Donald Trump seems to have Switzerland on his toes.Image: keystone
The American president used a television interview to take another shot at Karin Keller-Sutter. Is he putting Switzerland under pressure during talks about a trade agreement?
02/12/2026, 05:0802/12/2026, 05:08
Renzo Ruf, Washington / ch media
The US President has still not forgiven the Swiss “Prime Minister”. In a television conversation recorded on Monday, Donald Trump complained again about the “very aggressive” demeanor of the woman whose name he couldn’t remember.
“I really didn’t like the way she spoke to me,” Trump said on Fox Business. He also almost didn’t manage to end the phone call. The head of government persistently begged him last summer to reduce punitive tariffs on imported Swiss goods.
The new attack against the then Federal President Karin Keller-Sutter, against whom Trump had already raged at the WEF in Davos three weeks ago, came without warning. Trump chatted with moderator Larry Kudlow, an old friend, about his economic policy, his candidate for head of the US Federal Reserve and his allegedly incompetent and stupid predecessors – then he suddenly mentioned “the incident” with Keller-Sutter.
Two attempts to explain this late performance by the President come to mind. The first: Trump is dissatisfied with the ongoing negotiations with Switzerland over a trade agreement. These should be completed by the end of March; Otherwise the American President wants to swing the tariff hammer again and increase the import tax from the current 15 percent.
No Swiss presence on TrumpRx
There are rumors in Switzerland that Trump is primarily targeting the pharmaceutical industry in these negotiations. The American president has long been concerned about the high prices that American consumers have to pay for foreign-made drugs. He wants the price gap between Europe and the USA to close.
Of course, this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the two Swiss pharmaceutical giants. In December, representatives from Novartis and the American Roche subsidiary Genentech announced during an audience at the White House that they would take countermeasures. They promised In the future, at least two products – the MS drug Mayzent (Novartis) and the flu drug Xofluza (Genentech) – will be sold at heavily discounted prices directly to American consumers via a new Trump administration website.
Alone: A week after the launch of this new website, which bears the name TrumpRx, there is still no sign of the two Swiss drugs. Among the 43 drugs currently sold on TrumpRx with discounts of up to 93 percent, there is not a single product from Novartis or Roche. Competitor Pfizer, on the other hand, is already present with 31 drugs. According to the American government, the offer is constantly being expanded.
Did Trump notice the absence of the Swiss pharmaceutical companies? Perhaps. TrumpRx, as the name suggests, is a prestige project of his government. However, the president did not mention the pharmaceutical industry on “Fox Business” in connection with the unfortunate phone call.
Is Trump using Switzerland as a whipping boy?
Therefore, another attempt to explain the new attack against Switzerland is possible: Trump is using “the incident” with Keller-Sutter to promote himself in the 2026 election campaign year.
His message to the domestic audience is that countries like Switzerland, this supposedly “ultra-chic” and “ultra-perfect” nation, are only doing so well because the USA allowed itself to be ripped off for years. Thanks to Trump, that is now over. He announced that he would no longer allow the world’s largest economy to be taken advantage of.
Both attempts at explanation are likely to make the ongoing negotiations on a trade agreement more difficult for Switzerland. Trump wants to see real concessions, which could ultimately complicate the impending vote on the agreement in Switzerland. It is unknown where the negotiations are currently taking place. When asked by CH Media, a spokeswoman for the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern declined to comment on the status of the work. (aargauerzeitung.ch)