WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Under the Radar - Episode 29

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

This week on “Under the Radar,” hear about the new TrumpRx website, an important trade agreement between the United States and India, an effort to lower the price of beef, and more.

This is Under the Radar on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Now, here's your host, Luke Miller. This week on Under the Radar, hear about the new Trump RX website, an important trade agreement between the United States and India, an effort to lower the price of beef and more. I'm your host, Luke Miller, and on this show, we'll cover the news you didn't catch this week from the mainstream media. While they're covering the president's latest tweets,

here you can hear about the new legislation, executive orders, and Supreme Court decisions that affect you. Welcome to Under the Radar. The first piece of news I have for you this week is an executive order signed by President Trump, February 5, 2026, creating the website Trumprx.gov with the intention to bring lower drug prices to American patients. The presidential proclamation says that through the website, patients will be able to access large discounts on many of the most popular and highest-priced medicines in the country, paying prices in line with the lowest paid by other developed nations, known as the MFN price, or the most favored nation price. Now, this is something that's very important with this executive order.

President Trump has made deals with five of the largest drug manufacturers in the United States and elsewhere to secure Most Favorite Nation pricing when these manufacturers sell the drugs through the United States government. So most favored nation status is something that you hear a lot in trade talks. Like, for example, when the United States makes a trade deal with Japan or South Korea or anybody else, whoever it may be, we may guarantee them most favorite nation status. They may guarantee it to us. And essentially what that means is we're not going to give any other nation a better deal. You are getting the best deal of any nation that we are making this kind of deal with, meaning they're the most favored nation or a most favored nation. But when it comes to these kinds of drug manufacturers, we're not dealing with another

country, you're dealing with a corporation, a drug manufacturer. And this is where things get a little bit unique to this kind of industry, because a lot of the developed nations of the world have some kind of centralized health care. So when drug manufacturing companies are making deals with the Canadian government or any other government that has some kind of centralized health care, but I'll use Canada as an example because it's cited in the executive order. Their government negotiates with the drug manufacturing companies to secure a lower price for the citizens to pay. In exchange, the drug companies get access to the entire Canadian market because it all runs through the governmental program. So they

highlight an example drug called gonol F. The site says that Americans pay $1,449 per pen. It's like an injection pen, I would imagine. While Canadians pay about $355. So the site says that Americans pay $1,445. So the site says that Americans pay, So that's $1,449 versus $355. And the difference there is that Canada has secured some kind of most favorite nation's status with these drug manufacturers because they have a health care system in which the government can make deals with drug manufacturers. Now, up until recently, that has not been the case in the United States. As a matter of fact, it's been exactly the opposite.

Now, up until recently, the U.S. government has not been able to negotiate with these private companies. The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 prohibits direct government price negotiation, but under President Biden, the Inflation Reduction Act reversed that and does actually allow the United States government to negotiate. And without that, none of this Trump RX program would be possible. Currently, the United States has a system where manufacturers don't deal directly with patients. They go through something called pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs who mark mark up the prices significantly before they actually get to the people who need the medication.

Part of the goal of this executive order is to kind of cut out the middleman so that these drug manufacturers have some kind of price ceiling, price floors set in a deal with the government, and then the manufacturers can negotiate directly with patients, the patients can buy them directly through the Medicare program that is linking the governmental program, the Trump RX program, and these drug manufacturers. Now, those are deals that Trump has made with five of these manufacturers. Those manufacturers are AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD. Serono, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer. And all five of those companies have struck deals with the United States government, giving most favored nation pricing to the Trump administration. Here's President Trump talking about

some of the effects of this most favored nation status in drug pricing. You will see dramatic reductions in the cost of popular weight loss drugs known as GLP ones. GLP ones. Novo Nordisk will be slashing the price as an example of OZempic from more than $1,000 to $199. And the price of Wigovi from more than $1,300 to $199. Nobody can even believe in a 578% difference. So obviously there he was talking about different weight loss medications, and as of right now, there are more than 40 medications on the Trump RX website, including weight loss drugs, insulin, and fertility drugs. Those have been the focus so far with those few companies. But the website says that there are a lot more medications coming to the website in the future. But the price reduction is really, really remarkable. It's outstanding, really. Now, as any good economist will tell you, price ceilings and price floors have an effect on the market that tends to lead to less overall production, and then more scarce, And if prices don't rise to reach the level that that scarcity demands, then you tend to have producers who can't produce anymore and it's not profitable for them to do so. And while that's certainly true, it's hard to argue with the fact that many of the other developed nations of the world are getting these most favored nation prices. And if they're getting those prices, there's no reason that we should be paying five times the amount in some of those cases for these medications.

