Agenda 47: Trump's Plan for Big Pharma

Shereen explains what Trump's Agenda 47 plan has to say about the pharmaceutical industry and public health policies.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All Zone Media.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hello, welcome, this is it could happen here and I
am Sharene. Today we are continuing to talk about Agenda
forty seven and this episode is about quote unquote big Pharma.
Trump often goes after big Pharma in his campaign rhetoric,
and there is a lot of content within Agenda forty
seven that addresses what he views as the problems with

(00:26):
the pharmaceutical industry. In his first campaign for president, Donald
Trump tapped into bipartisan anger over high drug prices to
bash pharmaceutical companies. In his latest run for president, he
is echoing more extreme elements of his party to suggest
that the industry's products may be hurting Americans, particularly children.

(00:48):
Using children in this way is usually a tried and
true tactic to make people get up in arms about something,
and it works especially on those who may be less informed.
And there are al lethra of reasons as to why
our healthcare system is absolute shit and completely sucks, and
it's more often a hindrance to the average American. But

(01:09):
when Trump continues to spout unfounded and dangerous claims about
the pharmaceutical industry, all this does is further undermine public
health and any remaining faith that Americas have in it.
It reflects how deeply the mistrust of health institutions and
anti science rhetoric have become embedded, especially within a sizeable
faction of the Republican Party, following the pandemic. Trump's comments

(01:33):
about drug makers, posted in policy proposals and videos on
his campaign website have largely flown under the radar, as
his campaign speeches have doubled down on extreme rhetoric, like
his use of anti immigration language and praise of foreign authoritarians.
One of the Agenda forty seven proposals on Trump's campaign
website is called Addressing the Rise of Chronic Childhood Illnesses,

(01:57):
and its cites a quote unexplained and a lot arming
growth in the prevalence of chronic illnesses and health problems,
especially in children end quote. In a June twenty twenty
three video that was posted to Truth Social Trump questions
whether the food we eat, environmental toxins, or the quote
over prescription of certain medications is contributing to this increase

(02:19):
of chronic health problems and illnesses in children. In the video,
Trump says, too often our public health establishment is too
close to big pharma. They make a lot of money
Big pharma, big corporations, and other special interests does not
want to ask the tough questions about what is happening
to our children's health. If big pharma defrauds American patients

(02:41):
and taxpayers, or puts profits above people, they must be
investigated and held accountable. Trump goes on to call for
a quote special presidential commission of independent minds who are
not bought and paid for by big pharma, to investigate
the rise of chronic illness. Interestingly enough, Trump's language around
childhood illness is reminiscent of Robert F. Kennedy Junior's views,

(03:04):
who has been a prominent vaccine skeptic running for president
as an independent, and he has been praised by Trump
as a quote common sense guy. In a video on
his campaign website, Kennedy promises to quote end the chronic
disease epidemic in this country. Kennedy has promoted the discredited
theory that vaccines cause autism, and though he doesn't directly

(03:27):
make this claim in the video, he previously tied the
quote children's health crisis to quote environmental toxins and vaccines
in an ebook published by the Children's Health Defense, which
he also founded. Kennedy's campaign spokesperson Stephanie Spear said that
Kennedy is pleased that Trump is highlighting the rise in
childhood disease. Trump's attention to the issue testifies to the

(03:50):
success of the Children's Health Defense, she said, and many
other activist organizations in putting the chronic disease epidemic on
the political radar. Kile is true that the rate of
conditions including disabilities, mental health diagnoses, ADHD diagnoses, and obesity,
they have gone up among children in recent years, and

(04:11):
this is according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. There
are numerous and complex social, health, and environmental factors that
underlie these numbers. Increased awareness and better ability to diagnose
some conditions are believed to be contributing factors. Vaccine scientist
and pediatrician Peter Hotez said Trump's conspiratorial language is unhelpful,

(04:34):
as the anti vaccine movement in recent years has sought
to tie vaccines to a range of chronic diseases. Quote.
Now that the far right has adopted the anti vaccine movement,
it's very conspiracy laden. The anti vaccine movement's rhetoric on
chronic illnesses now being voiced by Trump is so vaguing
and badly crafted. He says, how do you even address it? Hotez?

