As Trump rebrands fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction — Experts dismiss the move as an impractical “political exercise”

President Donald Trump made his latest move in trying to enforce his paramilitary mass deportation agenda by coupling it with his growing “war on drugs,” which is increasingly starting to resemble President George W. Bush’s much-criticized “war on terror.” In Trump’s latest tumble toward that path, he has declared illicit fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction,” a move that has puzzled most experts.

Trump was at the White House honoring U.S. service members with medals for their “central role” in protecting the United States border. He then pivoted to his drug war, saying, “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. No bomb does what this is doing.”

Trump declaring that illicit fentanyl — essentially a dangerous drug — is akin to a bomb actually aligns perfectly with his administration’s messaging over the past year. Trump is not just trying to deport all undocumented immigrants and stop the drug flow into the U.S.; he is also trying to usurp Venezuela’s regime. The Trump administration has alleged that the Maduro regime’s involvement in the drug trade is the primary justification for targeting Nicolás Maduro.

The administration has already had lawmakers admit on live television that another reason they are interested in invading Venezuela is its vast oil deposits. So it’s not a stretch to suggest that using the drug trade as a convenient distraction is something the Trump administration has at least seriously considered. Trump’s White House chief of staff broke down their strategy with the infamous boat-blowing initiatives when she told Vanity Fair, “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.”

“Over lunch, Wiles told me about Trump’s Venezuela strategy: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.” (Wiles’s statement appears to contradict the administration’s official stance that blowing up…

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) December 16, 2025

According to CNN, former national security attorney Dennis Fitzpatrick says this has far more to do with politics than any genuine attempt to clamp down on fentanyl trafficking. Fitzpatrick explained, “We already have statutes on the books that are tested, that prosecutors and agents are accustomed to working with, and they’re very clear, and they accomplish the same goals. There’s no practical reason to label fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. It’s a political exercise.”

Under U.S. law, threats or attempts to use weapons of mass destruction can carry the maximum sentence of death under very specific circumstances. There are also specific laws that already target drug dealers. And while it’s worth debating whether those laws are stringent enough, this new executive order does not necessarily make it easier to arrest or prosecute traffickers.

The main purpose of this entire exercise appears to be signaling to Trump’s base that he will not entertain any form of drug trafficking, and that he is willing to take things as far as they have to go to end fentanyl-induced overdoses once and for all. But it is rather telling when he frames violence allegedly caused by drug addiction in ways that verge on mockery — betraying a lack of care that even some of his biggest supporters have found reprehensible.

That said, according to Fitzpatrick, this issue belongs on the docket of Congress, not solely within the presidency. He added with finality, “It’s naked lawmaking, and this is an area where Congress has the authority — and the responsibility.”