Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed on Wednesday that President Donald Trump had “a different way of calculating” percentages, sharing a baffling system that allowed the president to claim he had reduced drug prices by over a hundred percent.

Kennedy answered questions during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing where he was grilled on some of his past comments, as well as his actions as HHS secretary. During one stunning exchange, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pushed Kennedy to explain Trump’s claims surrounding his TrumpRx initiative, which he claimed would sell drugs to Americans at the “lowest number” they are sold at around the world.

“The president pitched his Trump RX website as the answer for Americans who are worried about healthcare costs. He claims that Trump RX has reduced prices by as much as six hundred percent. Six hundred percent, which I think means companies should be paying you to take their drugs. But, let’s do some real math here,” said Warren. “Take one drug, Protonix. A thirty-day supply of this heartburn medication costs $200 on Trump RX, but there is an identical generic version of this pill called Pantoprazole. Secretary Kennedy, do you know how much it costs for a thirty-day supply of that drug at Costco?”

Kennedy said that there were “two ways” to calculate percentages, telling the senator that the president could accurately say he had lowered a drug’s cost by hundreds of percentage points.

“President Trump has a different way of calculating if– there’s two ways of calculating percentage,” said Kennedy. “If you have a $600 drug and you reduce it to $10, that’s a six hundred percent reduction.”

The secretary’s calculation is not, in any way, correct. A decrease from $600 to $10 would be a 98 percent drop in price.

Kennedy echoed Trump’s own words on the subject. In February, the president explained his method for calculating the percentage drop in drugs, which, like Kennedy’s, was wholly incorrect.

“Novo Nordisk will be slashing the price – as an example – of Ozempic from more than $1,000 to $199,” said Trump at the launch of TrumpRx. “And the price of WeGovy from more than $1,300 to $199. Nobody could even believe it. A 578% difference.”

Trump’s method for calculating percentages was flipped, taking the percentage increase from the lower price to the original. While a drop from $1,300 to $199 is not anywhere near a 578% decrease (the real number is 85%), it is somewhat close to the percentage increase from $199 to $1,300 (553%).

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!