(04:58):
What want to say? That it gives them license to
bring up any condition they want, whether it's asthma, or
whether it's a peanut allergy, or whether it's lupus. They
just use it as a catch all for whatever they
feel like, alleging at the time, a spokesperson for Pharma
aka the main drugmaker lobby, did not address Trump's proposals
directly when they were asked about them. Alex Shreiver, Pharma's

(05:20):
senior vice president of public affairs, told Axios in an
emailed statement, political rhetorics surrounding healthcare will only continue to
rise as we enter an election year. Candidates should focus
on voters' top priorities, lowering out of pocket costs and
holding insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers accountable. Long story short,

(05:42):
The trust in public health institutions plummeted among Republicans during
the pandemic, with prominent members of the party questioning the
safety of COVID vaccines and the actions of vaccine makers,
as well as government agencies, and despite Trump's own history
of vaccine skeptical comments. His administration's Operation Warp Speed produced

(06:03):
safe and affected COVID vaccines at an unprecedented pace, an
achievement that his base doesn't really give him much credit for.
Vaccine skepticism has grown among GOP voters in recent years.
In recent KAFAKA the Kaiser Family Foundation polling, it found
that Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to believe

(06:23):
that misinformation about COVID nineteen in vaccines are true, although
independents are not very far behind them, or in some
cases they are more likely to believe misinformation. For example,
twenty nine percent of Republicans said that it's probably or
definitely true that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine
has been proven to cause autism in children, compared with

(06:47):
fourteen percent of Democrats and thirty four per cent of independence.
It's very important to emphasize that scientific research has repeatedly
found no association whatsoever between the MMR vaccines and autism.
Trump's calls for investigations into big pharma. It also taps
into GP voters' anxieties over education, gender affirming care for adolescence,

(07:10):
and the youth. Mental health crisis. A school's related proposal
on Trump's campaign website calls for the Food and Drug
Administration to convene a quote outside panel to investigate whether
transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression,
and violence. Last spring, Trump made a similar pledge during

(07:31):
a speech given at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting.
The campaign says that the Trump administration will explore whether
quote common psychiatric drugs, as well as genetically engineered cannabis
and other narcotics, are causing psychotic breaks. It also calls
for a Department of Justice investigation into whether quote big
pharma and the big hospital networks have covered up the

(07:54):
horrific long term side effects of sex transitions in order
to get rich at the expense of vulnerable patients, and
another proposal to quote dismantle the deep state. It specifically
calls out big Pharma as part of the plan to
quote ban federal bureaucrats from taking jobs at the companies

(08:14):
they deal with and regulate in an ideal world, which
we are clearly very very far from the idea that
you can trust the prescription drugs that a health provider
offers you, it should be a basic societal norm. While
mainstream politicians across the political spectrum on both the right
and the left four years have criticized the pharmaceutical industry

(08:36):
over pricing, there has been a common understanding that for
the most part, the US system can be trusted to
place safe and effective drugs on the market and to
remove them if new evidence showing otherwise arises. But Trump
is suggesting negligence or cover ups of safety issues. Vaccine
scientist a pediatrician, Peter Hotess again he said, elements of

(08:59):
the GOP, especially the far right, has been targeting science
and scientists as enemies of the state. I was hoping
Trump would not go there. Let's take our first break
and we will be right back. Another part of Trump's

(09:26):
Agenda forty seven plan to take on big pharma is
to end the global freeloading on American consumers. It's honestly
a little difficult for me to just not read aloud
the transcripts that are on Trump's website that describe his
agenda for Agenda forty seven, because they're just pure comedy
and they're all just provided on his website. For our entertainment.

(09:47):
So I won't read all the transcripts, but I will
read the highlights. Here it goes crooked. Joe Biden likes
to pretend that he stands up to big pharma, but
in fact I was the only president in modern times
whoever took on big pharma, and I took it head on.
Biden canceled my tough on pharma policies the moment he

(10:08):
had a chance. As president, I signed a historic executive
order declaring that the United States government would pay the
same price for pharmaceuticals as other foreign countries, and no more.
We don't want to pay anymore. Can you imagine that?
How simple would that be? This would have saved American
patients billions and billions of dollars. But shortly after taking office,

(10:30):
Joe Biden rescinded my executive order, stabbing patients and US citizens,
and especially our seniors, right in the back. For many years,
Americans have been paying among the highest prices in the
world for our prescription drugs, while other countries negotiate sweetheart
deals off the backs of America. On day one of
my new term, I will sign an executive order to

(10:52):
end this global free loading on American consumers for once
and for all, the United States is tired of getting
ripped off. We've been ripped off by everybody for so
many decades. We are tired of it not going to happen.
They should have never rescinded my original executive order. It
just shows you the power of big pharma. Thank you

(11:14):
very much. This was a very easy one, and this
was an honor to tell you because this is something
that should never have happened. It should never ever have
rescinded my executive order. I just I had to read
that whole thing because it's incredible that these transcripts are
up here, because they are so ridiculous. Sometimes I love
that they also included, like the ending after he already

(11:36):
said thank you, how he was like, this was a
very easy one, right anyway. I just thought that transcript
was worth a little read. Those are his words, what
he wants to do, and how he thinks. There's more
transcripts later that I find funny, but for now, let's
go into what he's saying. Trump also has a plan
to quote end Joe Biden's pharmaceutical shortages and return the

(11:57):
manufacturer of life saving drugs to the unit states. This
is not just a public health crisis, it's a national
security crisis. He says. As part of my plan to
obtain total independence from China, we will phase in tariffs
and import restrictions to bring back production of all essential
medicines to the United States of America where they belong.

