Did Trump’s fentanyl seizures save 258 million lives? Gross exaggeration, experts say
Attorney General Pam Bondi's claim that fentanyl seizures saved 258 million lives follows a long line of dubious claims from law enforcement officials.
In recent months, federal prosecutors indicted a Georgia man for “possessing enough fentanyl to kill up to 500,000 individuals.” A sheriff in South Carolina announced the seizure of fentanyl that “had the potential to kill more than 800,000 people.” Perhaps most impressively, California Highway Patrol officers estimated they seized enough of the opioid to kill “a quarter of the population” of the entire state — some 10 million people.
Last week, however, Attorney General Pam Bondi put other law enforcement to shame with a staggering new claim: that drug busts during the first 100 days of the Trump administration had saved 119 million lives. (She soon issued a correction, announcing at last week’s Cabinet meeting that the true figure was more than twice as high: 258 million.)
