WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has signed an executive order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
Trump signed the order Monday in the Oval Office while flanked by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine, White House border czar Tom Homan and other top military officials.
Trump says his administration is “formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is. No bomb does what this is doing.”
It was not immediately clear how the new designation would affect administration policy or what the legal implications would be for those impacted by fentanyl use or drug traffickers.
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The term weapon of mass destruction has typically referred to nuclear, biological, chemical or kinetic threats capable of causing overwhelming and lasting damage to a population, infrastructure or environment.
The term has also been hotly debated in American politics since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.