Thursday's White House executive order signing involved the "Great American Recovery Initiative." President Donald Trump was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Kathryn Burgum, Trump's Senior Advisor to the White House on the Great American Recovery Initiative, and the wife of Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum
Before signing the EO, Trump talked about the "scourge" of addiction and substance abuse.
.@POTUS: "Today, I'm signing a historic executive order to combat the scourge of addiction and substance abuse... we're calling it the Great American Recovery Initiative." pic.twitter.com/Tks6lHTbYt
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 29, 2026
From the Executive Order:
The disease of addiction, also known as substance use disorder, is a crisis that touches families in every community and neighborhood in our Nation. 48.4 million Americans, or 16.8 percent of our Nation’s population, suffer from addiction, and my Administration will continue to respond to a crisis of this scale with the attention it deserves. Over the past year, we have made incredible progress in stopping the inflow of illegal drugs that threaten American communities. We must now supplement that work by furthering a national effort to prioritize addiction treatment and recovery.
Addiction is a chronic, treatable disease with relapse rates similar to other chronic diseases. Unfortunately, very few Americans who need treatment ever receive it or believe they need it. Among the 40.7 million adults who had a substance use disorder in 2024 and did not receive substance use treatment, 95.6 percent (or 38.1 million people) did not perceive that they needed treatment. Despite significant investment of resources, addiction recovery efforts remain fragmented and do not keep pace with scientific advancements.
The costs of these failures are devastating, not only in lives lost, but also in the ripple effects across our economy, workforce, and national strength. Addiction contributes to declining workforce participation, increased healthcare costs, homelessness, family instability, and lost productivity that together cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
The framework for addiction treatment should parallel that of other chronic diseases — utilizing evidence-based care, scientific advancement, continuous support, and community connection. My Administration will drive a new national response to the disease of addiction that will create stronger coordination across government, the healthcare sector, faith communities, and the private sector in order to save lives, restore families, strengthen our communities, and build the Great American Recovery.
Great American Recovery advisor Kathryn Burgum spoke about the connective thread of addiction stories among the president and several of the cabinet members: Trump's brother Fred, who battled and died as a result of alcohol addiction, Vice President JD Vance's mother, who battled drug addiction, and HHS Secretary Kennedy, who had a 14-year heroin addiction. But the hallmark of Burgum's remarks was the sharing of her own story of addiction and recovery:
"These stories matter because they are not isolated. They reflect the reality of the over 190 million Americans, that's half our nation, who are impacted in some way by the disease of addiction. And I am one of them."
Burgum said she started drinking when she was a teenager and was a blackout drunk from the start. She struggled for 20 years, fits, starts, and failures, to break the cycle of addiction, to the point where she wondered whether life was worth living. Burgum continued,
"I was suicidal at the end of my drinking. One day I was out walking alone. I didn't have faith; I wasn't religious. But something in me said I should ask for help. And out loud, to no one, because it was just me, I said, "I don't know if anyone is there, but I need help." And that was the day I became sober. [...] If not for the grace of God I would not be alive today with over 23 years in recovery.
Burgum and Kennedy appeared Friday morning on "Fox & Friends," and they both affirmed that addiction is a "disease of isolation" that disconnects people from their families and their community. Kennedy emphasized that the process of recovery involves helping addicts regain that connection to other human beings and how faith-based communities will play a significant role in their recovery and healing.
Addiction is not a moral failing. We’re going to address the disease like any other chronic disease. We’re going to be making investments in connecting addicts with the faith-based community, 12-step programs, early intervention, and long-term recovery. pic.twitter.com/dl4eRTaEDY
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) January 30, 2026
Burgum concluded her remarks, saying:
This initiative represents a fundamental shift from reaction to prevention. From fragmentation to coordination. From stigma to science, from short-term fixes to long-term recovery. And for the first time we're aligning federal leadership across health, justice, labor, housing, veterans, social services, the faith office and education around one single shared truth: When addiction is treated early and correctly, people recover and families heal. Addiction is a generational disease, and if we don't treat it properly, it repeats; from parent to child, from community to community. And when we treat it like a lifelong condition, that's the condition that it is, we stop that cycle. We save lives, we restore families, we rebuild communities. We return people to dignity, purpose, and productivity.
In his remarks on Thursday, Kennedy outlined the coordination of government departments and the "all of the above" approach to not just helping people recover and restoring them to the community, but stopping addiction before it starts.
WATCH:
.@SecKennedy: “Nearly 50 million Americans suffer from substance use disorder. Many never receive treatment…We will focus on prevention before addiction takes hold, we will intervene early, we will expand access to treatment that leads to real, long-term recovery, and we will… pic.twitter.com/YHRmunCrbi
— HHS Rapid Response (@HHSResponse) January 30, 2026
“Nearly 50 million Americans suffer from substance use disorder. Many never receive treatment…We will focus on prevention before addiction takes hold, we will intervene early, we will expand access to treatment that leads to real, long-term recovery, and we will support reentry.”
Burgum encouraged: "That's why I'm here, and my message is simple: Never give up hope for recovery."
Burgum's full remarks are here.
.@KathrynBurgum shares the story of her battle with addiction, and explains what @POTUS' new executive order means for those struggling: "With this framework and treatment, recovery is not the exception, it is the expectation." ❤️ https://t.co/nXtRNjadah pic.twitter.com/DF4G5su456
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 29, 2026
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