The president’s family is poised to take advantage of the drug market that he’s attempting to open up.
No, this isn’t the plot of some kingpin drama on Starz. Rather, it’s the conclusion of new reporting from The Wall Street Journal on how a business tied to Donald Trump Jr. stands to benefit from his father’s newly announced plan to launch a Trump-branded pharmaceutical market funded by the government.
To be clear, we’re talking about legal pharmaceuticals. But an air of impropriety remains.
Here’s why:
Trump’s eldest son sits on the board of a prescription drug delivery company. That company is hosting a summit for pharmaceutical companies at Trump Jr.’s private club, the Journal reported. Those companies are likely to participate in the direct-to-consumer marketplace the president is planning to establish under the name “TrumpRx.”
According to the Journal:
The host: BlinkRx, an online prescription drug delivery company that this year installed Trump Jr. as a board member. The summit will conclude with a dinner at the Executive Branch, the exclusive new club founded by Trump Jr. and his close friends, according to people with knowledge of the event and a copy of the invitation viewed by The Wall Street Journal. BlinkRx stands to benefit from a shake-up of how patients buy drugs after President Trump urged pharmaceutical companies to sell their medicines directly to consumers. BlinkRx helps drugmakers do exactly that with a service that promises to set up direct-to-patient sales programs in as little as three weeks. TrumpRx, a new government website set to launch in early 2026, would funnel patients to direct-sale sites. The report also notes that 1789 Capital, a MAGA-aligned firm where Trump Jr. is a partner, is a major investor in BlinkRx. As I wrote last year, 1789 Capital invests in what’s known as the parallel economy, a sector of MAGA-branded products and services that conservatives sell to their followers as an alternative to brands they consider too friendly to liberals. “At 1789, Trump Jr. will work alongside some of Trump’s biggest allies, mixing politics with business even as he has said he plans to stay out of the administration,” the Journal reported last year. In response to the Journal’s latest reporting on his ties to BlinkRx, the president’s son and the drug delivery company sought to downplay any perception of a conflict of interest: Drew Hudson, vice president of corporate affairs at BlinkRx, said ‘no company will be pitching any services’ at the December event. And Trump Jr. said in a statement to the Journal that this article amounts to an ‘innuendo smear’ and accused the paper of pursuing the story at the behest of pharmaceutical industry advertisers. Such statements seem unlikely to quiet concerns about the ways in which the Trump family is using the presidency to enrich itself and its associates.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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