The golden age of graft isn’t coming. It’s here, and it’s smiling in a suit. Donald Trump’s new drug plan was sold as a crusade to crush Big Pharma, but behind the curtain, it’s a family business. The program, called TrumpRx, is supposed to help Americans buy cheaper medicine straight from the source. In reality, it’s building a golden bridge between government power and private profit.
TrumpRx will launch next year. The site looks like reform, but it runs through BlinkRx, a quiet online pharmacy that added Donald Trump Jr. to its board just before the plan went public. The timing is not luck. It’s choreography.
“BlinkRx, an online prescription delivery firm that added Trump Jr. to its board earlier this year, is playing host to a high-profile pharmaceutical summit in December… Invitations included private meetings with top administration officials.”
https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/trump-s-drug-pricing-overhaul-explained-why-his-son-s-company-is-under-scrutiny-article-13603532.html
The event is co-hosted with 1789 Capital, Trump Jr.’s own investment fund. The same fund that poured millions into the company now set to gain from his father’s policy. Drug executives are invited to mingle with regulators, the same people who decide prices, licenses, and tariffs. BlinkRx calls it innovation. Most people would call it access for sale.
“The invitation to the ‘Future of Pharmaceuticals’ summit prompted consternation among drug-company representatives… worried the White House wants them to work with BlinkRx because of its ties to the president’s family.”
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/trump-wants-to-overhaul-drug-sales-a-company-tied-to-his-son-stands-to-benefit-101759905031767.html
The administration denies favoritism. But the pattern is too tight to ignore. Trump Jr. sits on the board. His firm funds the company. His allies in the cabinet—like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick—stand to gain from the ripple effects of new pharmaceutical tariffs.
“Cantor Fitzgerald, which Lutnick ran before joining the administration and later transferred to trusts for his children, is backing a $500 million SPAC focused on U.S. drug manufacturing.”
https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/trump-s-drug-pricing-overhaul-explained-why-his-son-s-company-is-under-scrutiny-article-13603532.html
The same families who write the rules are designing the pipeline. They tell the public this is about lowering costs, but it’s really about controlling the middleman. Whoever owns the platform owns the profits.
Tina Brown saw this coming. She called it the golden age of graft.
“The Trump family’s business interests are no longer adjacent to power—they are embedded in it. The line between public service and private gain has dissolved.”
https://tinabrown.substack.com/p/why-america-doesnt-care-about-trumps
TrumpRx isn’t a policy. It’s a toll road. Every prescription that passes through it enriches the few who built it. The reform isn’t fake. It’s worse than fake. It’s monetized. And if this model spreads, it won’t stop with medicine. It will creep into construction, transport, energy: every corner where public trust can be sold for private gain.
The golden age of graft has a name, a website, and a board seat.