Trump talks drug prices in Ohio, midterm races in Kentucky as Iran looms large

HEBRON, Ky. — President Donald Trump toured an Ohio pharmaceutical company on Wednesday and campaigned in the nearby Kentucky district of a Republican in Congress he would like to see defeated — attempting to project political and economic strength as war in Iran has scrambled financial markets and hurt his poll numbers.

Trump toured Thermo Fisher Scientific outside Cincinnati, talking up his administration’s efforts to persuade major manufacturers to lower prescription medication prices so they are closer to what is charged abroad.

“I used some very strong negotiating talent to get every single country to almost immediately approve. I threatened them with tariffs,” he told reporters.

The Supreme Court recently struck down sweeping tariffs that Trump’s administration had imposed around the world to boost his economic policies. But the president used an executive order to restore some levies, and says his push to lower drug costs can help Republicans ahead of November’s midterms.

Wednesday’s trip, however, was overshadowed by the military action launched by the U.S. and Israel in Iran, which Trump said was “an excursion that will keep us out of a war.” He added of Tehran: “For them, it’s a war. For us, it’s turned out to be easier than we thought.”

In an interview with Cincinnati’s WKRC-TV, Trump said he planned to tap the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to bring down gasoline prices.

“Right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down,” Trump said, without providing details.

That interview followed the president noting during the tour of the drug company facility that stock markets had been volatile as gas prices have risen, saying: “I figured we’d be hit a little bit. But we were hit probably less than I thought.”

“We’ll be back on track in a pretty short while,” Trump said. “Prices are coming down very substantially. Oil will be coming down.”

He also called the turmoil “just a matter of war,” saying “that happens,” while adding, “I would say it went up a little bit less than we thought.”

Trump next headed to Hebron, Ky., in the district of Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the few congressional Republicans who has dared to defy Trump on Iran and other major issues. Trump has endorsed a GOP primary challenger to Massie, Ed Gallrein.

The president, however, spent more time decrying his Democratic predecessor, President Joe Biden, than Massie.

He ticked off his administration’s accomplishments and told the crowd, “The midterms are going to be very, very important to keep it going.”

Trump relished saying, “Kenn-tucky,” proclaiming that he was pronouncing it like a resident. He said the stock market had set repeatedly reached new highs since he was reelected in 2024, but did not mention that the markets more recently had dropped.

“We’re making more things in the USA than we ever have,” Trump said. When he mentioned Iran, the crowd chanted, “USA! USA!”

“They don’t know what the hell hit them,” Trump said of U.S. and Israel strikes there. “They didn’t expect anything like this.”

Polls showed that Americans were increasingly wary of Trump’s handling of the economy even before the conflict with Iran began, and fighting there has derailed Trump’s messaging, as the low gas prices he once bragged about are now surging and stocks that had set record highs have slipped.

Employers also cut an unexpectedly high 92,000 jobs in February, and revisions trimmed an additional 69,000 jobs from December and January payrolls — which the White House had previously hailed as “blockbuster.”

After Democrats who pushed the message that the cost of living remained too high won the Virginia and New Jersey governors’ races in November, the White House announced that Trump would travel the country more frequently. It was an attempt to show that he is taking kitchen table issues seriously and to reassure voters nervous about still-rising prices and economic growth.

Before Wednesday, the president made stops in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas — though his speeches have sometimes been focused more on his own political grievances than on his plans to help lower everyday costs across the country.

This trip, however, marked the first time in this primary cycle that Trump has sought to keep promises to punish members of his own party who oppose him on key issues.

The president has endorsed Gallrein, a farmer, businessman, and retired Navy SEAL who is running against Massie in Kentucky’s Republican primary on May 19.

Massie is an outspoken Trump critic who opposed the White House-backed tax and spending measure and bucked Trump by pushing to have files related to the sex-trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein released.

He has also criticized the U.S. strike on Venezuela that toppled then-President Nicolás Maduro and, most recently, the war in Iran.

Trump posted on his social media site during his Wednesday trip: “The Republican Party’s Worst ‘Congressman,’ EVER, Thomas Massie.”

Massie said he hoped the president would use his trip to help work for the district. He told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Trump’s endorsement is “all my opponent has going for him,” adding that Gallrein “has promised to be a rubber stamp when he gets to Washington, D.C., and I don’t think people here want a rubber stamp.”