But more than that, if this deal was going to run these drug manufacturing companies into the ground, why would they sign up for that kind of deal in the first? place. They know it won't run them into the ground. And the reason for that is that America is the number one purchaser of medications in the world. And there's a good reason for that and a bad reason for that. The good reason for that is that generally speaking, Americans can afford to pay for medication relative to other countries in the world where a more prosperous nation than most. And with that comes the ability to pay for medications, even when it might not be absolutely necessary to keep living. Like weight loss or fertility drugs, for example, their health improvements, their lifestyle improvements, they're adding value to people's lives, certainly, but they're not absolutely essential to keep surviving in most cases,

and Americans can afford to pay for those things for the most part, especially with assistance from programs like Medicare. The negative side, of course, of America being the number one purchaser of medications in the world is that America needs so many drugs. For such a prosperous country, we are relatively unhealthy, and there are a lot of people who need those kind of medications, and that's another reason that we're the number one purchaser in the world. But what that means is that if those drug manufacturing companies can secure deals with the government who will help push those medications to people who want them or need them, they're guaranteeing themselves access to a very favorable market that's going to be probably the number one market for them to sell in in the world for the foreseeable future. So you can understand why they would make a deal like that if that gives them favored access to that market. As long as the U.S. government doesn't pick and choose which companies it works with and create a drug manufacturing monopoly, which I don't think they'll do,

because the drastic price decreased through this program is going to force those other drug manufacturing companies to come to the table and play ball. Now, on a political level, the Trump administration doing something like this is really, really interesting because I remember not six years ago in the 2020 presidential race, one of the central appeals of the Democratic campaigns were universal health care and lowering drug prices, particularly prescription drug prices, but lowering overall drug prices and government health care assistance. Republicans did not want government involvement in health care. We didn't want expansion of Medicare. Republicans certainly weren't for raising drug prices, but that wasn't a central focus of their campaign then. And they were very anti-any expansions to Medicare.

It's interesting to see those roles kind of reverse. With the Trump administration here, expanding Medicare in a sense, they are using Medicare to secure these deals, to secure access to these drugs and to sell them to the people. That's a function of Medicare in doing that. But also to see people on the left, to see Democrats, some of whom were running in 2020 on universal health care, namely Elizabeth Warren,

condemning an expansion to Medicare and lowering of drug prices. Elizabeth Warren tweeted Trump RX is nothing more than Donald Trump's latest vanity project. If Donald Trump cared at all about making healthcare more affordable, he wouldn't have kicked 15 million Americans off of their health insurance, which is obviously not true, but that's the argument that she's making. A clever pundit was quick to point out that Senator Warren received almost a million dollars from pharmaceutical packs in 2020 during her presidential campaign where she was promising universal health care, which would have used taxpayer funds to pay for all of these medical

and would not have brought the prices down at all. So it would have kept prices high and just use taxpayer money to pay for it and that's what they call universal health care Which of course would also require a massive tax increase which is something Elizabeth Warren was also running on in that election cycle So when Democrats make the promise of universal health care seem super compassionate what that really means is keeping prices high so the pharmaceutical companies and packs can benefit Taxing people at a higher rate using taxpayer money to pay for it and calling it free and that's not how it works Of course it's not free Well the Trump administration is doing what is Trump Rx website is actually making a deal with these companies, which is government health care, by the way. That is governments making a deal with private companies to secure access, like a trade deal, really,

to receive most favorite nation status, which actually lowers prices effectively when customers are dealing with the manufacturer. And like President Trump said in that clip, a lot of these prices are cut by 50, 100, 200 percent. If you look on the website, it's really remarkable. They will show you the difference in prices. Another person to make a comment on this is Mark Cuban, who is, of course, a famous, billionaire investor. He's on Shark Tank. He owned the Dallas Mavericks. But he owns a company called Cost Plus Drugs, which actually does a pretty similar thing to what Trump RX is doing. But it's more of a about comparing prices. It helps the consumer to compare prices for medications they might need and

help find the cheapest option. Mark Cuban, who has been openly anti-Trump has been promoting Trump RX. Here, take a listen. We'll work with Trump RX. I mean, it's incredible. It's stupendous. It's like the most incredible program ever. And so we're excited to offer them our API so that they'll be able to download our daily prices. So when they go down, everybody benefits. Plus, I like what they're doing with the MFNs, because as I mentioned in my comments, our brand drugs are more expensive because PBMs are involved. And with Trump RX and the MFN program, that allows manufacturers to work around the PBMs and work directly to patients. So I think it'll save seniors. It'll save everybody a lot of money. So that's Mark Cuban there saying he's excited to work with Trump RX, with his company, talking about

what they're doing with the MFNs, the most favorite nation status, and saying how that allows them to get around the PBMs, the pharmacy benefit managers who are responsible for marking up prices as the middleman between the drug manufacturers and the consumers. The last thing I want to note about this is the timing of this executive order and this creation of Trump RX. This is something that President Trump has been talking about for about a year now. But if you'll recall, the longest government shutdown in American history that happened just a few months ago, the reason that both sides were in a standoff with each other was over health care provisions. Democrats were arguing for the extension of certain COVID-era