(12:19):
I signed an executive order to begin this process in
twenty twenty, but Biden has shamefully failed to follow through.
Part of this plan for Agenda forty seven will be
to restore this executive order. He keeps talking about Executive
Order one three nine four to four, which was dated
August sixth, twenty twenty. The executive order required federal agencies

(12:39):
to quote buy American by facilitating the domestic production of
medicines and medical devices that the FDA determined essential to
public health. It did so by requiring federal agencies to
buy medicines and medical devices that are entirely produced in
the United States. Trump says that restoring this executive order
will kick start the domestic production of life saving drugs.

(13:01):
His website says American doctors should never have to give
a patient a drug from an unapproved facility in China
or India. We can and must produce these essential medicines
at home, rather than allowing federal agencies to buy essential
medicines from quote unsafe foreign countries. Another angle of his
Agenda forty seven plan describes how Joe Biden's drug shortage

(13:25):
constitutes an urgent public health crisis. It says that Joe
Biden's drug shortage is fueled by over reliance on foreign
made medicines and, in some cases, potentially unsafe manufacturers. Here's
some of that fun transcript under Crooked Joe Biden, there
has been a catastrophic increase in shortages of essential medicines.

(13:45):
It's a mess. There's currently a shortage of at least
fourteen critical cancer drugs in the United States. They just
can't get it, and every month of delay cancer treatment
increases the risk of death by at least ten percent.
It's unthinkable that this could be happening in the United
States of America in twenty twenty three. It is truly unbelievable.
We are becoming a third world country very rapidly, between

(14:09):
our open borders and our bad elections. We are third world.
He goes on to say that even more dangerously, the
top producer of critical medicines that we rely on in
the United States is a place called China. China produces
ninety five percent of all ivuprofen, ninety one percent of
hyder cortizone, seventy percent of all taile nol, and nearly

(14:30):
half of all penicillin. Can you imagine that this is
not just a public health crisis, this is a national
security crisis. As part of my plan to obtain total
independence from China, we will phase in tariffs and import
restrictions to bring back production of all essential medicines to
the United States of America where they belong. I signed

(14:51):
the executive order to begin this process of twenty twenty,
but Biden has shamefully failed to follow through. He wants
it ended. He wants to take care of China. This
is a matter of tremendous urgency. American lives are on
the line, and it will be one of my top
priorities as president. It will also create countless new American jobs.

(15:13):
Thank you. In another Agenda forty seven video, Trump announced
his plan to eradicate the drug addiction crisis in America.
We will not rest until we have ended the drug
addiction crisis, he says. For three decades before my election,
drug overdose deaths increased every single year. Under my leadership,

(15:33):
we took the drug and petanol crisis head on, and
we achieved the first reduction in overdose deaths in more
than thirty years. On his website, in all caps, it
says saving American lives. It says that Trump has pledged
that he will not rest until we end this crisis,
and that he will impose a full naval embargo on

(15:55):
the drug cartels and deploy military assets to inflict maximum
day image on cartel operations. Ask Congress to ensure that
drug dealers and human traffickers receive the death penalty. Direct
US federal law enforcement to take down the gangs and
organize street crime that distribute these deadly narcotics on a
local level. Permanently designate fetanol as a federally controlled substance.

(16:19):
Tell China that if they do not clamp down on
the export of fentanyl's chemical precursors, they will pay a
steep price. He wants to strengthen the pillars of work, faith,
and family, which give life, meaning and hope for those
struggling with addiction, and he wants to expand federal support

(16:40):
for faith based counseling, treatment, and recovery programs. It's faith
based for me, even if in theory some of this
kind of sounds like a good idea, both subtly and
not so subtlely, you see the bigotry seep through. It's
actually not about saving lives or taking care of addicts.
It's about implementing and cementing this country as a quote

(17:03):
faith based country and having faith, which obviously only means Christianity.
When it's using this context, It's going to be America's savior.
And Trump over here is literally being a Bible salesman.
It's so nauseatingly obvious and slimy. It drives me crazy,
and the shit actually works on many many people. The

