President Donald Trump on Monday declared that fentanyl, the chemical mostly created by drug cartels to be sold to Americans, who often die from using it, now is a “Weapon of Mass Destruction.”
Like nuclear bombs.
“Illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic,” Trump wrote on social media. “Two milligrams, an almost undetectable trace amount equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, constitutes a lethal dose. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from fentanyl overdoses.
“The manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders. The production and sale of fentanyl by Foreign Terrorist Organizations and cartels fund these entities’ operations — which include assassinations, terrorist acts, and insurgencies around the world — and allow these entities to erode our domestic security and the well-being of our Nation. 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. Further, the potential for fentanyl to be weaponized for concentrated, large-scale terror attacks by organized adversaries is a serious threat to the United States.”
The result, he said, is that “I hereby designate illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).”
BREAKING: President Trump just declared FENTANYL a WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION.
This critical step unleashes every tool to combat the cartels & foreign networks responsible for flooding communities with this deadly substance—the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18-45. pic.twitter.com/C9YXC53kzK
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 15, 2025
The order then instructs heads of relevant executive departments and agencies to “take appropriate action” to “eliminate the threat of illicit fentanyl…”
Specifically, the attorney general “shall” pursue investigations and prosecutions of fentanyl trafficking, and other departments “shall” pursue the assets of those involved in the industry.
And the secretary of War “shall determine whether the threats posed by illicit fentanyl and its impact on the United States warrant the provision of resources from the Department of War to the Department of Justice to aid in the enforcement of title 18 of the United States Code, as consistent with 10 U.S.C. 282.”