subsidies and Republicans were not going to extend those health care subsidies. Earlier this week, President Trump signed a significant appropriations omnibus bill into law, which funded much of the government through fiscal year 2026. There is a significant possibility that this is the solution to keeping the government open, that this is the solution to appease Democrats who wanted those health care subsidies. Instead, President Trump launches a program that makes health care and makes medication more affordable for people. Because lowering medication costs has been a Democratic talking point for decades. at this point. So it's not unreasonable to guess that this is some kind of bipartisan solution to that

problem that really starts to take an effective aim at lowering drug prices. Now, it's pretty narrow at the moment. There are over 40 drugs on the Trump RX website, but they're pretty limited in scope at this point, like I was saying, to fertility, weight loss, and insulin. If it keeps expanding like the website says it will, this could be a massive development in healthcare affordability, which has been such a big issue in the United States in recent years. You're listening to Under the Radar with Luke Miller on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. The next piece of news I have for you this week is a presidential proclamation announcing a new trade deal between the United States and India. The proclamation was issued February 9th,

2026, and it begins the United States of America and India are pleased to announce that they have reached a framework for an interim agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade. So you need to know about two different parts of the executive order. The first part is about the terms of the agreement between the United States and India, what all is involved, what assurances are made between the countries. And the second thing you need to know about this trade deal is how it's going to impact the Russia-Ukraine war, because this trade deal is going to make a difference in how the rest of that war plays out. First, I'll just break down some of the key terms of the agreement.

India has agreed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on all United States industrial goods and a wide range of U.S. agricultural products. A big part of the trade deal was lessening tariffs on both sides, but India has agreed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on every U.S. good that they import. yet another huge win for the Trump tariff strategy, by the way. India has also committed to buy more American products and purchase over $500 billion of U.S. energy, information, and communication technology, agricultural coal, and other products. India has agreed to sell to the United States all sorts of medical technology. That's the big thing that the United States is agreeing to buy from the deal.

We're going to get access to Indian-produced medical devices, medical communications technology, and generic pharmaceuticals, all of which are key exports of India. the basics of the trade agreement and those seem like very favorable conditions for the United States. But I think the more interesting part of the trade agreement is the impact that it's going to have on the Ukraine war. Now, the reason that the United States struck a deal at this particular moment with India is that India has officially made a commitment to stop purchasing Russian Federation oil, and that is a huge deal. So when the Ukraine war started back in 2022, all of the Western nations, particularly the NATO nations, but all of the Western nations, tried to impose

sanctions on Russian oil. Oil is a huge part of the Russian economy, and so the Western nations, who were siding with Ukraine in this whole deal, figured that if they could shut down Russian oil exports, then they could hurt the Russian economy enough to punish them for their military operation in Ukraine, and use that economic pressure to try to force Russia into a favorable deal for Ukraine and end the war. There's only one problem. It did not work at all. The reason that it didn't work is that a lot of European and Asian nations are completely reliant on Russian oil. In large part due to their environmental agendas that mean that they're not producing a whole lot of energy internally, so they have to import it. Russia is one of the largest exporters of oil in the world,

and a lot of Europe and Asia need that oil in order to have enough energy to function. When they put sanctions on Russian oil, Russia turned to their ally to the South, Prime Minister Modi of India, and they sold all of that oil to India. India then resold it to the European nations and other Asian nations and Russia's economy kept going strong. They were able to sell their oil indirectly to those European and Asian nations that still needed it. And that rendered the Western sanctions on Russian oil ineffective. Now, what this trade deal that President Trump and Prime Minister Modi just made assures is that India is going to stop purchasing Russian Federation oil. That means that Russia doesn't get to indirectly sell that oil through India to lots of other nations. More than that,

Modi has been an ally of Russia's and of China's in recent years. You can see a lot of videos circulating online of Modi trying to bring together Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of China and of Russia trying to forge a eastern block between those three powers over there and those are the three biggest powers in that block. They have a lot of trade deals between those three nations. So what President Trump is doing here by making a trade deal with Modi is one bringing India into our block essentially into our economic and trade block. It's preventing India

from reselling Russian oil to Europe and Asia and kind of keeps them out of Russia's block, it's kind of forcing them to take a different side in this engagement. Now, that could have a significant impact on Russia's economy because they have been using India to export a lot of oil. But what that also means is that the U.S. now has a trade ally within what was thought to be Vladimir Putin's block of power. If the United States has influence in India, and it clearly does in this case because the trade deal secures a guarantee that India is going to stop purchasing Russian oil. That's India directly taking a side in that. They're taking a side with the United States, they want to be trade partners with the United States and not with Russia. And that is going to have

impacts on the Ukraine war. Now, not to get into the war situation too deeply, but this trade deal is going to put more pressure on Russia to either speed up their operation or bring it to a halt. And I'm not sure which exactly it's going to do, but it certainly does put more economic pressure on Russia than we were previously able to put on them. So I'm interested to see what impacts that has on trying to bring the Ukraine war to a halt in the near future. But this trade deal that the United States has made with India was great for national security reasons and for economic trade reasons. There's no reason not to view this as a massive success for the Trump administration. The next piece of news I have for you this week is another presidential proclamation issued February 6,

