Trump's drugmaker holdings grew to 56 million dollars under exemptions his own law expanded

President Donald Trump's holdings in pharmaceutical companies grew from a maximum reported value of 1.7 million dollars in 2024 to as much as 56.2 million dollars by the end of 2025, according to a congressional report released Friday by the Democratic minority of the Joint Economic Committee. As much as 39.1 million dollars of that sat in companies that benefited from exemptions to Medicare's drug price negotiation program — exemptions expanded by the tax and spending law Trump signed in July 2025.

The exemption is the orphan drug exclusion, which keeps medications developed for rare diseases out of Medicare negotiation. A law from Joe Biden's administration had allowed Medicare, for the first time, to negotiate prices for some of the costliest prescription drugs; the 2025 Republican law broadened the exclusion, delaying when certain costly drugs become eligible or blocking them altogether, according to the healthcare research nonprofit KFF. Critics say that lets makers of blockbuster medications keep charging prices negotiation was designed to lower — and the report notes some Medicare beneficiaries could pay thousands of dollars more for cancer treatments and other drugs. Supporters argued a broader exemption would encourage development of treatments for rare diseases.

The dates are what the Democrats circulated. Trump's financial disclosures show his investment portfolio bought as much as 2.55 million dollars in shares of pharmaceutical companies benefiting from the exemptions on three dates before he signed the legislation — including up to 950,000 dollars on July 1, 2025, the day the Senate passed the bill — and as much as 1 million dollars in AbbVie stock in August, after the bill became law.

The White House says the stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions, and that neither the president nor any member of his family "has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested." Spokesperson Davis Ingle accused Democrats of "attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest." Senator Maggie Hassan, who leads the committee's minority arm, called the findings "outrageous and yet typical from this president, who makes the American people foot the bill again and again for his own gains."

The numbers exist because disclosure law forced them into the open. The same administration is meanwhile asking the Supreme Court to rule that disclosure law does not reach the records of Musk's DOGE. Polling from the AP-NORC Center shows most Americans already believe Trump is profiting off the presidency in unethical or illegal ways. Trump has made lowering prescription drug costs a central promise of his health policy, striking deals with pharmaceutical companies his administration says will make medications more affordable.

The White House maintains that no one in the president's family can influence the portfolio. On the day the Senate passed the law, the portfolio bought up to 950,000 dollars in shares of companies the exemptions would protect.