The White House is out Friday morning with a blockbuster statistic that proves good things happen when you seal the border and declare war on drug cartels.
And that number may just stop you in your tracks: More than 10,000 fewer Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses in 2025 than the year before (under Biden).
According to new numbers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) being highlighted by the Trump White House – it's National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day – deaths from synthetic opioids, which includes fentanyl, plunged 22 percent, down from 48,913 in 2024 (Biden) to 38,084 in 2025 (Trump).
There's even more good news: drug overdose deaths overall also fell sharply, dropping 14 percent from 81,313 to 69,973.
To put it in practical terms, thousands of sons, daughters, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and friends are alive today because narcoterrorists targeting American communities have been put on notice by the Trump administration.
Fentanyl deaths plunge 22% as Trump White House touts crackdown on deadly drug crisishttps://t.co/PiaIQzDFfC
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) August 21, 2026
Trump administration officials say their aggressive war on fentanyl and the cartels moving deadly drugs into the United States is yielding impressive results.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis commented:
"President [Donald] Trump targeted cartels who were profiting off the death of Americans, secured our border to stop Fentanyl and other illicit drugs from flowing into our communities, and jumpstarted ICE to arrest illegal alien fentanyl traffickers."
"These policies delivered a 22% decline in opioid deaths in a single year. Thanks to President Trump, America is finally winning the fight against fentanyl," she added.
Another point being highlighted hints at changes happening further up the fentanyl trafficking chain – testing by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) found that just 29 percent of seized fentanyl pills contained a potentially lethal dose, down dramatically from 76 percent two years earlier.
SEE ALSO: 'We Will Not Rest': New Cartel Boss Faces $25 Million Bounty As Trump Admin Unseals Criminal Charges
This isn't just happenstance, it's the result of sustained efforts by the Trump administration in the war to combat the drug cartels and choke off the supply of deadly drugs before they ever reach American communities.
Since President Trump has returned to office, he has locked down the southern border, unleashed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was illegal alien drug traffickers inside the country, and designated drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
He even designated illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
The Trump administration's approach seems to be working because they're attacking the opioid problem on several fronts in a multifaceted approach and not just doing random strikes here and there. They're going after the border, the traffickers, the cartels – and where it really hurts them the most, their money – their transportation networks, and the drugs themselves.
These kinds of numbers show that pressuring the bad guys is having the desired effect. And when the bad guys realize that trafficking poison into the United States could cost them their money, their freedom, or even their lives, they probably start wondering if it's worth the risk.
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