Trump pivots U.S. fentanyl combat from public well being to drug warfare : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F80%2F36%2Fb3886d8748fd898980f556e88186%2Fgettyimages-2252094756.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F80%2F36%2Fb3886d8748fd898980f556e88186%2Fgettyimages-2252094756.jpg" class="img" alt="President Donald Trump poses with a recently signed executive order classifying fentanyl as a "weapon of mass destruction," during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on Dec. 15." fetchpriority="high"/> President Donald Trump poses with a lately signed govt order classifying fentanyl as a "weapon of mass destruction," throughout a ceremony within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on December 15, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos conceal caption

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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos In his first yr again in workplace, President Trump reshaped U.S. drug coverage and the response to fentanyl deaths in sweeping, usually chaotic style, quickly dismantling efforts launched by the Biden administration aimed toward increasing drug remedy.

Many specialists credit score Biden-era public well being insurance policies with saving tens of hundreds of lives. However with new legal guidelines, govt orders, finances cuts, and army redeployments, Trump pivoted the nation from these methods to a militarized drug warfare.

"From day one of many Trump administration we declared an all-out warfare on the sellers, smugglers, traffickers and cartels," Trump mentioned in July, throughout a signing ceremony for the Halt Fentanyl Act.

Trump has launched U.S. Naval strikes in opposition to alleged drug boats; designated drug cartels as terrorist organizations; categorised fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction; and deployed Nationwide Guard troops in American cities and alongside the U.S.-Mexico border.

In the meantime, his administration threw into query assist for even fundamental federally funded dependancy remedy applications, at one level briefly freezing $140 million in federal grants as front-line care suppliers scrambled to keep up providers.

Scrapping the general public well being strategy Trump's fast realignment of U.S. drug coverage stems partly from his assertion that Biden's effort to cut back fentanyl deaths was a wholesale failure. Talking this month, Trump made the false declare that "300 million individuals died final yr from medication."

Fentanyl deaths did surge within the first two years of the Biden administration, throughout the COVID pandemic. However deadly overdoses declined sharply in 2023 and 2024, because the Biden workforce raced to develop entry to opioid-treatment drugs, together with buprenorphine and naloxone.

The Biden administration additionally boosted federal spending by tens of billions of {dollars} on dependancy remedy, whereas embracing a "hurt discount" strategy, offering Medicaid medical health insurance, housing and different providers to individuals even when they weren't but in a position or keen to cease utilizing road medication.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4883x3256+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F3a%2F03%2F28e01dd64859a841f8684d6a107d%2Fgettyimages-1794496161.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4883x3256+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F3a%2F03%2F28e01dd64859a841f8684d6a107d%2Fgettyimages-1794496161.jpg" class="img" alt="Secretary of State Antony Blinken looked on as U.S. President Joe Biden spoke during a meeting about countering the flow of fentanyl into the United States, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Nov. 21, 2023. The session followed meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, where Biden announced that he and Xi reached an understanding about reducing the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals from China to the U.S." loading="lazy"/> In 2023, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Joe Biden spoke throughout a gathering about countering the stream of fentanyl into the USA. The session adopted conferences with Chinese language chief Xi Jinping, the place Biden introduced that he and Xi reached an understanding about decreasing the stream of fentanyl precursor chemical compounds from China to the U.S. Drew Angerer/Getty Photos conceal caption

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Drew Angerer/Getty Photos Based on provisional information compiled by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, deadly overdoses within the U.S. plunged almost 27 % throughout Biden's final yr in workplace.

"We have made positive aspects. There are extra individuals now being handled for substance use issues and opioid use issues," mentioned Richard Frank, a drug coverage researcher on the Brookings Establishment. "That's largely as a result of Medicaid (insurance coverage) enlargement."

However after returning to the White Home, the Trump administration, working with GOP leaders in Congress, moved swiftly to strip roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid funding, together with cuts to applications that assist dependancy care. In a July govt order, Trump additionally attacked hurt discount efforts, claiming with out proof that they "solely facilitate unlawful drug use."

The shift alarms many researchers, physicians, and drug coverage analysts, who concern a resurgence of drug deaths.

"The largest threat actually of accelerating overdose deaths is the Medicaid cutbacks," mentioned Regina LaBelle, who briefly served as appearing director of the White Home Workplace of Nationwide Drug Management Coverage below Biden and now teaches drug coverage at Georgetown College. "It isn't nearly defunding hurt discount. They're additionally defunding prevention, remedy and restoration applications."

