Ex-president confused about fentanyl being an opioid

Topline

Donald Trump addressed drug use in an interview with podcast host Theo Von that he posted Tuesday night. In it, the former president called attention to Von’s own past cocaine use. However, he also appeared to repeatedly misunderstand that fentanyl, a hot topic for Trump during his campaign, is itself an opioid and not a separate type of drug.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally on August 17 in Wilkes Barre, … (+) Pennsylvania.

Getty Images

Key Facts

Von interviewed Trump for his podcast “This Past Weekend,” in which the podcaster discussed his past struggles with drug and alcohol addiction and asked Trump what he would do as president to stem the drug crisis and reduce the influence of pharmaceutical companies.

In Trump’s response, the former president noted, “The big problem we have is fentanyl is the biggest. Opioid is bad. Opioid is bad too”—even though fentanyl itself is a synthetic opioid.

Trump also seemed confused about the fact that fentanyl is an opioid when he asked Von if he believed alcohol or opioids were a bigger “problem in our country.” Von responded that opioids “certainly” are the bigger problem, to which Trump further asked, “Are you comparing that to fentanyl?”

Trump questioned Von about his drug use. He asked what it’s like to use cocaine and whether using it makes him “feel good.” He called it a “dumb” drug. He also asked Von why people use the drug after the podcaster said it makes him feel “miserable.”

Trump’s campaign noted to Forbes that the National Institutes of Health categorizes fentanyl separately from traditional opioid products, and campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump “has proposed bold, effective solutions to the opioid and addiction crisis that will save American lives and heal our families.”

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Crucial quote

“It’s clearly a problem and it’s a big problem,” Trump told Von of the drug epidemic. “And we did things about it, but then we had to deal with other things. We had to deal with some problems, we had a lot of problems with this country.”

Chief Critic

“During her time in office, Kamala Harris has done nothing to stop the growing opioid crisis in America and it is one of the greatest failures of the Harris-Biden administration,” Leavitt said in a statement to Forbes. “A Trump administration will be laser-focused on securing our nation’s borders, stopping the importation of fentanyl, and holding over-prescribers and drug cartels accountable.”

Why is Trump’s campaign targeting fentanyl?

Trump’s discussion of fentanyl comes as the former president repeatedly made the drug crisis an issue during the campaign, claiming that his proposed crackdown on illegal immigration is partly a way to curb the amount of fentanyl flowing across the border. That has included a number of false claims about fentanyl, alleging that more than 300,000 Americans die of fentanyl overdoses each year — the actual number is less than 100,000 — and that illegal immigrants are responsible for the bulk of the fentanyl supply in the U.S. While most of the fentanyl in the U.S. has been traced to Mexican cartels, government data shows that 86% of people convicted of fentanyl smuggling are U.S. citizens. The Republican National Convention also featured speeches from Americans whose lives have been impacted by the fentanyl crisis, and Trump took action on the drug crisis while in office, including declaring the opioid crisis a public health emergency and creating a commission to study the problem. White House documents from the time indicate that fentanyl is a type of opioid.

Large number

107,543. That’s the total number of Americans who died from drug overdoses in 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in May, with 74,702 of those deaths attributed to synthetic opioids, including fentanyl. Fentanyl deaths, however, have declined since 2022, when 76,226 Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses.

What is Fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that the Drug Enforcement Administration notes is about 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. The drug has federal approval for pain relief and as an anesthetic, but the opioid crisis has been fueled by Americans becoming addicted to the drug beyond its approved uses. Fentanyl is more potent than the prescription opioids that have also fueled the opioid epidemic and is cheaper to produce, and the rise in overdose deaths has been fueled by drug dealers making counterfeit pills containing lethal doses of fentanyl or mixing the drug with other substances like heroin or methamphetamines. The DEA reports that it will seize more than 80 million counterfeit fentanyl pills in 2023, noting that 70% of the pills it seized contained lethal doses of the drug.

Donald Trump accused of falsely smearing migrants over rise in fentanyl deaths in US (The Guardian)

In grim milestone, U.S. drug overdose deaths surpass 100,000 for third year in a row (Washington Post)

Why Does Fentanyl Lead to Overdose Deaths? (Yale Medicine)