Trump Plans ‘Large-Scale’ Advertising Campaign to Tackle Fentanyl Crisis

The president-elect has also vowed to impose new tariffs on Mexico and Canada unless tougher actions are taken to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, on November 13, 2024. Allison Robbert/Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump said on Nov. 27 that he intends to roll out a “large-scale” advertising campaign aimed at informing Americans of the dangers of fentanyl when he takes office in January.

“I will be working on a large scale United States advertising campaign, explaining how bad Fentanyl is for people to use—millions of lives being so needlessly destroyed,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Trump did not provide further details regarding the ad campaign, including how much it would cost or how long his administration intends to run it.

He vowed that by the time the campaign is over, “everyone will know how really bad the horror of this drug is.”

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. It was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for surgery or to treat acute pain, typically cancer pain.

The drug is extremely addictive with as little as two milligrams considered to be a potentially lethal dose, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The DEA said it seized more than 80 million fentanyl-laced pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2023. The federal agency said DEA laboratory testing indicated that 5 out of 10 pills tested in 2024 contain a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl.

Increasingly, illicit fentanyl—which is often mixed into other counterfeit pills made to look like Xanax, Adderall, or oxycodone—has been fueling the opioid crisis in the United States, with the number of U.S. overdose deaths rising almost every year over the past two decades.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl use resulted in the deaths of 74,702 Americans last year and 76,226 in 2022.

Trump’s comments come just days after he said his administration would impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico and Canada unless the two nations take a tougher stance on border security and drug trafficking.

In a Nov. 24 post on Truth Social, Trump said that one of his first actions after being sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2025, will be to sign an executive order imposing a 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Canada and Mexico.

He added that the tariffs will remain in place until the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the United States comes to a halt.

“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem,” Trump wrote. “We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”

Trump Warns China of Additional Tariffs

Trump issued a similar message this week to China, which U.S. officials have identified as the primary source of illicit fentanyl coming across the border since at least 2017.

On Truth Social, Trump vowed to levy an additional 10 percent tariff on top of any tariffs he already has planned for Chinese products, unless the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) takes stronger actions to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.

Trump said he has had many talks with China about the “massive amounts of drugs, in particular fentanyl, being sent into the United States – but to no avail.”

“Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are pouring into our country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before,” he wrote.

Seized fentanyl is displayed during a press conference at BC RCMP Divisional Headquarters in Surrey, B.C., Canada, on Feb. 23, 2024. Tijana Martin/The Candian Press

Leaders of the three nations have since responded to Trump’s warning. Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a joint statement that Canada places “the highest priority on border security.”

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said Beijing has taken steps to combat drug trafficking and kept Washington informed of its actions against narcotics.

“All these prove that the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality,” Liu said.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote in a Nov. 27 post on X that she had “an excellent conversation with President Donald Trump” and told him about how Mexico’s ongoing efforts to help migrants have alleviated the border situation.

“We discussed Mexico’s strategy on the migration phenomenon and I shared that caravans are not arriving at the northern border because they are being taken care of in Mexico,” she wrote in Spanish.

“We also discussed strengthening collaboration on security issues within the framework of our sovereignty and the campaign we are carrying out in the country to prevent the consumption of fentanyl.”

Reuters contributed to this report.