France rejects Trump’s comment at Davos on increasing drug prices, dubs it ‘fake news’

France rejected as “fake news” US President Donald Trump’s assertion on Wednesday that he had pressured President Emmanuel Macron into hiking domestic drug prices after he threatened sweeping tariffs on French imports to the United States. The French reaction in an escalating war of words between the two NATO allies after Trump threatened to take control of Greenland and impose tariffs on any country that stands in his way.

“It is being claimed that President @Emmanuel Macron increased the price of medicines,” the French presidency wrote on social media platform X.

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“He does not set their prices. They are regulated by the social security system and have, in fact, remained stable. Anyone who has set foot in a French pharmacy knows this.”

In the X post, The Elysee also used a GIF of Trump mouthing the words “fake news” in front of a microphone, with the same words in writing underneath.

Trump said in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday that he had threatened Macron with tariffs to cajole him into increasing drug prices in France.

“I said, ‘Here’s the story, Emmanuel, the answer is, you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it fast. And if you don’t, I’m putting a 25% tariff on everything that you sell into the United States, and a 100% tariff on your wines and champagnes,” Trump said.

“(And Macron said) ‘No, no, Donald, I will do it, I will do it’. It took me on average three minutes a country, saying the same thing, ‘You will do it’,” Trump said.

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Trump had also mocked Macron for the aviator sunglasses he wore during his Davos speech on Tuesday. Trump also threatened to slap 200% tariffs on French wines and champagnes in an apparent effort to persuade him to join the US leader’s Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts.

Macron has taken a harder line than most other European Union leaders on Trump’s threat to take over Greenland and even urged the bloc to activate its most potent trade tools against Washington. Macron also said that Europe would not give in to bullies.

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Last year, the French government set up an X account with the handle @frenchresponse to expose false narratives and misinformation. This X account has become increasingly active in the recent weeks and has been challenging the rhetoric from the Trump administration.