In other news, WSJ rediscovered journalism
Oct 08, 2025
Dear readers, I wrote about Trump self dealing via the Pfizer-TrumpRx direct to consumer drug sales just the other day:
The Art of the Drug Deal: Pfizer may funnel up to ~$500M to Trump Organization via TrumpRx.
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Sep 30
TrumpRx deal: Congress must demand disclosure of the Trump trademark licensing arrangement.
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Oct 6
… but I underestimated the scope of self dealing by Trump. I thought he was “just” skimming off the top for his name licensing. Well, the 5D chess grossmeister that he is, he is skimming off the top not once but twice: once for him (TrumpRx) and once for baby Don Jr (BlinkRx), and possibly the third time via Lutnick/Cantor Fitzgerald investment vehicle into BlinkRx. What a caring father! Read the article below for details.
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You may have seen the GOP propaganda machine, including Glenn Beck and a bunch of MAHA e-girls desperately trying to spin this into “Pfizer bent the knee…” – the hell they did. The deal simply takes out the middleman, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and redistributes the gains to Pfizer (Lilly, Amgen and others if they join) and to Trump and Lutnick families via these double-triple skimming arrangements. Everyone standing around Trump during the announcement is, at a minimum, allowed to ride in Lutnick/Cantor Fitzgerald investment vehicle. This is how these things work!
I can add to this from my direct knowledge provided by an insider working directly under Howard Lutnick – it’s ALL about self dealing and making money on their position in government in this administration (or any other administration, this is not a partisan issue at all).
What is even more shocking is that WSJ somehow managed to accurately write about this. Republishing the article from WSJ, abridged:
Trump Wants to Overhaul Drug Sales. A Company Tied to His Son Stands to Benefit.
Family members of President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are poised to benefit from efforts to remake the industry
By Annie Linskey and Josh Dawsey
Oct. 7, 2025 9:00 pm ET
WASHINGTON—The country’s top drugmakers are set to meet in early December at the Four Seasons hotel in Georgetown with Donald Trump Jr. and senior Trump administration officials that regulate the pharmaceutical industry.
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.
Donald Trump Jr. is a board member of BlinkRx, an online prescription drug delivery company. Photo: Suhaimi Abdullah/Bloomberg News
The invitation to the “Future of Pharmaceuticals” summit prompted consternation among some drug-company representatives, who worried that the gathering signaled that the White House wants them to work with the little-known BlinkRx because of its ties to the president’s family, according to people familiar with the matter.
It is the latest example of the Trump administration’s policy priorities overlapping with the business dealings of the president and his family.
[…]
BlinkRx, which put the president’s son on its board in February, said in an August news release that it can help drug companies set up their own direct-to-patient sales platforms in “as little as 21 days.” In addition to being on BlinkRx’s board, Trump Jr. became a partner with the investment firm 1789 Capital last November. The firm, which is co-hosting the December summit, led a $140 million funding round for BlinkRx in June 2024, according to a person familiar with the deal. A spokesman for 1789 Capital said the firm “maximizes transparency and compliance” and noted that “no one at the fund has ever worked in government.”
[…]
Days before the president announced the new TrumpRx website, a BlinkRx representative told one drug company that BlinkRx could be involved with running the site on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In mid-September, as Trump was stepping up negotiations with pharmaceutical companies ahead of his TrumpRx announcement, BlinkRx invited the leaders of more than two-dozen pharmaceutical companies to Washington for the Future of Pharmaceuticals summit in December.
The event schedule says there will be “small group” meetings with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary.
Invited companies include Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Amgen, according to a person familiar with the event, whose leaders have relationships with the administration. One person familiar with the December event said the summit is intended to bring together administration officials and pharmaceutical companies, but acknowledged “there is always a business angle.”
[…]
A White House aide said the four officials named in the invitation haven’t confirmed their attendance at the December event. A Treasury Department spokeswoman said Bessent wouldn’t attend, citing a scheduling conflict.
Drugmakers now often work through middlemen called pharmacy-benefit managers so patients can fill their prescriptions at pharmacies. Several larger companies have established their own direct-to-consumer websites in recent years, meaning they might have no need for BlinkRx’s services. But smaller companies could look to firms such as BlinkRx to help establish such programs.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s adult children are also positioned to profit from the administration’s overhauls to the drug industry. Cantor Fitzgerald—the financial-services firm that was led by Lutnick until he joined the Trump administration—took a financial stake in a company that is trying to make money by investing in bringing pharmaceutical manufacturers to the U.S. Earlier this year, Lutnick handed his ownership of Cantor Fitzgerald to trusts benefiting his adult children, and his two eldest sons were named chairman and executive vice chairman of the firm.
President Trump last week announcing a deal to lower drug prices. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
A new special-purpose acquisition company called Drugs Made In America Acquisition II turned to Cantor Fitzgerald to handle its $500 million initial public offering, which occurred last month. The new blank-check company, the largest SPAC listing of 2025, will target “investments in strategic on-shoring of advanced domestic manufacturing technologies for critical drugs,” according to SEC filings, a mission that positions it to benefit from the expected onshoring resulting from pharmaceutical tariffs that Lutnick and Trump have threatened.
Some in the administration have grown concerned about Lutnick’s family taking financial stakes in issues the commerce secretary oversees. Two White House officials said they felt that Lutnick should have raised Cantor’s involvement in the SPAC as he pushed for pharmaceutical tariffs in recent weeks.
A Commerce Department spokesman said that Lutnick has “fully complied with the terms of his ethics agreement with respect to divestiture and recusals and will continue to do so.” Danielle Popper, spokeswoman for Cantor, said the firm uses “rigorous compliance checks” and said “any suggestion we have acted improperly in regard with the transition of leadership and ownership is categorically false.” She said Cantor has no nonpublic information about the administration’s initiatives and noted that the firm was the underwriter, not the sponsor of the SPAC.
As part of the deal, Cantor agreed to purchase 500,000 shares of the SPAC for $5 million, according to SEC filings. Cantor will also receive 50,000 bonus shares once the company has completed a merger with a target company.
Desai, the White House spokesman, said that Lutnick “has been critical for the administration’s success delivering on President Trump’s pledge to level the playing field on global pharmaceutical drug prices.”
Art for today: You can bring the horse to the water, 9×12 watercolor.
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