President Donald Trump has taken another step toward addressing the deadly fentanyl crisis in America by designating the drug and its core precursor chemicals as weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Trump made the announcement while awarding the new Mexican Border Defense Medal to U.S. troops who showed extraordinary dedication in protecting our southern border while deployed to assist federal immigration enforcement. At the same time, Trump issued an executive order on fentanyl. The deadly drug has been a growing concern for years now as tens of thousands of Americans die every year overdosing on it.
“Illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic,” Trump argued in the EO. “Two milligrams, an almost undetectable trace amount equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, constitutes a lethal dose.”
The Global Statistics estimated that fentanyl deaths did decline from fiscal year 2023 to 2024. But FY2024 still had 87,000 American fentanyl deaths, and the drug still accounts for the majority of deadly overdoses. Trump was right to note that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from fentanyl, and partly that was fueled by our number one enemy, the Chinese Communist Party.
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Criminal cartels now designated as foreign terrorist organizations traffic fentanyl into the United States and fuel what has become a mass casualty crisis. All of this is a threat to national security.
Trump noted, “The two cartels that are predominantly responsible for the distribution of fentanyl in the United States engage in armed conflict over territory and to protect their operations, resulting in large-scale violence and death that go beyond the immediate threat of fentanyl itself.” And fentanyl could even be weaponized in targeted terrorist operations.
Therefore, Trump decided to “designate illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as Weapons of Mass Destruction.” He has assigned duties to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to enforce the EO. These include prosecutions, investigations, and actions against the assets of those implicated in the fentanyl trade.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will also consult with Bondi as to whether the Justice Department will need resources from the War Department to enforce title 18 of the United States Code.
For Noem specifically, Trump ordered:
“to ensure the United States uses the full array of appropriate counter-fentanyl tools, the Secretary of Homeland Security, as consistent with applicable law and in coordination with the heads of relevant agencies, as appropriate, shall identify threat networks related to fentanyl smuggling using WMD- and nonproliferation-related threat intelligence to support the full spectrum of counter-fentanyl operations.”
Fentanyl trafficking thrived under the Biden administration thanks to open borders, which allowed hostile foreign entities, especially criminal cartels, to operate with more freedom and power than ever. That is all changing now.
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