WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an important order on Monday. It gives drug companies 30 days to lower the price of medicines in the U.S. by choice. If they don't, they will have to follow new rules later about how much the government will pay.

The order tells the health department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to agree on new prices for medicines next month. If they don't agree, Kennedy will have to make a new rule. This rule will connect the price the U.S. pays for drugs to the lower prices paid by other countries.

"We are going to make things equal," Trump said at a press conference on Monday morning. "We will all pay the same amount, similar to what people pay in Europe."

It's not clear how the Republican president's order will affect the millions of Americans who have their own health insurance. The government can decide the price of drugs for Medicare and Medicaid.

Just hours after Republicans in the House showed their new plan to cut $880 billion from Medicaid, Trump talked about promised, but uncertain, savings on medicine prices.

The group representing the main US drug companies quickly opposed Trump's order, saying it was unfair to American patients. These companies often say that if their profits are reduced, it could impact their research into new medicines.

Stephen J. Ubl, the head of PhRMA, said that using prices from other countries would be bad for American patients and workers. He also said it would mean fewer treatments and cures and could put the large amount of money his companies plan to invest in America at risk.

Trump's plan to pay the same low price for some Medicare drugs as other countries has caused disagreement since he first suggested it.

The small executive order had problems. A court decision stopped the rule from starting during President Joe Biden's time. Drug companies said that Trump's 2020 plan would give other countries an advantage in deciding how much medicines cost in the U.S.

During a long speech at the White House on Monday, Trump often supported drug companies. He said other countries were the reason why medicines cost a lot in America. Next to the president were Kennedy, the head of Medicare and Medicaid, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and the head of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya.

However, he warned the companies that he would start federal investigations into what they were doing and let more imported medicines come into the U.S. market.

Trump said that drug companies earn most of their money in America, and he thinks this is bad.

Over the weekend, Trump made the announcement seem very important, saying online that his plan could save 'TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS'.

But on Monday, the White House did not say exactly how much money they thought they could save.

Oz said on Monday that the heads of the health department will meet with heads of drug companies in the next month. They will suggest new prices for drugs, based on what other countries pay.

According to Rachel Sachs, a health law expert, Americans probably won't see lower drug prices soon because of the order.

Sachs said, "It looks like the plan is to ask companies to lower their prices on their own to a level we don't know yet. If they don't lower prices as much as hoped, the government will do other things that will take a long time. Some of these might make medicine prices lower in the future, but it could take many years."

The health department has the power to change the prices of medicines for Medicare and Medicaid because it can make rules. However, its power to do this is limited. In 2022, a new law was approved that allows Medicare to negotiate the price of a few prescription drugs starting in 2026. Before this law, Medicare paid the prices that drug companies charged. Drug companies tried to stop the law by suing, but they were not successful.

It is even harder for the agency to control how much millions of Americans with private insurance pay for drugs.

The U.S. usually pays more for medicines than other large and rich countries. This problem has made both main political groups angry for a long time, but they have never found a real solution that Congress would approve.

When Trump started his first term, he said that drug companies were making too much money unfairly. He also complained that other countries, which set drug prices through their governments, were treating Americans unfairly.

Before the announcement, Trump criticized the drug companies on social media. He said that for years, the companies claimed that research and development costs were the reason for high prices. He added that Americans were the only ones unfairly paying these costs.

He said that drug companies try to influence politicians by giving them money. But he said that giving money to campaigns "can do a lot, but not with him or the Republican Party."

“We plan to do what is right,” he wrote.

Several drug companies did well on the stock market on Monday morning.