WASHINGTON — President Trump signed an executive order Monday classifying fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction” — accusing foreign adversaries of “trying to drug out our country.”
The order describes the largely China-sourced synthetic opioid as “closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic” and mentions the “potential for fentanyl to be weaponized for concentrated, large-scale terror attacks.”
Under US law, using a weapon of mass destruction can result in the death penalty or life in prison. Federal sanctions also can be used against foreign-based culprits.
“No bomb does what this is doing,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
“Two hundred to 300,000 people die every year that we know of. So we’re formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction,” he said.
“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, that would be one of the worst wars.”
Fentanyl overdoses killed nearly 330,000 Americans — roughly one in every 1,000 US residents — in the five-year period ending in April, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The executive order instructs agencies to focus prosecutorial, military and diplomatic efforts on ensuring that the new classification reduces imports.
Republicans in Congress have accused Beijing of orchestrating a re-run of the opium crisis that plagued China in the 19th century, during which European nations flooded that nation with the lucrative import — and Trump gave a nod to the analogy Monday.
“You can look throughout history,’ Trump said. “Look at China, when they were loaded up with drugs, they were suffering greatly, and others were able to take them over. And other countries also, they’re trying to drug out our country.”
Fentanyl kills in extremely small doses and often is mixed into other drugs and counterfeit prescriptions.
It’s also used medically as an anesthetic and to treat severe pain and Trump made clear that the new designation would not impact those uses.
“When it’s mixed with certain things, it becomes bad. And that’s what’s taking place in Mexico. And we’ve got it down to a much lower number,” he said.
Trump in October met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who agreed that his nation, which is the primary source of illegal fentanyl, would work to limit trafficking.
Xi made similar commitments to Trump during his first term.
US deaths have trended downward following a November 2023 where Xi again promised to reduce the flow at a meeting with then-President Joe Biden.
Experts debate whether lower fentanyl deaths — which remain higher than prior years — indicate a reduced supply or merely reflect an increased availability of testing strips and a dwindling pool of potential victims.
“China is working with us very closely and bringing down the number and the amount of fentanyl that’s being shipped,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
“We’re dismantling the cartels very rapidly, and they are being declared enemies of the United States of America… We’re also designating the drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a big deal from a legal standpoint and military standpoint.”
Trump has since September been waging an airborne campaign bombing primarily cocaine-smuggling boats off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia — killing about 82 people in 20 known strikes — and has at points claimed the ships also carry fentanyl.
He did not specify how the new designation specifically could impact that military effort.
Trump announced the action at an event honoring some of the roughly 25,000 US troops who have patrolled the southern border this year.
Trump presented 13 troops at the event with the Mexican Border Defense Medal and hailed them for “giving up their holidays and their weekends working with the officers of Customs and Border Protection.”
