Actress and left-wing activist Alyssa Milano floated a New York Times report that suggests the president is promoting hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for the coronavirus for financial gain as grounds for his impeachment.
“Trump can make history as the first President to be impeached twice. I mean, if putting lives in danger by pushing a drug for personal gain during a pandemic isn’t impeachmable, we should just throw in the towel,” the Charmed actress said.
Milano’s declaration follows a Times report on the general divide over the effectiveness of the anti-malaria medicine hydroxychloroquine in treating coronavirus patients. President Trump has touted the treatment, which the Times admitted has not been totally unwarranted.
“Mr. Trump may ultimately be right, and physicians report anecdotal evidence that has provided hope,” the Times wrote before subtly suggesting that the president may have ulterior motives.
“If hydroxychloroquine becomes an accepted treatment, several pharmaceutical companies stand to profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president,” the Times piece states, adding that Trump has “a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.”
However, an analysis from MarketWatch found that Trump’s stake could be as little as $99.
The report doesn’t say how small, but it notes that his three family trusts have investments in a Dodge & Cox mutual fund whose largest holding is Sanofi. A fund that matches this description is the Dodge & Cox International Stock Fund DODFX, +5.81%, which at last check was 3.3% invested in Sanofi.
Trump’s 2019 financial-disclosure form lists stakes in Family Trusts 1, 2 and 3 valued at between $1,001 and $15,000. So if Trump has the maximum $15,000 in each of the trusts, he holds a stake in Sanofi that’s worth $1,485 — and, at the minimum, just $99.
It turns out he does look to have more than that modest sum invested in Sanofi, because, unmentioned in the Times report, his trusts also hold broader European stock-market index funds.
MarketWatch also noted that Trump “has a small stake in basically every big company you can think of.”
Breitbart’s John Carney also rated the Huffington Post headline “Donald Trump Has Stake In Hydroxychloroquine Drugmaker: Report” as false in a fact check published on Tuesday.
Carney explains thusly:
The report cited by the HuffPost is from a New York Times story that said: “Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.”
Trump’s personal financial interest, however, does not include a stake in Sanofi–and the New York Times did not claim it did. Instead, Trump’s financial disclosures show that his three family trusts each had investments in a $10.3 billion Dodge & Cox mutual fund that owns shares in Sanofi, the world’s fifth-largest drugmaker by prescription sales. As of its latest disclosures, those holdings amount to just 3.3 percent of the fund’s holdings.
Trump’s most recent financial disclosure forms lists holdings in the Dodge & Cox International Fund valued between $1,001 and $15,000. That means Trump holds a maximum stake in the mutual funds of $45,000, giving him an indirect interest in Sanofi of $1,485 at the most.
His “financial interest” in Sanofi, which has a market capitalization of nearly $58 billion, could be as low as $99.10.
Another analysis conducted by documentary filmmaker and journalist Mike Cernovich also points to the Times’ flawed and misleading reporting.
“According to Trump’s financial disclosure, he owns between $1,000 – $15,000 of Dodge & Cox fund. Dox & Cox’s fund has 2.9% of its money in Sanofi. Trump owns 2.9% of btw $1,000 – $15,000. Trump owns $29 to $435 of stock,” Cernovich said. “lol NYT didn’t think anyone would do the math.”
“NY Times runs a story about how Trump is hopeful that a drug which has numerous Doctors feeling it’s working to fight Covid because he could literally make TENS of dollars!!!” Donald Trump Jr. said.
“I’m trying to save lives,” Trump told CNN’s Jeremy Diamond on Sunday when grilled on hydroxychloroquine. “If it doesn’t work, it’s nothing lost by doing it.”
“Nothing,” he added.
While doctors stress that longterm studies are needed, those who have treated “a combined total of over 425 confirmed or presumptive Chinese coronavirus patients with the drug hydroxychloroquine told Breitbart News they are finding the medication to be helpful,” as Breitbart News detailed.
Michigan Democrat Rep. Karen Whitsett, who tested positive for the virus last month, also credited her recovery to the anti-malaria drug and thanked the president for promoting it.
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