The United States Senate Finance Committee witnessed an unconventional lesson in arithmetic on Wednesday asRobert F. Kennedy Jr.defended the administration's claims regarding pharmaceutical costs. Facing intense scrutiny overPresident Donald Trump's repeated assertions of triple-digit price cuts, Kennedy offered a justification that has since ignited a firestorm of ridicule from mathematicians and social media users alike.

The Health and Human Services Secretary nominee suggested that traditional mathematical rules do not apply to the President's unique rhetorical style. This testimony marks a significant moment in the ongoing debate over the administration's ability to communicate complex economic policy without resorting to hyperbole.

During the hearing, Kennedy was pressed on how a price reduction could ever exceed 100 percent without the manufacturer paying the consumer to take the medication. Hereplied, 'President Trump has a different way of calculating percentages. If you have a $480 ($600) drug and you reduce it to £8 ($10), that's a 600% reduction.'

This explanation suggests that the administration is treating the initial price figure as the percentage of reduction, regardless of the actual mathematical delta. In reality, dropping a price from £480 ($600) to £8 ($10) represents a 98.33 per cent decrease, a figure that is substantial but falls short of the President's rhetoric.

By redefining the standard formula for percentage decreases, Kennedy attempted to bridge the gap between political messaging and statistical reality. However, the explanation only intensified questioning about the transparency of future health policy.

OMFG!RFK Jr: "President Trump has a different way of calculating percentages. If you have a $600 drug and you reduce it to $10, that's a 600% reduction."No, you imbecile. That’s a 98.33% drop. No math besides make-believe math makes it 600%.pic.twitter.com/5lmJ24WXur

Reaction on social media platforms was swift, with users on X and TikTok highlighting the mathematical problems in Kennedy's explanation. Commenters pointed out that a 100 per cent price reduction would make a drug free, and that a 600 per cent reduction would, under standard definitions, require a pharmacy to pay patients £2,400 ($3,000) to take a £480 ($600) medicine.

'That is an absurdly ignorant statement from RFK,' one user wrote. 'There is no way to come up with 600% anything based on these numbers, and the fact that our HHS secretary has so little understanding of basic mathematics to not realize this, and for him to defend President Trump's mathematical errors by making this statement is disturbing indeed.'

Others described the testimony as 'inventing new math' or operating in a 'discount universe'. Several critics noted that a 98 per cent reduction, or roughly a 60‑fold drop in price, would already be significant without invoking 'make‑believe math'.

'That's a mathematically incorrect statement. It's NOT a 600% reduction,' oneremarked. The netizen pointed out that it was a '60-fold reduction' and that it was already 'impressive' so the administration need not 'exaggerate it.'

Source: International Business Times UK