The White House hosted a somewhat unexpected visitor on Monday: billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
Cuban’s presence wasn’t a total surprise. Outlets reported earlier in the day that he was one of many healthcare executives who’d be at the White House for President Donald Trump‘s announcement regarding TrumpRx, the federal government’s website aimed at lowering prescription drug prices. Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, a direct-to-consumer marketplace for generic prescriptions, was one of three drug companies joining the TrumpRx venture in hopes of lowering costs for American households.
“I’ve been the biggest proponent of TrumpRx.com, and the reason for that is Republicans want cheaper drugs. Independents want cheaper drugs. Democrats want cheaper drugs,” he said onstage at the South Court Auditorium after being introduced by the president. “Together, I think we’re going to do something special.
Following Monday’s event, Cuban told the Washington Examiner that he and Trump had been discussing for months some type of partnership between Cost Plus and the federal effort.
“We have what’s called programming interfaces … that we make available to everybody, and it was just a natural match for [us] just to work with them — to get as many of our drugs as they wanted to carry,” he explained.
Cuban publicly lauded the TrumpRx launch earlier this year, but he told the Washington Examiner their biggest fault was that they needed to “just add more drugs.”
“They can only do so much at a time,” he added, noting that, as of Monday, only roughly 550 of Cost Plus’s thousands-strong catalog will be immediately available through TrumpRx. “Some of the guys have been up three straight nights, and so it wasn’t fair to them to expect them just to take all of our inventory and integrate it all through. So this is a great start, and I’m positive we’ll keep on adding.”
But given his past support for Democrats — including an endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 — and a lengthy history of publicly attacking Trump himself, many were confused to see “Cubes” side by side with the president.
That group included a number of reporters who caught up with Cuban on the White House driveway, the majority of whom peppered the former Shark Tank star with questions about the 2028 presidential field, the looming November midterm elections, and whether or not he regretted his endorsement of Harris.
Virtually none of those questions were answered.
“Hell no,” he joked, when asked if being at the White House might have inspired some aspirations of his own for political office. “It’s too hot here. I’m all about reducing the cost of healthcare. To me, that’s my ultimate legacy.”
“That was last season, right?” Cuban responded when pressed to see if his thoughts on Trump, whom he’s known personally for more than two decades, had changed over the past 18 months. “What you say during an election cycle is obviously going to be completely different, but now the goal is the goal.”
And for Cuban, that goal is simple: cut healthcare costs for American households.
“Nobody likes it, everybody thinks it sucks, and if I can take something that makes everybody’s life more miserable, and more stressful, and f*** it up — I’m in,” he told reporters.
Beyond the TrumpRx partnership, he expressed a willingness to collaborate with the administration on future healthcare initiatives, including potentially lobbying for Trump’s desired legislation codifying his Most Favored Nation drug pricing policies.
“It just depends,” he told the Washington Examiner in response to a question on whether or not he would talk to Hill lawmakers on the president’s behalf. “I think [Most Favored Nation] is great, but when you look at why we’re more expensive for brand drugs versus the rest of the world, it’s because of the insurance companies and the [pharmacy benefit managers] that they own that introduce all the extra costs. Yeah, if I can work with them to get those vertically integrated insurance carriers out of the mix of brand drugs, then I think the cost of medication will drop dramatically, and [Most Favored Nation] complements that.”
Cuban thought there was absolutely zero chance — “it ain’t gonna happen” — that private insurers would step up, like the 17 drug manufacturers who have signed deals with the administration, and meet Trump’s calls to cut costs for consumers.
WHITE HOUSE ADDS GENERICS TO TRUMPRX
Though he was loath to discuss either the past or future politics of Washington, D.C., there was one non-drug-related topic Cuban, an Indiana University graduate, was happy to engage with: Hoosier football’s historic, undefeated national championship season.
“I was mad I wasn’t here,” he joked, referencing last week’s visit by the team to the White House and expressing optimism that head coach Curt Cignetti could lead the team to back-to-back titles. “I was celebrating along with them.”