Pam Bondi Says Trump’s Fentanyl Seizures Have Saved Over 250 Million Lives

This week marked the end of the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term. The administration celebrated the milestone by touting his accomplishments. The Department of Justice (DOJ), however, used some funky numbers to justify cracking down on opioids.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi toured a forensic lab at the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) headquarters on April 29. In a post on X to commemorate the visit, Bondi wrote, “In President Trump’s first 100 days we’ve seized over 22 million fentanyl laced pills, saving over 119 Million lives.”

Quite an achievement—especially since Bondi is suggesting that without federal intervention, more than one-third of the entire U.S. population would have died of fentanyl poisoning since the third week of January.

Not content with those improbable numbers, Bondi literally doubled down. During a televised Cabinet meeting the following day, she effusively praised Trump for the accomplishments of his first 100 days. “Since you have been in office,” she gushed, “your DOJ agencies have seized more than 22 million fentanyl pills, 3,400 kilos of fentanyl, which saved—are you ready for this, media?—258 million lives.” That figure amounts to roughly three out of every four Americans, or nearly the entire adult population according to the most recent U.S. Census.

Those are incredible numbers—as in, literally not credible. Bondi is playing fast and loose with statistics to make the administration’s record sound better. Then again, government agencies routinely frame their achievements in the best possible light, no matter if it makes any logical sense.

According to the DEA, 2 milligrams of fentanyl “equates to a potentially deadly dose.” Last year, the agency says it “seized more than 60 million fentanyl-laced fake pills and nearly 8,000 pounds of fentanyl powder,” amounts “equivalent to more than 380 million lethal doses of fentanyl.”

How do they arrive at these numbers? A DOJ spokesman told Slate‘s Jim Newell that they multiplied 3,400 kilograms seized by its “current purity level,” then divided that amount into 2-milligram doses—yielding just over 258 million individual deadly drams.

The DOJ’s answers spark more questions, Newell notes: “Is the ‘purity level’ consistent across these many kilos? Is this dose level ‘fatal’ to all people equally? Most important: How would 258 million fatal doses be distributed, one per person, to 258 million people, within 100 days, as would have presumably happened if Trump were not president?”

The latter question, when spelled out, is ridiculous—but Bondi’s claim that seizing fentanyl pills saved the lives of every single American adult is equally ludicrous.

Prohibitionists speak about synthetic opioids like they’re nuclear weapons that can be detonated in a population center and obliterate anyone in their path. In 2019, during Trump’s first term, the Department of Homeland Security apparently deemed fentanyl a “mass casualty weapon” and considered classifying it as a weapon of mass destruction.

But that’s not how drugs work. “Fentanyl pills don’t fly around the country seeking people’s mouths to enter,” says Jeffrey Singer, a Cato Institute senior fellow and practicing physician. “People CHOOSE to buy government-prohibited substances on the black market, where they can never be certain of their purity or even if they are what the seller says they are.”

Just because a particular amount of fentanyl—if divvied up and distributed across the entire population—could theoretically kill every living American adult, there’s no reason to think the vast majority of Americans would ever come into contact with the substance.

In fact, a single bullet could kill someone; by the government’s logic, a box of 100 bullets technically contains enough firepower to kill 100 people. In the same Cabinet meeting where she credited the president for saving three out of every four Americans from dying of fentanyl poisoning, Bondi said “DOJ agencies” had also “seized 14,500 guns off the streets” and “651,000 rounds of ammo.” Why not claim this seizure had “saved 651,000 lives?” Presumably, because anyone listening would recognize that as a ludicrous claim.

“Bondi’s statement serves a rhetorical or political purpose, but [it] is irresponsible and not credible,” Singer cautions. “Bondi overstates the risk in a way that can induce fear rather than understanding, and it can undermine trust in public messaging if people learn how exaggerated the assumptions are.”

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