2026 entitled Ensuring Affordable Beef for the American Consumer. Now, you might have noticed beef prices going up over the last year or so, and you might have noticed a lot of people complaining about that issue, particularly in early 2025 when we were seeing grocery prices altogether, reached some pretty brutal highs in a lot of ways. You heard a lot of people complaining about egg prices. That has kind of gone away because egg prices have gone down over the last year. Most grocery prices altogether have gone down drastically over the last year, but meat has not really. Beef prices have not really gone down. This proclamation addresses why that might be the case. According to the proclamation,

the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to a record low of 86.2 million as of January 2026. On top of that, the United States is the world's largest consumer of beef by volume and ranks second globally in per capita beef consumption. Ground beef prices reach an average of $6.69 per pound in December 2025. The highest since tracking began in the 1980s. So none of those are really good signs as to the beef market in the United States, with the supply going down. And I'll explain some of the reasons of that. The proclamation says that in 2022, the United States faced a widespread and severe drought affecting beef producing states like Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Kansas. And in addition to those droughts, wildfires have affected the grasslands of the

Western United States, including America's cattle-producing states. And apart from the direct threat of burns and burn-associated deaths to cattle, cattle ranchers have had to adapt to indirect threats of wildfires, including changes in grazing patterns, loss of feed supplies, and suboptimal animal health for those cattle surviving the wildfires. So these circumstances, these droughts and wildfires have obviously made it a lot more difficult for cattle ranchers to do their jobs, and it certainly contributed to our decline in cattle numbers in the United States. But the demand for beef has not gone down in the United States, so a lot of American cattle farmers and ranchers supplement their herds with cattle imported from Mexico. But in May 2025, there was detected something

called the New World Screw Worm in Mexico, which was impacting their livestock and U.S. Customs and Border Protection restricted the importation of live animal commodities from Mexico, which meant that American cattle farmers could no longer supplement their own herds with Mexican calves. And from what I've found in my research, you do not want to mess with this new screw worm. It's a form of blowfly that feeds on the living flesh of warm-blooded animals. It doesn't just eat dead tissue like most flies do. It actually can consume healthy tissue, which leads to all sorts of infections and can even lead to death. Since 2003, when this kind of screw worm re-emerged in Central America and Mexico, there have been more than 138,000 animal cases and over 1,000

human cases, which is why we've stopped importing cattle from those areas, because it actually does transfer over to humans as well, and we can't afford that, obviously. So that's another circumstance that has led to the contraction of the cattle population in the United States, because we can't supplement our own cattle populations with imports from Mexico. So we have our own weather conditions, like the droughts and the wildfires. Then you add in the restrictions on imports from Mexico. On top of that, President Trump issued tariffs on beef imports from a lot of nations at like 50%, which has not helped either. That's been a failing part of the Trump tariff strategy. But that was more due to circumstance than the tariff policy itself.

The United States is the largest producer and consumer of beef. And so if you put tariffs on beef imports, then you're going to prioritize and give a kind of monopoly, quasi-monopoly, to the United States farmers. Which supports American farmers. It supports locally raised and healthier beef, which is a great thing overall. But if you have a reduction in supply within the United States at the same time as you're putting tariffs on the import of that supply, then you're going to run into problems of prices going up, which is exactly what has happened in the United States. What the presidential proclamation does is permit an additional 80,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings per year from Argentina to be imported tariff-free.

Now, I'm not sure why Argentina was chosen specifically other than the fact that we are very favorable in trade dealings with Argentina, but we have exempted the tariff on beef for Argentina to import 80,000 metric tons of lean beef in the hopes of bringing the prices down in the United States. So to recap this week, we covered the establishment of Trump RX, a program working to drastically lower drug prices by obtaining most favored nation price deals with the manufacturers. We covered a trade deal between the U.S. and India and what ramifications that may have on the Ukraine war. And we covered an effort to counter the environmental factors that are lowering our beef supply in order to lower prices at the grocery store.

Tune in next week for more. Well, that's all I have for you today on Under the Radar. I'm your host, Luke Miller. And I want to thank you for listening and encourage you to tune back in next time for more coverage of the news that fell under the radar. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Thanks for listening to Under the Radar with Luke Miller, here on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.