% during the Biden administration.  The climate agenda stifled American businesses. Millions of unvetted illegal aliens were allowed into the country.  Democrats and the media kept Biden so shielded from the public that people were shocked to realize how feeble and demented he had become when he finally emerged. Americans’ rights were trampled on by the government with mandates and censorship throughout the pandemic. Nothing was done to rectify the global trade imbalance or bring an end to conflict around the world. It was a miserable 4 years for the American people.

 

In less than a year, Trump led negotiations to bring all of the remaining hostages home from Gaza.  He has secured more than $8 trillion in commitments for manufacturing and other investments in the US.  He played a pivotal role in peace negotiations throughout the world. He negotiated most favored nation drug pricing with at least 4 major drug companies thus far.  He signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts Bill (also known as the Big Beautiful Bill) which is going to bring to life many of the promises he made during his campaign.  He secured our border.  He rooted woke policies out of our public institutions. The stock market is at record-highs. Military readiness and recruitment are soaring. He’s just getting started.

 

I never heard of Scott Bessent until Trump appointed him the Secretary of the Treasury.  The wisdom of this choice was immediately obvious. His extensive expertise, steady and certain communication style, and grasp of the big picture inspire confidence.  He is a force to be reckoned with when the media try to lie about the state of the economy.

 

Bessent recently shared his assessment of the country’s progress since Trump took office. The rebalancing of global trade is at a “tipping point”.  It was Trump’s use of emergency tariff power that enabled him to get a rare earth mineral deal and target fentanyl precursors with China.  The billions being collected in tariff revenue, Bessent says, are coincident to rebalancing trade and bringing home manufacturing and will come down as trade is rebalanced. He describes manufacturing as “at the cusp of the lift off”.  He further predicted that with Trump’s tax policy, which includes a tax deduction on American auto loan interest, and no tax on tips, overtime and Social Security, the American people are going to have a “gangbuster year” in 2026 and are going to feel it in their pocket books.  Tax refunds are going to be big and will cause people to reduce their withholding for more cash in their paycheck. 

 

Bessent recognizes that a downside to the mammoth size of the “Big Beautiful Bill” is that people don’t know what’s in it.  It makes them vulnerable to the lies of the media, Democrats and other enemies of the Trump agenda.  To counteract this, he announced the Treasury Department is going to begin an every-other-week “cadence of extract and educate” which will provide much-needed information to the public about individual components of the bill that are going to directly improve their lives.

 

The Democrats and the media are telling us Trump is failing; the economy is collapsing; Trump only cares about his billionaire friends; and a blue wave is coming. They want us to turn our backs on Trump.

 

Scott Bessent says, “We have a great story to tell. 2026 is going to be Main Street’s year.”  Who do you believe?