“Donald, I beg you!” - Trump’s absurd drug-price story and what’s really behind it

Donald Trump is once again in his element. In a scene that feels more like a schoolyard drama than international diplomacy, the President of the United States tells a story about how France’s head of state, Emmanuel Macron, supposedly begged him: “Donald, uh… you’ve got a deal. I would so love to raise my drug prices by 200 percent. It would be an honor. Whatever you want, Donald, please. Please, Donald! I beg you!”

That is what it sounds like when Trump’s political self-image merges with a version of the French presidency that exists only in his own head. The punchline: the French government dismissed the account as “unrealistic.” Macron cannot set or raise drug prices in France. That is handled by independent expert commissions, under strict social rules and price caps.

If you strip everything away for a moment and simply look at these images while asking yourself, “How can someone like this become President of America?”, it is almost impossible to explain with ordinary common sense. It says more about the ethical and social distress of our current times than even the best book ever could.

In reality, the prices of prescription drugs in France have remained low by international standards and have even declined slightly in recent years. The claim of a 200 percent increase has no connection to reality. Nor has the issue played any meaningful role in recent bilateral talks between France and the United States. Which raises the question of why Trump is spreading this story at all. Is it a deliberate distraction from domestic political pressure? Or an attempt to portray himself as a global decision-maker over life, death, and pill prices? Either way, it fits the pattern. The world as a stage, where every other head of state either kneels, grovels, or falls silent, while Trump speaks.

Only this time, even die-hard supporters in Europe could not help but laugh quietly. Because anyone who believes that Emmanuel Macron is begging to raise prices either has very poor access to information - or very good access to Trump’s speechwriters. And so this satire stands for a reality in which one no longer knows whether to laugh, cry, or simply pull the plug. A country that once promised leadership is now grinning as it stumbles into its own abyss.