OAN Staff Cory Hawkins
4:15 PM – Monday, December 15, 2025
President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) on Friday officially designating illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The order, titled Designating Fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, describes illicit fentanyl as “closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic” and emphasizes its extreme lethality.
While signing the order, President Trump accused the United States’ adversaries of intentionally trafficking fentanyl into the U.S. to harm and kill Americans with drug addictions.
The announcement, made during a press conference at the White House on Monday, describes the largely China-sourced synthetic opioid as “closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic” and states the “potential for fentanyl to be weaponized for concentrated, large-scale terror attack.”
Following the new classification, the document directs agencies to concentrate prosecutorial, military, and diplomatic efforts toward significantly reducing imports.
“Two hundred to 300,000 people die every year that we know of. So we’re formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction,” Trump stated.
The President highlighted how deadly fentanyl truly is, with a lethal dose appearing as 10 grains of salt, fueling 73,000 overdose deaths in 2023, mainly in the ages 18 to 45.
The Trump administration declared their war on drugs by conducting air strikes on more than 20 boats filled with ”narco-terrorists” as Trump refers to them. The strikes have eliminated more than 90 people, sparking discussions with critics labeling them as “war crimes” or “extra-judicial killings.”
“There’s no doubt that America’s adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the United States, in part because they want to kill Americans. If this were a war, it would be one of the worst wars,” Trump exclaimed.
“That’s why today I’m taking one more step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country, with this historic executive order I will sign today, formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is,” Trump said. “No bomb does what this is doing.”
Fentanyl is medically used as an anesthetic and is a very effective painkiller. However, President Trump reassured the public that the new designation would not impact the drug’s medical use
“When it’s mixed with certain things, it becomes bad. And that’s what’s taking place in Mexico. And we’ve got it down to a much lower number,” he said.
Conservatives in Congress accuse Beijing of waging a modern-day opium crisis, drawing a parallel to the 19th-century conflict when European nations profited by flooding China with the lucrative import.”
“You can look throughout history. Look at China, when they were loaded up with drugs, they were suffering greatly, and others were able to take them over. And other countries also, they’re trying to drug out our country,” Trump said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told Trump in October that he admits his country is the primary source of illegal fentanyl, vowing to work to limit trafficking of the drug into the United States.
“China is working with us very closely and bringing down the number and the amount of fentanyl that’s being shipped,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
“We’re dismantling the cartels very rapidly, and they are being declared enemies of the United States of America… We’re also designating the drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a big deal from a legal standpoint and military standpoint.”
Before signing the EO, Trump awarded medals to 13 U.S. service members for protecting the Southern border.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke as well, applauding Trump for stopping the “invasion” of illegal aliens under the former administration of President Joe Biden.
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