Trump signs “Designating Fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction” Executive Order – December 15, 2025
President Trump on Monday signed an executive order designating fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD).
Last month, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that the Trump Administration classified fentanyl as a “potential chemical weapons threat” being smuggled on Venezuelan drug boats to justify strikes in the Caribbean and Western Pacific.
Now, with Trump’s new classification of the deadly poison as a WMD, this will likely be used to justify the defense of America against drug cartels further.
“The manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders. The production and sale of fentanyl by Foreign Terrorist Organizations and cartels fund these entities’ operations — which include assassinations, terrorist acts, and insurgencies around the world — and allow these entities to erode our domestic security and the well-being of our Nation,” the order states.
“The two cartels that are predominantly responsible for the distribution of fentanyl in the United States engage in armed conflict over territory and to protect their operations, resulting in large-scale violence and death that go beyond the immediate threat of fentanyl itself. Further, the potential for fentanyl to be weaponized for concentrated, large-scale terror attacks by organized adversaries is a serious threat to the United States.”
It further directs the Secretary of War and the Attorney General to “determine whether the threats posed by illicit fentanyl and its impact on the United States warrant the provision of resources from the Department of War to the Department of Justice to aid in the enforcement of title 18 of the United States Code, as consistent with 10 U.S.C. 282.”
The Secretary of War and Secretary of Homeland Security are also ordered to “update all directives regarding the Armed Forces’ response to chemical incidents in the homeland to include the threat of illicit fentanyl” and to “ensure the United States uses the full array of appropriate counter-fentanyl tools.”
During a Mexican Border Defense Medal presentation this afternoon to honor service members assisting Customs and Border Protection at the US-Mexico border, Trump announced that he was also signing the Executive Order.
“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, that would be one of the worst wars,” the President said.
“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, we’re formally classifying fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, which is what it is. No bomb does what this is doing. 200-300,000 people die every year, that we know of.”
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Trump: 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, that would be one of the worst wars. I believe they killed over the last five or six years, per year, 200-300,000 people. You hear about 100,000, which is a lot of people, but the number is much higher than that. That’s been proven. And they’ve destroyed a lot of families because when they lose their child, or even if their child is heavily addicted, you lose that family— the family will never be the same.
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, we’re formally classifying fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, which is what it is. No bomb does what this is doing. 200-300,000 people die every year, that we know of. So, we’re formally classifying fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction.
Trump signed the order while War Secretary Pete Hegseth presented 13 service members with the Mexican Border Defense Medal, then took a photograph with the service members and the newly signed order.
“No auto pen, none ever,” Trump joked as he signed the order.
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