It’s not a secret that Donald Trump spends a great deal of time watching television, which means he occasionally sees Democratic campaign ads — many of which note President Joe Biden’s accomplishments. If I had to guess, I’d say the former president saw just such an ad yesterday afternoon, leading to this item by way of his social media platform:
“I got the price of Insulin for seniors brought WAY DOWN, not Biden. He just inherited this, and many other things, and then always tries to take credit for it. He’s done nothing but destroy our Country!!!”
If the message sounded at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. About a month ago, the presumptive Republican nominee published this item, insisting, “Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me.” He added that the Democratic incumbent “had NOTHING to do with it.”
Soon after, during the first presidential debate of the 2024 cycle, Biden briefly referenced his success in making insulin more affordable. Trump was outraged. “I’m the one that got the insulin down for the seniors,” the former president claimed. “I took care of the seniors.”
The day after the debate, Trump held a rally in Virginia and repeated the lie. “I was the one that got you the inexpensive [insulin], not him,” the Republican said, adding, “I did the insulin!”
Even by Trump standards, this is pretty weird. Indeed, while the GOP candidate clearly hopes to score a few campaign points, especially with seniors, the truth is unambiguous, whether the former president understands it or not.
In reality, it’s true that Trump said he would address insulin costs while in office, but he didn’t. The issue then fell to Biden, who signed the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act — which included the policy on insulin costs. As a result, American consumers are benefiting from a policy that caps the cost of insulin at $35.
Complicating matters, Trump isn’t just claiming credit for one of Biden’s accomplishments, he’s also planning to undo the Inflation Reduction Act, which would necessarily mean the end of the price caps that the Republican is falsely attributing to himself.
It doesn’t help that the former president might not know what insulin even is. At an event four years ago, for example, the then-Republican president said, “I don’t use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it. But I know a lot of people are very badly affected, right? Unbelievable.”
To this day, I still don’t know what point he was trying to communicate.
Nevertheless, the issue has returned to the fore in an unexpected way, and Trump’s rhetoric is plainly bonkers.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.