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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been widely mocked after claiming that Donald Trump ‘calculates percentages differently to everyone else’ – and people are pointing out that this bizarre method of calculating is simply wrong.
The Trump administration’s baffling grasp on numbers has been a long running theme and it took another turn this week, after the Health Secretary spoke while testifying before the Senate Finance Committee to Senator Elizabeth Warren.
The truth is, Trump has an incorrect way of calculating percentages – but RFJ Jr. didn’t see it that way.
RFK Jr. said: “If you have a $600 drug, and you reduce it to $10, that’s a 600 percent reduction.”
Of course, this is wrong. Reducing $600 down to $10 would be a reduction of more than 98 per cent, not 600 per cent.
Trump himself has posted plenty of incorrect statements about prices and percentages during his second term as president.
One example came back in August last year, when Trump bizarrely claimed a "tremendous drop in drug prices".
“You know, we’ve cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500 per cent,” he said. “I don’t mean 50 per cent. I mean 14, 1,500 per cent.”
The clip began making the rounds on social media at the time and Trump's stats were swiftly criticised. People pointed out that his calculations would mean Americans would actually be paid to receive their medication.
RFJ Jr.’s latest comments on Trump's ''calculating percentages" quickly sparked ridicule on social media.
"It's called wrong.." said Deborah Meaden, businessperson and star of Dragon's Den in the UK.
"We're living in the dumbest timeline," wrote the Republicans Against Trump account.
"There is no way to work for Trump and not have to humiliate yourself," wrote another commentator.
"This is stupid beyond belief," said another.
Why not read…
- Reaction as health secretary RFK Jr announces upcoming podcast 'The Secretary Kennedy Podcast'
- Detail in RFK Jr’s workout video with Kid Rock leaves viewers baffled
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