Republicans, Trump WH Dramatically Cut the Number of Americans Dying From Fentanyl, but Work Continues

In April 2024, Republicans introduced and helped pass a bill that appears to be making a major dent in drug deaths by Americans—including from opiods like fentanyl.

You aren't seeing things - the date placed above is correct. While the GOP was in the minority in the upper chamber in 2024, they still managed to shepherd the bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act into law; it began to bear fruit just over a year later by cutting off the money funnel for opoiod traffickers, according to the Daily Signal investigative report linked above:

The law directs the Treasury Department to use economic tools to target Chinese precursor manufacturers and Mexican cartels.
Using those authorities, the department in June 2025 identified three Mexico-based financial institutions—CIBanco, Intercam, and Vector—as primary money laundering concerns tied to illicit opioid trafficking.

It brings to mind when then-President Joe Biden and his do-nothing Border Czar, losing 2024 presidential candidate and VP Kamala Harris, claimed that they could not fix the immigration border crisis they themselves created. Well, Harris did try to pawn it off as a "root causes" problem back in illegal immigrants' home oounties - at least for a time. Democrats, as readers recall, conveniently blamed Congress - and Republicans - for the lack of a solution for years.

WATCH: Harris Barely Bothers to Speak During Her 1st Visit to the Border in AZ; Arizonan Calls Her 'Liar'

Another weapon that Republicans have brought into the battle against illicit drug deaths in the U.S. is the One Big Beautiful Bill expanding funds for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

As my colleagues Ben Smith and Ward Clark wrote on Monday, the efforts under Trump 47 by CBP to hunt down drug shipments have ramped up - and made American families safer in the process. Clark wrote, with a fun reference to ol' Joe:

As someone once said, that's a big freaking deal.
A record more than 100 million lethal doses of fentanyl have been seized at the southwest border in the past six months.
The seizures were made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents working out of 54 ports of entry (POE) in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Meanwhile, Smith put the sea-change from the four years of Biden in stark relief, with more stats from DHS' latest report:

Border Patrol recorded 8,943 southwest border apprehensions in April 2026, a 94 percent drop from Biden-era monthly averages and 96 percent below the December 2023 peak. At Biden's December 2023 pace, agents were processing the same number in roughly 27 hours that Trump's Border Patrol apprehended in all of April.

Massive Fentanyl Haul: CBP Grabs 100 Million Deadly Doses at Southwest Border

But credit for those victories also belongs to President Donald Trump, whose executive order in Dec. 2025 clamped down on cartels, and the chemicals that traffickers import from nations like China:

The seizures follow a series of actions by the Trump administration to escalate its response to the crisis. The president designated drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and classified fentanyl and its precursor chemicals as weapons of mass destruction.
Those designations expanded federal authority to target the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, which officials say is largely controlled by organized criminal networks and poses a growing national security threat.

GOP Rep. Andy Ogles (TN-05) on the House Financial Services Committee.sponsored a bill in 2025 (Stop Fentanyl Money Laundering Act). He tells the Daily Signal that Congress is still doing way too much talking while taking too little action on shutting off the money spigot:

“My bill goes after the financial lifeblood of the fentanyl trade by giving law enforcement the tools to sanction, expose, and cripple the networks profiting off American deaths,” Ogles said. “Congress can either keep talking about the fentanyl crisis or finally cut off the money that fuels it.”

He continues, saying that “Every dollar laundered through Chinese banks, cartels, and shell companies is another dollar funding poison in American communities.”

That's something we need Congress to fix, no matter the obstacles that might appear to be in the way. Having as many Conservatives as possible in the House and Senate after the midterms will go a long way to keeping up the effort. And it's not hyperbole to say our lives - and the lives of our fellow Americans - depend on it.

Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.

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