President Donald Trump said he was signing an executive order that officially designated fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction,” saying the drug is more potent and damaging than any bomb.
The announcement, made during a press conference at the White House on Monday, comes as the president’s administration has waged its own war on drugs by striking more than 20 boats filled with “narco-terrorists,” as President Trump has called them, in recent months. The strikes have killed some 90 people and sparked controversy as critics have denounced them as “war crimes” or “extra-judicial killings.”
“There’s no doubt that America’s adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the United States, in part because they want to kill Americans. If this were a war, it would be one of the worst wars,” Trump declared.
Trump said he believed over the last half-decade that fentanyl has killed between 200,000 and 300,000 people per year; he said reports are the drug has killed around 100,000 annually, but the true figure is “much higher.”
He said fentanyl and other popular street drugs have “destroyed” countless American families, which he said spurred him to sign his latest executive order.
“That’s why today I’m taking one more step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country, with this historic executive order I will sign today, formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is,” Trump said. “No bomb does what this is doing.”
Before signing the order, Trump awarded medals to 13 service members for protecting the southern border with Mexico. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth then spoke, lauding Trump for stopping the “invasion” of illegal immigrants that he said was allowed to happen under ex-President Joe Biden.
Hegseth has spearheaded 22 military strikes on suspected drug boats since September. President Trump also warned Latin American drug dealers earlier this month that he is willing to attack on land, not just on sea, to block drugs from entering the U.S. He reiterated that plan during his press conference on Monday.
Watch above, via Fox News.
