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In the very, very late fall of his presidency, Donald Trump discovered a new, popular and relevant topic: the absurdly high drug prices in his country.
Even for the simplest of drugs, Americans have to spend many times what Europeans or Canadians pay.
Trump invited the press to a statement in the White House on Friday afternoon and announced - three years and ten months after his inauguration - measures against "big pharma".
On the day exactly two months before he left the politically most powerful office in the world, the incumbent president looked exhausted and tired.
Trump read his remarks, dispensed with spontaneous, humorous, biting slogans for which he was once known.
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After a few minutes he asked his health minister to come on stage.
By the way, the man's name is Alex Azar, and little is heard from him amid a pandemic that has killed more than 250,000 Americans.
The relationship between the president and his health minister is considered to be broken.
Azar flattered Trump according to his taste.
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Trump did not take any questions from the journalists present - which he had once done several times a day.
Now the former media darling Trump has not answered a single reporter's question for over two weeks, which is in extreme contradiction to his style of government before the election defeat.
In less than half an hour he left the James S. Brady Briefing Room.
It wasn't long before Trump switched from the actual topic of his appearance - drug prices - to the topic that moves him like no other: the November 3 presidential election, in which he was defeated by his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
The way to his renewed, untruthful and bizarre claim that he had won this election, followed Trump as follows: The pharmaceutical companies “don't like me very much,” he introduced.
“Big pharma” placed “millions” of ads against him during the election campaign.
He "won" this election campaign, said Trump in a subordinate clause.
He referred to "almost 74 million votes" that had been cast for him.
This number is correct so far.
But the two problems: Biden got almost 80 million votes.
And the nationwide figures have no legal relevance.
Decisive for the election of the 46th American President is the electoral body, in which it stands 306 to 232 for Biden.
With a hefty dose of self-pity and no evidence whatsoever, Trump claimed that the pharmaceutical companies, which are now making significant strides in vaccination against Covid, decided to wait until after the presidential election.
"Pfizer and others have even decided not to test the results of their vaccines, in other words: only bring a vaccine out immediately after the election," said Trump on Friday: "You have waited and waited and waited." Originally, the pharmaceutical companies had theirs Want to present data in October, said Trump.
"But they decided to postpone it."
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If the pharmaceutical companies had announced their good results on the effectiveness of their vaccine candidates before the presidential election on November 3, it would have "probably had an impact" on the election, Trump said.
In good German: Trump senses a conspiracy by various international pharmaceutical companies against him.
Corruption is involved, he claimed.
This is how the man speaks, who shortly before the election shouted several times in public: "By the way, on November 4th you will not hear from Covid."
Praise for a German company?
Unthinkable
Trump once again failed to mention that the Mainz-based company Biontech is a German company that, together with Pfizer, has applied to the FDA for emergency approval for its corona vaccine.
Praise for a German company?
Unthinkable.
If the active ingredient is approved by Biontech or Pfizer, particularly vulnerable people in the USA could be vaccinated as early as mid to late December.
So: still in Trump's term of office.
The inauguration of Bidens is scheduled to take place on January 20, 2021.
Biden celebrated his 78th birthday on Friday.
He will be the oldest president in American history.
Biden met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 80, and Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 69, in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Friday.
The topics of the meeting are likely to be the fight against Covid and a possible economic stimulus package against the consequences of the Corona crisis.
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Biden also won the state in the presidential election after the Georgia hand-recount.
"Numbers don't lie," said Republican Home Secretary Brad Raffensperger.
Like other Republicans, he was disappointed that Trump did not win in Georgia.
“But I live by the motto that numbers don't lie.
I believe the figures we presented today are correct. "
Meanwhile, the Republicans are cautiously criticizing Trump's autocratic behavior.
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander called on the Trump administration to provide Biden's team with all the information they need to make the transition.
"This should apply in particular to the distribution of a (potential coronavirus) vaccine, for example," said Alexander.
Senator Mitt Romney, known as a Trump critic, condemned the incumbent's pressure on local and state officials to reverse the election.
It is "difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic approach by an incumbent American president".