Former President Donald Trump claimed at a recent campaign rally that more than 300,000 Americans are dying each year from the synthetic opioid drug fentanyl, and that the number of fentanyl overdoses was the "lowest" during his administration and has skyrocketed since. "We're losing 300,000 people a year to fentanyl that comes through our border," Trump told his supporters at a July 24 campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. "We had it down to the lowest number and now it's worse than it's ever been," he said.
Trump's figures appear to have no basis in fact. Government statistics show the number of drug overdose deaths per year is hovering around 100,000 to 110,000, with opioid-related deaths at about 81,000. That's enough that the government has labeled opioid-related overdoses an "epidemic," but nowhere close to the number Trump cited.
Moreover, though the number of opioid deaths has risen since Trump left office, it's incorrect to claim they were the "lowest" while he was president. Numbers are high, but nowhere near Trump's claim Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt wouldn't comment specifically on the source for Trump's statistics. She instead sent KFF Health News an email with several bullet points about the opioid crisis under the heading: "DRUGS ARE POURING OVER HARRIS' OPEN BORDER INTO OUR COMMUNITIES.
" One such bullet noted that there were "112,000 fatal drug overdoses" last year and linked to a story from NPR reporting that fact — direct.