Donald Trump DOES Stand to Profit from Hydroxychloroquine!

May 25, 2020 11:32am

Contrary to many claims made by dishonest Democrats, Donald Trump does not own the company making hydroxychloroquine.

Hydroxychloroquine is the generic name for a drug that was patented in 1955. It can be - and is - manufactured by many pharmaceutical companies around the world. And because it no longer enjoys patent protection that would give it a monopoly, it is not very profitable.

But that hasn't stopped many Democrats from claiming that Trump "bought stock" in the company that makes it. As is so typical of the Trump-haters, they have done no independent verification of what they've been spoon-fed. They just regurgitate the talking points they hear in their Leftist Echo Chamber.

I had heard that Donald Trump owned shares in a mutual fund that held stock of one of the pharmaceutical companies that manufactures hydroxychloroquine. But I wanted to know how significant that investment was, so I looked into it myself. Here is what I discovered:

Three of Donald Trump's trusts own shares in the Dodge & Cox International Stock Fund. It is a mutual fund that holds shares in Sanofi, a French company that produces hydroxychloroquine. The maximum value of his mutual fund shares is $45,000. No, that wasn't a typo. $45,000. The reason we don't have a better estimate is because the financial disclosures of elected officials report assets in ranges.

His holdings in that Dodge & Cox fund are somewhere between $3003 and $45,000. But since the fund's holdings of Sanofi represent just 3.3% of its assets, Trump's investment in Sanofi is somewhere between $99.10 and $1485.00. Those weren't typos either. His stake in hydroxychloroquine is further diluted by the fact that Sanofi makes 173 prescription drugs plus many over-the-counter drugs, which means that Trump's actual "ownership" of hydroxychloroquine is probably valued between 20 cents and $2.97 - also not typos.

So, yeah, Donald Trump stands to profit if hydroxychloroquine turns out to be effective against a COVID-19 infection. By about one penny; perhaps not even that much.

I own shares in a mutual fund that holds stock in Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, Chevron, and other oil companies. But that doesn't mean I want gas prices to go up so I can make a profit.

The claim that Trump is hyping hydroxychloroquine so he can profit from it is equally absurd.