Fentanyl, a "weapon of mass destruction" There's additionally rising proof that Biden-era regulation enforcement and diplomatic efforts managed to disrupt the stream of fentanyl into the U.S., partly by convincing China to assist cut back the sale of business "precursor" chemical compounds used to make road fentanyl.

"The necessary (Biden workforce) success was the cooperation with China that constructed up throughout 2024," mentioned Vanda Felbab-Brown, who research drug cartels and road drug trafficking on the Brookings Establishment. "This included regulation enforcement cooperation and intelligence alternate and cooperation on anti-money laundering efforts."

During the last 12 months, nonetheless, Trump and his workforce discounted the Biden workforce's efforts. Talking in July, Trump advised the lethal fentanyl disaster was "allowed to occur by individuals both that did not care or had been silly individuals." He has additionally advised that carnage from overdoses was so nice it justified a militarized response.

"Two to a few hundred thousand individuals die yearly, that we all know of, so we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction," Trump mentioned in December, citing a statistic contradicted by federal information.

Analysis by the CDC, the usDrug Enforcement Administration, and different prime U.S. drug researchers reveals that drug deaths peaked in 2023 at roughly 115,000 deaths in a single 12-month interval. The most recent provisional CDC information reveals roughly 76,500 deadly overdoses within the 12-month interval ending in April 2025.

Certainly, a lot of Trump's new drug coverage initiatives are based mostly on claims that drug coverage researchers describe as wildly inflated or wholly inaccurate. Certainly one of his first main fentanyl-related actions was an govt order signed in February imposing steep tariffs on Canadian merchandise, due to what Trump described as Canada's "central position" in fentanyl smuggling.

However information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reveals Canada performs virtually no position within the U.S. fentanyl disaster. In 2024, roughly 43 kilos of fentanyl was seized at America's northern border. That compares with roughly 21,100 kilos seized on the southern border.

Prime administration officers have additionally made exaggerated claims about progress made to cut back drug deaths throughout Trump's first yr again in workplace.

Throughout a cupboard assembly, Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi mentioned aggressive anti-drug insurance policies had already saved 258 million American lives. In a separate publish on social media, Bondi estimated the lives saved at a a lot decrease determine, claiming roughly 119 million lives saved. Researchers who examine the potential hurt of fentanyl and different road medication advised NPR each claims are tremendously inflated.

As we speak is Fentanyl Consciousness day. In President Trump’s first 100 days we’ve seized over 22 million fentanyl laced tablets, saving over 119 Million lives.

We're combating relentlessly for the households of family members misplaced, for these whose lives are in danger, and for the soul of our… pic.twitter.com/nQLnN0nipn

— Lawyer Basic Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) April 29, 2025

Will blowing up boats cease fentanyl deaths within the U.S.? Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, in the meantime, has mentioned Trump's army strikes close to Venezuela are already having a deterrent impact on drug cartels.

"There aren't many individuals getting in boats proper now working medication, which is the entire level. We need to cease the poisoning of the American individuals," Hegseth mentioned, throughout an look hosted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Basis.

The Trump administration has declined to supply proof that boats focused by the Navy are operated by cartel-linked smugglers. Researchers who examine drug traffickers, together with Felbab-Brown at Brookings, say even when some boats are carrying road medication, they virtually definitely aren't carrying fentanyl, the drug that accounts for many U.S. overdose deaths.

The most recent U.S. Nationwide Drug Menace Evaluation, revealed by the DEA in July 2025, says drug gangs in Mexico, not Venezuela, "stay the dominant threats" trafficking fentanyl into American communities.

Drug gangs, motivated by the lure of giant earnings, have additionally developed versatile underground provide routes, which can be largely unaffected by army strikes that kill low-level gang members.

Critics of the Trump administration's strategy advised NPR the deterrent impact of a militarized U.S. drug warfare will even be hampered by Trump's choice over the past yr to pardon or free a rising variety of drug "kingpin" figures.

Since returning to workplace, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence after creating Silk Street, an web website used to visitors fentanyl and different road medication; pardoned Larry Hoover, former chief of the Chicago-based Gangster Disciples; and pardoned the previous president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, convicted on drug and weapons expenses after governing his nation as "a narco-state," in line with an announcement from the U.S. Justice Division.

"There's loads of combined messages and combined indicators [from the White House] which creates kind of chaos and uncertainty," mentioned Jeffrey Singer, a drug coverage analyst on the Cato Institute, in an interview with NPR in Might. "On the one hand you are threatening even harder penalties on individuals who deal in medication, whereas however you are releasing drug sellers from prisons."