Trump Threatens To Ban European Car Sales If Drug Companies Don’t Lower Prices Because That Makes Sense

Donald Trump has a lot of thoughts. Most of them don’t make any sense, and the sentences themselves are often barely intelligible, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have thoughts. If he were in memory care, like he probably should be, that would be one thing, but instead, he’s our president, so his incoherent ramblings are once again the entire world’s problem. For example, just this week, Trump said he’ll ban European automakers from selling cars here if pharmaceutical companies don’t lower their prices. You know, because that makes sense. 

While speaking on lowering drug prices in the U.S., Trump said we need to get “the other countries to lift up their prices a little bit and to get the drug companies to put it to them. And if they don’t, the drug companies will have [sic] lot of problems, and they are mostly agreed to it. And if the countries don’t, then, as an example, if it’s Europe, I’ll say, ‘That’s OK. You’re no longer allowed to sell cars in America. You’re no longer allowed to have Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen or any of the other many cars,’ and they will say, ‘Oh, I love the idea of lower drug prices for America. So you have to use that.”

Now, it’s worth noting that Europe is a continent, not a country, and the European Union is, well, a political union made up of many individual countries, but that also isn’t the main point here. More importantly, he’s saying he wants pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices in the U.S., and if they don’t, he’ll ban separate, unrelated companies — in this case, automakers — from doing business in the U.S. Apparently, it’s BMW’s responsibility to force Pfizer to lower its prices. Or something. Maybe the EU is supposed to force drug companies to lower their prices so the automakers don’t get punished? 

To borrow a phrase from Michael Tae Sweeney, 10,000 Tariff Grandpa has his good days and his bad days, but mostly, it’s just bad days now. And sure, he’s under a lot of pressure lately with considering all the stories coming out about how close his relationship was with infamous sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. But on a fundamental level, his threat just doesn’t make any sense. Why would you punish Volkswagen because Eli Lilly did something you don’t like? 

If I told you I was suing Costco because I was mad Ford refused to give us a new Fiesta ST, you’d look at me like I had lost my mind. You would also be correct to do so. And yet, here’s the President of the United States saying something equally nonsensical. Sure, there will probably be plenty of bootlickers who come out of the woodwork to say he didn’t really mean it, he’d never actually do it and I have Trump Derangement Syndrome if I think the words spoken out loud by the actual president matter, but come on. I mean, come on.

How would this even work? Would he only ban imports, or would he ban all vehicle sales? European automakers already build a crap-ton of vehicles here, so that’s a pretty big question. Would he shut down BMW’s factory in Greer, South Carolina? And what would he do about Stellantis? That’s a European company. Is Trump going to ban Jeep because it’s no longer owned by a company headquartered in the U.S.? Perhaps most importantly, how would punishing automakers force Merck to lower its prices?

Additionally, aren’t Republicans supposed to be the party of small government? Would this not be an egregious example of federal overreach? Do Republicans no longer care about the president being mentally fit for office now that their guy is in charge? I think we all know the answers to those questions, but it doesn’t make Trump’s threats to ban European car sales if drug companies don’t lower their prices any less nonsensical or unhinged.