(17:25):
last thing I'll touch on is a section of Agenda
forty seven that is titled quote ending the Nightmare of
the Homeless, drug Addicts, and the Dangerously Deranged. It describes
his plan to quote rescue American cities from the scourge
of homelessness, the drug addicted, and the dangerously deranged. Trump

(17:45):
wants to ban urban camping, offering violators the option to
either receive treatment and rehabilitation or face arrest in this transcript.
He says, are once great cities have become unlivable, unsanitary,
nightmares surrender to the homeless, the drug addicted, and the
violent and dangerously deranged. We are making many suffer for

(18:06):
the whims of a deeply unwell few, and they are unwell. Indeed,
the homeless have no right to turn every park and
sidewalk into a place for them to squat and do drugs.
Americans should not have to step over piles of needles
and waste as they walk down the street in a
beautiful city, or at least once beautiful city, because they've

(18:29):
changed so much over the last ten years. Our first
consideration should be the rights and safety of the hard working,
law abiding citizens who make our society function. When I
am back in the White House, we will use every tool,
lever and authority to get the homeless off our streets.

(18:50):
We want to take care of them, but they have
to be off our streets. There is nothing compassionate about
letting these individuals live in filth and squalor rather getting
them the help that they need. We need professionals to
help them. For a small fraction of what we spend
on Ukraine, we can take care of every homeless veteran

(19:11):
in America. Our veterans are treated horribly Likewise, With all
the money we will save by ending mass unskilled migration,
we will have a huge dividend to address this crisis
in our own country. Under my strategy, we will ban
urban camping wherever possible. Violators of these bans will be arrested,

(19:33):
but they will be given the option to accept treatment
and services if they are willing to be rehabilitated. Many
of them don't want that, but we will give them
the option. Okay, it's met again. Basically, Trump's plan to
end homelessness is to criminalize it. He wants to make
homelessness illegal. Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People's

(19:56):
Law Center, told Newsweek that Trump's plan is unconstant, tutional
and will dissuade people from seeking assistance when they truly
need it. Mills said Trump's remarks left him feeling appalled
but unsurprised by the former president's antics based on Trump's
long history of anti homeless agendas. He says it is
blatant in the constitution that you can't arrest people just

(20:19):
because they don't have a home. But more importantly, it
doesn't work. People are not homeless because they're afraid of punishments.
People are homeless because they don't have a home. Trump's
plan isn't over yet, though, He continues by saying that
we will then open up large parcels of inexpensive land,
bring in doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, and drug rehab specialists,

(20:42):
and create tent cities where the homeless can be relocated
and their problems identified. We will open up our cities again,
make them livable, and make them beautiful. For those who
are just temporarily down on their luck, we will work
to help them quickly reintegrate into a normal life. For
those those who have addictions, substance abuse, and common mental

(21:02):
health problems, we will get them into treatment. And for
those who are severely mentally ill and deeply disturbed, we
will bring them back to mental institutions where they belong,
with the goal of reintegrating them back into society once
they are well enough to manage. It's a tough task,
a very tough task. What's taking place on the streets,

(21:23):
what's taken place when they're taking so much drugs. But
the fact is we're going to try this strategy will
be far better and also far less expensive than spending
vast sums of taxpayer money to house the homeless and
luxury hotels without addressing their underlying issues. And they have
so many of these underlying issues and needs. This is

(21:44):
how I will end the scourge of homelessness and make
our cities clean and safe and beautiful once again. We
will do it. We will bring back America and Olivia.
The chief executive officer for the NAEH, the National Alliance
to End Homelessness, also condemned a Trump's plan, calling it
alarming and dangerous in numerous ways. She said the way

(22:07):
to end homelessness is not to arrest people and move
them out of sight into internment camps. Jail isn't housing.
Prison isn't housing. Tent cities aren't housing. Housing with services
tailored to people's specific needs must be at the center
of any plan to end homelessness. Prioritizing any immediate strategy

(22:28):
other than housing is a red herring, a political ploy
to divert attention from the real resources communities need while
othering people in the most vulnerable situations imaginable. And then
there was vote vets. Vote vets is a Veterans Advocacy group.
They said on Twitter that rather than continue the progress
of helping homeless veterans, Trump wants to find them and

(22:51):
toss them into what can be best described as internment camps.
Who all in all, one to forty seven is a
big fucking yikes, and it should concern you. I'm going
to leave you all with an uplifting quote from February
twenty fourth, when Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

(23:13):
He said, November fifth will be our new liberation day.
It will be their judgment day. Wow. Can't wait until when.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
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(23:50):
Thanks for listening.